Is there a song that you wish Frank had recorded?

Set Avatar · #1 03-02-2002, 12:32 PM

Have you ever listened to a song on the radio and wondered how it would have sounded recorded by Frank, or that you wished Frank would have recorded?

On the radio today I heard the song JEAN which Oliver recorded in the late 1960's. It's a pretty little ballad and I think Frank would have done a lovely turn with it.

Any songs you wish Frank had recorded?

Set Avatar · #2 03-02-2002, 12:50 PM

Hello, i wish FS had recorded this Cole Porter classic.Ella Fitzgerald recorded this song for The Cole Porter Songbook in February 1956.Regards.

BobbySoxer · #3 03-02-2002, 10:10 PM

My favotite lovesong :Charles Trenet's BEYOND THE SEA

The beautiful Hoagy Carmichael-Johnny Mercer classic : SKYLARK

The Ellington swinger: DON'T GET AROUND MUCH ANYMORE

As for LUSH LIFE (Ellington), that's a whole can of worms I don't want to open. I've read that Frank tried it a number of times but never to his satisfaction. So be it ! The song is terrific, but so is Billy Eckstine's version.

Set Avatar · #4 03-03-2002, 01:21 AM

Johnny Mercer: Two of a Kind

Set Avatar · #5 03-03-2002, 01:28 AM

For sure I wish he had recorded "Skylark." This may be Johnny Mercer's greatest song.

"Don't Get Around Much Anymore"? A great swinger, but Tony Bennett (with his affinity for all things jazz) performed it so well that Sinatra may not have wanted to put out a competing version (as with "I Left My Heart in San Francisco). But how about "Sophisticated Lady," "I Let a Song Go Out of my Heart" and many other lesser known but worthy Ellington tunes.

Jerome Kern's "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." Sinatra sang it in 1940 with Tommy Dorsey, reportedly performing the bridge a capella after pianist Joey Bushkin got lost in the complexity of the chord changes (Kern was a master of modulation, that's why jazz musicians loved his work as much as Kern himself hated jazz). And maybe he sang it on radio (the lost legacy), but it was never recorded in a studio.

"With a Song in My Heart" by Rodgers and Hart. I think Richard Rodgers once said that of ALL the songs he had written, this was his favorite. Ella recorded it for her Rodgers and Hart Songbook, and Doris Day sang it beautifully in one of my favorite films, "Young Man with a Horn" (accompanied by Harry James on trumpet). Again, Sinatra sang it on radio but not in the recording studio.

Paul McCartney's "The Long and Winding Road." Who knew more about that than Frank Sinatra?

Just a few out of a long list... (Am I a sucker for those ballads or what?)

P.S. Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane laid down the definitive version of "Lush Life" in a joint album released early in 1963. Like Billy Eckstine, Hartman was one of the great "Black Baritones" of the 1950s and '60s. In "The Bridges of Madison County" you can hear him sing "I See Your Face Before Me," also recorded by Sinatra and Riddle for the album "Wee Small Hours." Two beautiful voices singing a beautiful song by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz.

Set Avatar · #6 03-03-2002, 05:14 AM

I agree with Bobbysoxer's suggestions and add two of my own "L-O-V-E" and "Orange Colored Sky". Although Nat King Cole did a marvelous job on both, whenever I hear either song, I always think, "I wonder what Frank would've done with that".

DOUGofOHIO · #7 03-03-2002, 05:24 AM

Good Morning: Just found this subject......I have mentioned this song before and I have tried to record it myself(with a pre-recorded background arrangement) always ending with disaster.. The song is:

"IN A SENTIMENTAL MOOD" by DUKE ELLINGTON......

For my own personal interest, I always wonder how FAS would have worked it out.....And I have always wondered whether or not he and THE DUKE ever discussed the possibility of working on this deliciously romantic song....

There's another song, too, that was important to me when I was a love-sick teenager that was recorded by THE HILLTOPPERS, called::

"TO BE ALONE"

And......the beautiful

"PURPLE SHADES" done by
JONI JAMES.......

Anyway, there's more but that's more than enough for now...great subject, topic, thread or whatever we have to call it these days.....DOUG OF GREENVILLE, OHIO - USA - DARKE COUNTY a remote outpost somewhere in the MIDWEST, Sunday morning, 0918 Hrs(EST), March 3, 2002......No golf today, wind blowing, snow desperatly trying to ruin everything except the snow-shovel business....I'VE BEEN TO TOWN......I'VE BEEN IN SOME BIG TOWNS AND I'VE HEARD ME SOME BIG TALK, BUT THERE'S ONE THING I KNOW...I KNOW HOW THE LADY IN THE HARBOR FEELS......Bye, bye....

Adam · #8 03-03-2002, 08:58 AM

Most definetley 'Beyond The Sea' he would have had a ball with that song.

As for others, lets try a Top-3.

1. 'Beyond The Sea' (Bobby Darin)
2. 'When I Fall In Love' (Nat 'King' Cole)
3. 'Im On The Street Where You Live' (Andy Williams)

Forgive me if Frank has recorded/sang these songs, but i have never heard them and would love too!

Adam

Set Avatar · #9 03-03-2002, 09:13 AM

Hey Guys,

This might sound nuts to you all, but I always wished Frank had recorded the song: "After The Lovin"! I think he would have sounded so sexy doing it!

Maybe it is just me liking this song anyway!!!

Lynda51

Set Avatar · #10 03-03-2002, 10:23 AM

Hi, I wish he would had recorded NAT KING COLE'S NATURE BOY. I did it on T.V. in NEW YORK CITY back in 1947. This was the first year i started to sing.

REGARDS Nick Stellate

Set Avatar · #11 03-03-2002, 10:24 AM

Some really interesting thoughts here. Especially SKYLARK and THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD -- I'd have liked to have had those recorded by Frank. Also BEYOND THE SEA -- doesn't that just SOUND like a Sinatra tune to you?

I was listening to an oldies station yesterday, and a Marilyn McCoo (formerly of the 5th Dimension) song -- another pretty ballad -- was playing; changing the singer's viewpoint from female to male, and changing the arrangement to suit Frank, this would have made a nice Sinatra tune. It's called ONE LESS BELL TO ANSWER. For some reason, it sort of makes me think of the song Frank recorded called IT NEVER ENTERED MY MIND.

Set Avatar · #12 03-03-2002, 10:28 AM

How about "Tenderly?" "Look of Love?" "The Good Things in Life?" John

ARIES3032 · #13 03-03-2002, 11:14 AM

Hi everyone, All of your selections are great. Does anyone know if Frank ever did "Blue Moon". That has been my song as long as I can remember. I think he would have done a smashing job with it. Nancy, did Frank get to choose his music in his earlier years?

Set Avatar · #14 03-03-2002, 11:36 AM

YES HE DID BLUE MOON AN UPBEAT VERSION

NICK STELLATE

Mickey Light · #15 03-03-2002, 12:29 PM

hey, about some great contry songs?

Set Avatar · #16 03-03-2002, 01:05 PM

I adore Vera Lynn's 'I'll be seeing you'. Does anyone know if Frank ever recorded this?

Set Avatar · #17 03-03-2002, 02:07 PM

LEATRICE, You can find "BLUE MOON" on "SWINGIN' SESSIONS!!!and more". It is one of those wonderful Capital albums with Nelson Riddle from 1960. CHAS

ARIES3032 · #18 03-03-2002, 02:49 PM

Hi Chas., I thank you so much. Since this was 1960 was this on a tape? I will look into it further. It will be great if I find it. Again thanks.

Set Avatar · #19 03-03-2002, 03:39 PM

HI MANDY:
Yes Frank did record ( I'll be seeing you ) in the fourties and then again in the 50's on an album called WE THREE.

Keep i'm coming!

Nick Stellate

Set Avatar · #20 03-03-2002, 03:41 PM

I have "I'll Be Seeing You" on The Popular Frank Sinatra & Tommy Dorsey Orchestra cd Volume 2.......one of my favorites!!