Unless abused for insanity, I think the poll function could be of great value. There are several thousands of Sinatra fans visiting the site here, and I think it would be quite interesting to see how today (in 2003) some of their preferences, as far as Sinatra is concerned, turn out to be.

In order to try such a poll, I have set up this one for starters.

Sinatra worked with many different arrangers-conductors over the decades, and some of them, like Stordahl, Riddle, May, Jenkins or Costa, became staples that would accompany him for long periods of his career.

I'll add some (very very short) portraits of each.

AXEL STORDAHL (1913-1963) worked as an arranger for Sinatra songs as early as the Big Band days with Tommy Dorsey. When Sinatra went solo in 1942, he became sort of Frank’s „house arranger“, doing about 70% of the charts that Sinatra recorded during his Columbia Years (1943-1952) plus an endless amount of arrangements for Sinatra’s Radio Shows of the 40s – in short, he was „Sinatra’s Man“ during the period that made The Voice the superstar he continued to be ever since, and when he was on the air almost daily. At Capitol, he would do one more album with FS in 1961, „Point Of No Return“.

GEORGE SIRAVO (1916-2000), while a bit lesser known than Stordahl, also started to work for Sinatra in the 40s. He is responsible for many of the up-tempo charts of Sinatra’s later years at Columbia (e.g. including the album „Swing And Dance With Frank Sinatra“ 1950), plus many charts for Radio and Concert at the time, and in the opinion of many, it was his arrangements that somewhat anticipated the famous Capitol-Sinatra-Swing sounds of the 50s. On Sinatra’s first two albums for Capitol (Songs For Young Lovers & Swing Easy, 1953/1954), many of the arrangements heard were based on Siravo charts expanded by Riddle.

NELSON RIDDLE (1921-1984) started working with Sinatra in 1953 at Capitol Records, and the two of them developed what has become referred to as the „heartbeat rhythm“ on the swinging side. Among the Sinatra-Riddle collaborations are such classics as Songs For Swinging Lovers (1956), A Swinging Affair (1956), Nice’n’Easy (1960) or Sinatra’s Swinging Session (1960). On the ballad side, there were e.g. In The Wee Small Hours (1955), Close To You (1956), and Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely (1958). About 2/3 of Sinatra’s Capitol recordings were arranged by Nelson Riddle. Sinatra and Riddle continued to collaborate during the early Reprise era from 1960 onwards, e.g. on The Concert Sinatra (1963), Academy Award Winners (1964), Moonlight Sinatra (1965) or the „Man and His Music“ TV specials of 1965-1967. By the 70s, the team somewhat faded away.

GORDON JENKINS (1910-1984) first worked with Sinatra in the 50s, too, when he became his choice for ballad albums like Where Are You (1957) or No One Cares (1959). A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra (1957) was another collaboration. At Reprise in the 60s, they cut albums like All Alone (1962) or the classic Grammy winning September Of My Years (1965) together, and Gordon also worked on some of Sinatra’s TV specials. In the 70s and 80s, the team continued with contributions to Ol’Blue Eyes Is Back (1973) or She Shot Me Down (1981). For the album Trilogy (1980), Jenkins composed, arranged and conducted a complete suite for Sinatra called „The Future“.

BILLY MAY (*1916) first collaborated with Sinatra at Capitol for the album: Come Fly With Me (1957), to be followed by Come Dance With Me (1959) – which won them a Grammy Award - and Come Swing With Me (1961). Their joint venture especially for up-tempo tunes continued at Reprise with Sinatra Swings (1961) and others, down to Trilogy (1980). May continued to arrange for Sinatra until the late 80s.

DON COSTA (1925-1983)‘s first work with Sinatra was the Reprise album Sinatra & Strings (1961). By the late 60s he became Sinatra’s constant album and concert arranger and occasional producer, with work on Sinatras TV shows 1968-1973 and albums like Cycles (1968), My Way (1969), or A Man Alone (1970), Ol’Blue Eyes Is Back (1973) and Trilogy (1980). His most famous contribution to the Sinatra catalogue probably are his arrangements for the songs „My Way“ (1968) and „Theme From New York New York“ (1979).

NEIL HEFTI (*1922) worked as arranger for Sinatra on his first album with Count Basie at Reprise (Sinatra-Basie, 1962) although not getting any credit on the album cover. Prior to that, he had already scored Sinatra & Swinging Brass (1962), and for the legendary Sinatra „All God’s Children“ World Tour of 1962, Hefti adapted all the arrangements and rewrote them for the Bill Miller Sextet that was accompanying Frank. He didn’t stay with FS as long as the others, but his contributions to the FS songbook are significant to date.

ERNIE FREEMAN (1922-1981) was Sinatra’s arranger when FS decided to go for „modern“ sounds in the 60s, starting with the Reprise album Softly As I Leave You (1964). Subsequently Freeman arranged the world-wide-hit song „Strangers In The Night“ (1966) for Sinatra, and the album That’s Life (1966).

QUINCY JONES (*1933) first worked with Sinatra as concert conductor in 1958. Six years later at Reprise came their first album collaboration with the second FS-Basie album It Might As Well Be Swing (1964). Jones also conducted for the following concert tours of FS-Basie and arranged the songs (along with Billy Byers) for the classic live album Sinatra At The Sands (1966). In 1984 he supervised Sinatra’s final Reprise album project, L.A. Is My Lady ( added 12-18-03: which appeared on the Warner Bros. sublabel QWest but was later incorporated into Sinatra's Reprise output through the 20 CD set of 1995).

Which is your favourite one? Who you think was "best" in his work for Sinatra? (They were/are all giants of course).

I'd much prefer to see this poll at the FS section of the forum, but very unfortunately, posting polls there doesn't work anymore.

Anticipating the results,
Bernhard.

I predict Nelson Riddle by a landslide!

Bernhard, I have a question about the poll format. Would it be better for the results to remain closed until the poll was over so a voter would not be influenced by the results. This is the same thought I have for all polls here, by the way.

***Bernhard, I have a question about the poll format. Would it be better for the results to remain closed until the poll was over so a voter would not be influenced by the results. This is the same thought I have for all polls here, by the way.***


John, I somewhat agree, but unless I overlooked it, I found no function when composing the poll that would enable results to be hidden. I agree that with some polls such a "hiding function" would be fine.

However, in this case, I don't quite see how results might influence voting... I mean, it's about the music, and everyone should just respond from his/her own preference or taste, while I trust that anyone who digs Frank Sinatra music has formed an opinion of some kind in this matter.

Generally, I would think this poll should remain open "forever" or at least for a longer period of time, in order to get many particpants and hence a better result.

Bernhard.

[pattisam]

Had to go with my first thought and my last thought. It was the in-betweens that were tough. Nice going, Bernhard.

Billy May, Costa, Stordahl were definitely causing me grief, trying to decide, with the smooth hip sound of Jones close behind. Jenkins I like, if you're in the mood for strings, but I'm not as familiar with the rest - know their names, but that's about it. Kept coming back to Nelson.

Hi Bernhard
That is certainly true of this poll, I guess. I just felt it might be too easy for someone not too well versed in this to just go with the majority. Not that this is all that serious, though. I just wanted to ask. It's no big deal.

That's perfectly right, John - after all you'll have a certain amount of voters going for the (probable) majority on whatever poll you might conduct. Maybe I should have added a section "I don't know/have no opinion yet", but the maximum # of selections is 10, I thought about it but couldn't eliminate any of the 9 arrangers I chose in favour of such a category.

Bernhard.

It's really hard to choose, Bernhard. So many concepts that Frank Sinatra did so well. They all have their place in his long and ever changing career. I might be leaning towards Stordahl, but that's because of his Swedish name

[BobbySoxer]

AXEL STORDAHL! "The saint of Staten Island"

John, your question re people who might be not too well versed made me add small portraits of the arrangers in question to my initial post - check it out. I tried to highlight their contributions to the FS songbook. The portraits are of course very short but should give some outline on each one's individual achievements re working with FS.

Bernhard.

[pattisam]

Helps me, and even though I've already voted, it still teaches me something! Thanks for your thoughtfulness.

"John, your question re people who might be not too well versed made me add small portraits of the arrangers in question to my initial post - check it out"

Is this a teaser from your book?

[russkish3]

I cannot isolate just one arranger. They each had their own distinctive qualities, as so capably outlined in Bernhard's original posting. I simply can't decide if one deserves higher consideration than another. The California recall ballot was easier to evaluate.

'Scuse me while I disappear,

Russel Kishi
Glendale, California

***Is this a teaser from your book?***

I have no plans at this time to write any book on Sinatra.

Bernhard.

***The California recall ballot was easier to evaluate.***

Nobody said such polls should be easy...

Think of it as a "heart vs mind" conflict, as someone pointed it out on a Sinatra discussion forum in the 90s. Your mind might tell you that e.g. Wee Small Hours is Sinatra's best album, yet your heart/emotions might make a different choice, simply by reaction when listening. Same goes for the arranger question. Of course (says the mind) all of them had their essential and valuable share in shaping Sinatra's legend. But which one did the charts that apply most to YOUR (unfoolish) heart?

Bernhard.

[russkish3]

I think Axel Stordahl becomes my selection, because without his contribution all other work with other arrangers would not even come into consideration.

That's my final answer.

'Scuse me while I disappear,

Russell Kishi
Glendale, California

[victor m.]

My Pick, Don Costa, Nelson Riddle, Axel Stordol. of the three I have to take Nelson Riddle. But dont forget Quincy, He could Correct something for Frank in a Minute, a True Genius.

Bernhard,

Guten tag! (I know a little German.)

I'm pleased to see that you have set up this poll on favorite Frank Sinatra arranger-conductor.

Believe me, it's a hard choice because I love all of Frank's music!

I guess I would have to pick Nelson Riddle with his wonderful lush string sounds.

I sincerely hope that there will be more polls like this one on various aspects of Frank and his music. We are all here to pay tribute to Frank and carry on his memory. Lately, some of the other polls have been silly and a complete waste in this forum. That is sad and unfortunate.

[Ronald Sarbo]

What about Johnny Mandel? Wish he had done more with him. Also wish he had done more with Neal Hefti.

[Paolo]

In my opinion, all of them have their typical caracteristics of arranging and phases, times... great ones. However, I think Ernie Freeman was not a good arranger to Frank. Beautiful melodies, but no good taste on arranging. Also Quincy, a great musician, but was not a great arranger for Frankie as well. That's just my opinion. Paolo.