Lets talk about the genius of the songwriter that allowed us the genius of frank. Its because of these songs and songwriters, frank brought us his great interpretation and skill with the melody.......but it had to stem from somewhere first right? So here's not to the losers but to the songwriters whose words and music we shall always cherish.

I'm going to start with Cole Porter because being a songwriter myself he is by far the most my favourite compose of all time. So here are my favourite Porter numbers that Sinatra sang:

I've got you under my skin...
Night and day.....
At long last love....
I love you....
From this moment on.....
Who wants to be a millionaire ( with celeste holm )...
Well did you evah ( with bing )...
Anything goes....
I get a kick out of you.....

I love ella's recording of " everytime we say goodbye", shame sinatra never recorded it.
So do you all in the forum agree?
Lets chalk up a list of Jimmy van Heusen and Sammy Cahn next including the other collaborations they did.

[Paolo]

one of the best. Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen are my favourites too.// Johnny Mercer is also fantastic, tremendous! Yours, Paolo.

[Lynda L]

I don't think songwriters always get the credit they deserve. To make a song come to life you need a good songwriter and a good singer. In my opinion a good songwriter brings out the best in a singer or performer.

I love the writings of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, especially: All The Way, My Kind of Town, September of My Years, Come Fly With Me

[janne-sakari]

Cole Porter,Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen made lots of great songs that could have been great even without the Sinatra`s marvellous voice but I don`t think Paul Anka`s My Way would have been so big hit without Sinatra.
Tom Jones,Elvis and Paul Anka himself did pretty good versions of the song but thruth is that My Way is first remembered as a Sinatra song and after that as a Paul Anka song.

[janne-sakari]

Hi Kathy!
You are right.I know there is bunch of other artist(Martin,Crosby and so on) who have sung the same songs that Sinatra sung but nobody as memorable as Sinatra.
What I was trying to say is that the songs of Porter and others are so great that they could have been(and some of them was) hitsongs even without Sinatra.
Truth is that people remeber today songs of Porter,Heusen/Cahn,Mercer and Berlin better because of Sinatra.
Actually people remember Sinatra and "his"songs.If I start to speak about the song Night And Day to somebody.He or she remembers it`s a Sinatra song not that it`s a Cole Porter song.
And I still think My Way is a Sinatra song not a Elvis Presly song.

The genius of the songwriter is as important as the singer himself.
The melody as well as the lyrics are important. Why are lyrics like "I love you yeah, yeah, yeah " so utterly common place?
The singer is ofcourse important too in the way he interprets the song writers song.
All the songs sung by FS have also been sung by many other singers, but Sinatra's songs linger in your memory and haunt your senses much more because of his intimate interpretation of the music & the lyrics. So, why do I always get this feeling that this song was written only for Sinatra, even though others may sing it as well?
FS's interpretation of the lyrics of the likes of Cole Porter, Rogers & Hart, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Johnny Burke, Harold Arlen, Jimmy Van Heussen, Rube Bloom, Jules Styne, Jerome Kern & ofcourse Sammy Cahn (who was known to have the reputation of being Frank's personal lyricist) are history.
So are some of the songs of McKuen, Sammy Fain (the "I'll be seeing you" guy), Ebb & Kander, Cy Coleman & Carolyn Leigh, Billy May, Miller, Murden & Maria & ofcourse A.C. Jobim (whose accompaniment with FS left FS feeling he had a permanent hoarse voice) brilliantly rendered by FS.
Every song sung by FS has its own unique stamp which no one can ever imitate.
Even Sammy Davis Jr. who was dubbed many times as being a clone of FS was unique in his own way.
The songwriter & the singer "go together like a horse & carriage."
FS sure picked the right songs & the right lyrics to interpret his feelings

[Edwin]

leave out composer Harold Arlen and lyricist (& sometime composer) Johnny Mercer. they botyh wrote dozens of great songs and the two of them collaberated on many including One for My Baby, Come Rain or Come Shine and Blues in the Night.

Other Mercer songs include Drinking Again, Empty Tables, Somethin's Gotta Give, Dream, Goody, Goody, I thought About You, Jeepers Creepers, Fools Rush In, When the World Was Young, My Shining Hour, Emily, I Wanna Be Around, Moon River, Days of Wine and Roses, Midnight Sun, I Wonder What Became of Me...to name just a few of the hundreds he wrote. Mercer was one of the foundes of Capitol Records. His songwriting collaberators, in addition to Arlen, include dozens of great (Kern, Koehler, Richard Whiting, Hoagy Carmichael, Harry Warren, Henry Mancini, Jimmy Van Heusen, Arthur Schwartz, Gordon Jenkins and many more.

Arlen wrote Over the Rainbow, Last Night When We Were Young, Get Happy, That Old Black Magic, The Man (Gal) that Got Away, I Had Myself a True Love, Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home, Stormy Weather, Hit the Road to Dreamlanad, Fun to Be Fooled, Lydia, the Tatood Lady, I Love a Parade, Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead, I've Got the World On a String and...well, you get the idea.

Frank Sinatra loved them both and they all did well by each other.

Ed S.