I have very mixed feelings about Sinatra: the temper, the bullying, the loud-mouthed Mafia connections, the idolisation of Kennedy and sucking up to Reagan, the mistreatment of women, particularly Mia Farrow. I frankly despise the Rat Pack stuff and detest their childish movies. But I grew up with a Sinatra-loving mother and find pretty irresistable those studies of him in the 50s: the Nelson Riddle era. Dress-wise, fantastic. Music-wise, the tops. Then he had to go and ruin it all by doing one crappy movie after another, topping it off by doing that duet with the U2 wanker. But, just for a year or two, after playing Maggio, there was no-one in the running till Steve McQueen refused to be just another Sinatra stooge and toppled him off his perch as King of Cool. McQueen: true ultimate cool to the point where I've been turned off him. But that's just sour grapes. I love those 'Bullitt' boots, too.
Never heard about this duet... What a shame!
Let's celebrate Sinatra for the good things from the recordings with Harry James to The Wee Small Hours, all these great movies and images...
The Capitol records box set is a must, all those great big band recordings with Billy May and Nelson Riddle. There's a Reprise box set due out as well, sometime.
The interesting thing, at the time of the Rat Pack, Dean Martin was a bigger record seller and despite all the BS to the contrary, the way Sammy Davis was treated on stage was racist. And I've got several bootlegs that attest to this.
As Hard Bop Hank reminds us to celebrate Sinatra for the good things; in The Wee Small Hours and The Man With The Goldern Arm. Which I went to see at the Odeon cinema in Chester on his death, I was the only person who went to the one showing.
Sinatra was cool, but as I've realised for quite some time now, Sammy Davis was even cooler.
Last edited by formby (2010-07-25 08:38:04)
That's a shame, it was indeed a great piece of Art Deco splendour. I loved Chester before the banks moved in, MBNA credit card and the likes, the change in demographic effected the ambience in a negative way. Plus the price of property.
Anyway, just put a bit of old Sinatra on, Swing Easy: the perfect background to a major barny with the missus.