A collection of Frank Sinatra music cds and videos as well as compilation of his greatest hits.
Price: $11.98
Essentially the sequel to 1957′s Where Are You?, this 1959 release finds Sinatra once again singing tales of woe to the lush accompaniment of Gordon Jenkins’ classically influenced arrangements. Torch songs this time around include “Just Friends,” “None But the Lonely Heart,” “Stormy Weather,” and “When No One Cares,” all delivered with minimal vocal acrobatics and maximum ache by Ol’ Blue Eyes. Some fans may prefer the sparer arrangements of such Nelson Riddle collaborations as In the Wee Small Hours, but this still makes for superior late-night listening. –Dan Epstein
I've owned this album for some time, and many times it seems appropriate to get out the good scotch and a strong cigar and become immersed in this album. There's something stark but spacious in the arrangements. You can picture someone in a crowded but lonely bar, staying until last call, getting one for the road. But then it's time to leave. Lighting up the last cigarette, heading out the door into the chill of the evening in anytown U.S.A. It begins to rain, but you can't go home. Too many memories there. So now what? Where do you go? Well maybe there's another bottle of scotch at home, and a fresh pack of smokes. And there's "No One Cares" already sitting next to the CD player. This is the soundtrack for this type of evening and early morning. Guess you'll be OK. Frank can do that. It's almost as if he understands and takes the load off your shoulders. This is one of the few albums that does this and does it perfectly. Now if you'll excuse me, it's last call. Care to join me? -- Where Do You Go?
In 1957 Frank Sinatra worked with a different arranger at Columbia Records other than Nelson Riddle when he recorded a collection of torch songs for "Where Are You?" with arranger Gordon Jenkins. He had started off playing lots of different instruments on the radio, but then Jenkins got into arranging, beginning a prolific career that saw him working with the likes of Benny Goodman and Lennie Hayton. He dabbled on Broadway ("The Show Is On"), the movies, and NBC (arranging for Dick Haymes). Jenkins even gets credit for discovering the Weavers as well as for working with Judy Garland and Nat King Cole. It seems strange that he only one a single Grammy award, in 1967 for the Sinatra album "September of My Years." "No One Cares" came out in 1959, two years after Sinatra and Jenkins worked together for the first time, and while it is not as great as "Where Are You?" but is in the same neighborhood in Lonely Town.
All things considered I think I like Sinatra as a saloon singer best of all, in which case you would want to pick up both of these albums and "Only the Lonely," which Sinatra recorded in 1958 (with Riddle when Jenkins ended up being unavailable). The common denominator here is that these are dark, brooding songs of loneliness. The most recognizable songs on "No One Cares" would be "Stormy Weather" and "I'll Never Smile Again," which was certainly never this depressing when Doris Day sang it. Standout tracks include "A Cottage for Sale," "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You," and "Here's That Rainy Day," although with torch songs it is always a matter of individual taste when it comes down to what sort of sad, melancholy little song can send you spiraling all the way down into the depths of despair.
The title song is a Sammy Cahn tune, and you have to tip your hat to an album of saloon songs that features music by both Cy Coleman, that being "Why Try to Change Me Now"?, and also Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, namely "None but the Lonely Heart" (with lyrics by Bill Westbrook). This reissue of the 1959 album would probably grade out at 4.5 stars if such things were allowed, but I have no problem rounding up given the album's overall quality and the four bonus tracks tacked on at the end of which "This Was My Love" is the best. But given my love of comments parenthetical I should also note there are two such efforts in the bonus quartet, "The One I Love (Belongs to Somebody Else)" and "You Forgot All the Words (While I Still Remember the Tune)" (where would I be without parenthetical asides?).
-- More Sinatra torch songs recorded with Gordon Jenkins,
Great singers can have their indulgences. One can view Sinatra's fondness for the diabetic romanticism of orchestra conductor Gordon Jenkins as a direct opposite to the manic Billy May swing. This is not to say that Nelson Riddle can't do romantic or swing arrangements, but he uses restraint and subtlety. Perhaps the listener of this album takes the cue from the hilarious cover, with Sinatra spotlit, in his uniform raincoat and hat, drinking at a bar looking glum, while ignoring a glamouress woman sitting next to him. If you can believe that conceit, knowing of Sinatra's Rat Pack and Italian attitude to women, then you can probably appreciate the irony of Sinatra's melancholia (though perhaps going from his suicidal reaction to the failure of his marriage to Ava Gardner, it is the men who mistreat women that seem to take their loss the worst). At times the voice sounds strained, there is the occasional bum note, and often Jenkins' seems to be fighting Sinatra for attention, but at their collaborative best on the seminal I'll Never Cry Again and I Don't Stand A Ghost of a Chance With You, the results are sublime. For me Stormy Weather is a mistake, and None But The Lonely Heart a failed experiment. I prefer the religious sounding notes that open Ghost of a Chance and particurlarly Where Do You Go?. My favourite track is Here's That Rainy Day, where Jenkins pulls back a little, apart from a gush towards the end. Also noteworthy is the musical descent for the end of the title cut reminiscent of Riddle's Goodbye from Only The Lonely, and the witty lyrics of Why Try To Change Me Now, refreshing in the otherwise depressive context. -- one does
No One Cares is often erroneously left out of Sinatra's greatest albums list. I am extremely disappointed that it has not been remastered, it deserves to be. Listening to this album, it's as if Frank had a button on his throat to push to get different vocal qualities from his voice. Just listen to the overall dark quality of his voice in this gem. It is a different voice, a bleak and hurt voice; it's a sound not heard on any other album. It's amazing. I'm a singer and can respect true genious when I hear it; Sinatra is a vocal musical genious. No one...I repeat ...NO ONE can sing a song like Frank. These songs surpass your ears, attack your heart, and rest in your soul. His voice sounds as if he's at the point of breaking from sadness, the vulnerability he demonstrates musically is staggering. There are singers...and then there is Sinatra. He's singer,actor,friend, lover,fighter,winner,loser,hard-man, vunerable-boy, all rolled into one voice. It's here...on every song, in every note. And it's beautiful. This album is a MUST. -- The darkest Sinatra album of all......and it's WONDERFUL
His choice of selections, coupled with the innovative and lush arrangements of Gorden Jenkins, make this one of the less well-known but absolutely essential albums to have in your Sinatra collection. Listen to "A Cottage for Sale," for example. It is clearly the most stirring rendition recorded--you won't be disappointed! -- Sinatra at his best--brings new meaning to crooning
Last Update: 10 hours ago
Some Frank fans believe Nelson Riddle is pictured in the background of the album cover — all call this ‘The Suicide Album’
“Only the Lonely,” which Sinatra recorded in 1958 (with Riddle when Jenkins ended up being unavailable).
Gordon and I first met in 1951 — I was the first piano-playing disc jockey’s in the world. Gordy came into the studio and exclaimed, “What’s this?” He said, “This is the greatest thing since sliced bread.” We instantly became good friends, a friendship that lasted until Gordy’s death in 1984. Gordy shared many stories, including the ‘unavailability’ for Only The Lonely. He was working on a Las Vegas show for the Tropicana main room. When Frank called and asked him to arrange Only, he had to turn him down. He figured, since nobody ever said ‘no’ to Sinatra he would never work with him again. Fortunately Frank felt differently, and they went on to record some incredible albums. Nelson Riddle did a incredible job arranging Only, which included the Jenkins composition, Goodbye, the finest version of Goodbye ever recorded. The story of Goodbye is a sad tale, included in Bruce Jenkins’ book, Goodbye, In Search of Gordon Jenkins. I had a small part in the concept for the book, which included a few comments from me. Gordy wrote the song in 1932. It wasn’t published until 1936, when Benny Goodman decided to use it as his closing theme. In 1932 Gordon’s wife and baby died on the operating table giving birth.