Even by the standards of Sinatra’s other Capitol ballad albums, Only the Lonely is a beautifully broken statement of hopelessness. Guided by Nelson Riddle’s arrangements, Frank stumbles through a nameless town, buying rounds for an entire bar, having an emotionally apocalyptic run-in with an old flame, bemusedly eyeing the onset of spring. Here the spare “One for My Baby” and a...
At the height of the big-band era, radio-network disputes with music-publishing clearing house ASCAP led to a scramble to find new sources of songs. After Tommy Dorsey’s band succeeded with “I’ll Never Smile Again,” a submission from the unknown Ruth Lowe, his program regularly featured an amateur-songwriting contest. It’s All So New!, drawn from broadcasts made between 1940...
Awash in enough echo to swallow the band, Barry Manilow does what he can to honor the memory of Frank in a (commercially) timely manner. Unfortunately, his abilities are limited to straight renditions of 13 Sinatra-associated standards over karaoke-worthy string- and brass-laden arrangements. Not surprisingly, there’s slim acknowledgment of the Chairman’s improvisational sense and the sly...
Timed to the release of the 2001 remake of the Sinatra-Martin-Davis anti-classic Ocean’s 11, this 18-track compendium serves as less a best-of than an introduction to the high-living nightclub ethos the Rat Pack embodied. Along with some true knockouts, mostly from Frank’s catalog, Eee-O 11‘s mostly beltingly upbeat tracks also include the impossibly corny (a “When You’re...
A Swingin’ Affair! is as perfect as records get. Sinatra sounds near to bursting with self-assurance on this 1957 release; even on the laments “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plans” and “No One Ever Tells You,” this is a Frank who’s at the top of his game and isn’t shy about letting you know he knows it. Nelson Riddle’s upbeat arrangements are among...