Sinatra Sings

I loved this one hour retrospective of Frank in concert. Put together in 2011 by his daughter, Tina, it blended great clips from his TV and concert appearances for 4 decades. Many of his standards are shown and obviously the clips were the cream of the crop.

Tina's narration provides brief background info on the songs and/or her father's approach to performing. That's one thing to remember here...most of the clips are of him performing as opposed to recording in a studio, although there are a few of those. When performing, you see the joy and playfulness Frank would interject into his concerts. He was, after all, putting on a show as opposed to just trying to replicate the sound you heard on his albums. In addition, his vocal range and tone had changed as he grew older and the way he approached a song did as well. If you had the pleasure of ever seeing him live, these clips will bring back wonderful memories.

The thing that stands out to me is his ability to command the stage and massage the lyrics based on the arrangement he was using at the time. You can see just how much he loved being in front of an audience. His smile tells it all. The greatest saloon singer who ever lived, for sure, but also a magnificent performer. He makes it look so easy...and natural. Listen to how he allows the song to get in front of him...he was a master of "catching up" with the lyrics which at times required him changing them slightly, but many performers do not have the guts, or talent, to follow this style.

I also loved the clips from his live TV show from back in the 50's. Here we see a much younger Sinatra, a bit nervous doing the 2 songs they show. It was all live done on the spot and you can see in his eyes and facial expressions he was a bit uncomfortable. He pulls it off though, and it was great seeing these clips that I had never seen before.

Great clips. Great music. The greatest artist of our time. What more could you want?