The Beautiful voice of Frank Sinatra

Yeah, I'd like that too. Another face-to-face meeting--with or without the arguing.

Admiring a singer is a bit like picking the most beautiful woman. It is a matter of taste and admiration. Sinatra impressed me a lot but it did not last long. He was a lounge singer.
The greatest poet-singer was Jacques Brel, who wrote all his songs. He became a good actor as well and was much appreciated in Europe. He smoked like a chimney and died in Tahiti. His grave is next to that of Gaugin.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Brel

Okay, I'll come clean; I don't actually like Sinatra's voice -- I was just giving him full marks as a stylist, for his phrasing, whatever you want to call it. As far as singers go, I like them to be able to carry a tune. I cannot listen to songwriters who insist on performing their own material when I find them unlistenable. This list would include Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. If I want to hear a Cohen song I listen to Jennifer Warnes or k.d.lang -- a good singer/stylist can channel the intent of the writer and make the song even better IMO.

I love K.D. Lang, Tai, especially the songs that she did by Johnny Mercer. Hard to beat Johnny for creativity, no?

I love Cohen's voice and Dylan's voice, on his better recordings.

By the way, Eddie Harris did "Listen Here".

Every time I hear Ray Charles sing "Georgia" I get goosebumps all over. Now I read that the song had nothing to do with the state of Georgia; I feel disappointed.
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"Georgia on My Mind" is a song written in 1930 by Stuart Gorrell (lyrics) and Hoagy Carmichael (music). It is the official state song of the U.S. state of Georgia.
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While the song's namesake is popularly mistaken as the State of Georgia, it was actually written for Carmichael's sister Georgia Carmichael. In fact, neither Gorrell nor Hoagy Carmichael had ever even been to Georgia by 1930 when they wrote the song.
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It was not until Ray Charles' 1960 recording that it became a major hit. On 7 March 1979, in a mutual symbol of reconciliation after conflict over civil rights issues he performed it before the Georgia General Assembly.

I'm a HUGE Brel and Charles Trenet fan!

(small world)

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That is very interesting to see how so many people like Sinatra and how they describe his voice/style. I guess that is why he is so famous. It is a question I always had when I look at the many records they have of him in the stores. I wondered if anyone is actually buying them. Now I know.

Frankly, I don't know much about Frank. I heard very few of his songs and I must say I did not like his singing at all, so it is very enlightening to see the descriptions from fans. I find Engelbert Humperdinck has a much better version of "Strangers in the Night" and Elvis sings much better "My Way" than Frank. But of course all that is a matter of taste.

Gilles Vigneault is the great chansonnier/poete in Quebec. Even in France he is widely admired for his wonderful poems turned into songs. I saw him twice and he knew how to charm the audience. We fell in love with that strange looking troubadour.
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He belongs in a completely different category than the shallow singers of love songs.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Vigneault

Most younger people are only familiar with Sinatra as a pretty old guy. His voice was very different in a younger day. He has had periods of sounding very good to only so so.

Also, he was very good looking as a younger man.

I have seen a little bit of Frank in a black and white movie with Grace Kelly, I remember I liked the movie. Otherwise, it is complete unknown territory to me. Can someone please recommend some nice songs that I can try to listen to?

I saw a DVD of Paul Anka where he sang "My Way" in duet with Frank (as a voice only) and it was quite successful. The duet is also in Paul's CD "Body of Work". Of course, everyone knows that Paul wrote the lyrics of "My Way" for Frank, based on the music of the French song "Comme d'habitude" of singer/composer Claude Francois. So to see Paul sing a "remake" duet is quite something.

My favorite Frank song cello, is The Summer Wind.

Ignore my posts about other singers. I did not look at the title of this thread.
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Sorry about that.

I certainly did NOT know that Claude Francois wrote "My Way". Thanks for that info, cello. Terrible thing about his demise. Incidentally, where do you live?

"mr warmth" (aka don rickles ) was on larry king thursday night .
i hardly ever watch the show , but this was a really good show . mr w regaled larry with all kinds of stories about frances - and other showbiz personalities - and he had larry in stitches .
rickles is 81 years old and still puts in about 150-200 performances a year !
larry asked : "have you ever been sick , don ? " ; rickles : "for god's sake , i'm 81 years old ! of course i have been sick - but probably not as much as you ! " . END OF THAT TOPIC

just recently found a re-mastered cd of one of sinatra's earlier recordings with the harry james orchestra - not sure of the date , but be late thirties i guess - great tunes !
hbg

Word is, he had quite a schlong too. Dynamite combination.

I hate that one. But not as much as "High Hopes".

one of my favourite cd's :



the three are playing wonderfully of each other and having a live performance - even when you hear some background noise from the audience - makes it even more enjoyable for me .

it starts with announcer :
"the sands is proud to present ... direct from the bar : dean martin "
and the fun never stops !
hbg