The Friday Canon: FRANK SINATRA

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Swingin' crooner Frank notched up 31 UK Top 40 hit singles, but which ones are the best of the bunch? You get TEN ticks to decide...

[Poll #1016325]

Donna Canon results up later.

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I am amazed that the more famous songs weren't singles, but then again half of them were from fillums/on super famous albums etc. I guess this is where the canon methodology falls down...

Love And Marriage remains one of the worst songs of all time though. Even his voice sounds awful on it.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I guess this is where the canon methodology falls down...
Well quite. I couldn't get to 10 ticks, and I really like Sinatra. >:(

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I should have done a canon of his films instead!

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I know about five of these songs but can safely say that I hate ALL OF THEM.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

you'll learn, trust me :)

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

But... his voice. And the sound. And everything about that style of music. :(

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

Not too long ago, I was listening to the radio and there was Frank doing a live version of Mack The Knife, which might just be the song that has suffered the most from the Robbie/Westlife/wee Ray offa The X Factor assault on the Sinatra (and chums) songbook – I guess you could claim it's the ultimate in Brechtian alienation as the singers don't show any sign of having the first clue about the basic narrative content of the song (as for anything beyond that, well, Westlife might all be big Gramsci freaks, for all we know?). Anyway, even though Frank's version, being live, ended with a long string of shout-outs, I was still struck by the way it had all the bite and menace and power that is missing from all these chumps who reckon if you put on a tux you're halfway there...

Mack the Knife

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

Is in the Readers Digest Family Song Book.

Not really a singles artist for me

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I've got the four classic late-50s Capitol albums and that's enough, movies aside.

I actually find it kind of difficult to remember that he's dead - he was always SO old while I was conscious of him.

Not one tick

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

I have come to realise that I don't need my pop stars to be good people, but I need them to be better people than Sinatra.

Re: Not one tick

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Speaking of badness can I assume that the "selling point" in Me And My Shadow with Sammy Davis Jr was EXACTLY WHAT I THINK IT WAS.

Re: Not one tick

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Er *cough* hmmm. But it's a nice tune!

Oh dear...

My Ticks In Full

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I knew only about 3 of these but still ticked 10 as follows:

THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN: Know it, it's OK.
LEARNIN' THE BLUES: Nelson Riddle FTW
WITCHCRAFT: Ooh spooky.
FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION: How can a song called that be bad?
OL' MACDONALD: Assuming it is what I think it is! Farm animal canon pls.
MY BLUE HEAVEN: There was a good issue of Swamp Thing named after this.
EVERYBODY'S TWISTING: Good old Twist.
STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT: Doo-be-doo-be-doo
MY WAY: Daaaaa-da-da-da-da
I WILL DRINK THE WINE: A sentiment we can all endorse.

Re: My Ticks In Full

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

GREG'S TEN TICKS:

"Young at Heart" - I love it
"Three Coins in the Fountain" - I ticked this song coz I know it and I needed one more to get to ten ticks. As as song it's alright I guess
"Love and Marriage" - ticked coz it was the theme song to Married With Children
"Chicago" - Proxy tick for "New York, New York". Actually, it's still a good song itself.
"Witchcraft" - Genuinely great.
"High Hopes" - Genuinely great.
"Me and My Shadow" - Yeah, really racist. But so ridiculous it merited a tick.
"Strangers in the Night", "My Way" - Yeah, yeah, yeah, classics and they deserve to be!
"Somethin' Stupid" - Love duet ballad sung between a father and daughter! Icky, but nice melody.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Not only one of the all-time great singers, one of the very best American actors ever, for me. I love Sinatra, despite him being a horrible person. I have more tracks by him than almost anyone else, I think. I only dislike the idiotic novelty ones - I have his version of the Woody Woodpecker song, for instance. I love pretty much all the series of albums with Nelson Riddle.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

I didn't know this was real ("Woody Woodpecker" theme as sung by Frank Sinatra), I always thought it was just something invented for parody by Saturday Night Live.

Anyways, yeah, he's a great singer, tho this list doesn't capture most of his best.

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

I advise anyone with a passing interest in Sinatra to grab a copy of Songs For Swinging Lovers - mostly upbeat swing of the very highest quality, with Nelson Riddle leading the band and Frank on incredible form.

POP BEGINS HERE.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

It does! Frank beats Elvis by 2 years as our earliest canon subject so far.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Pop for grownups doesn't count.

Really?

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

But there wasn't anything between 'child' and 'grownup' when Frank started. He's pre-teenager, historically. Perhaps more pertinently to poptimists, he was one of the first, and maybe the actual first pop star... Before the era of the pop standard there was big band, where the band leaders were the important ones but seen as managers rather than icons. The singers were just another instrument at their disposal until Frank and Ella Fitzgerald stole the show with charisma and style.

Does poptimism only begin with rock'n'roll, then?

Fillums

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Frank is AWESOME in:

High Society
Guys & Dolls
Manchurian Candidate

What else?

Re: Fillums

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

The Man With the Golden Arm
On the Town

I have soft spots for Von Ryan's Express and Robin and the 7 Hoods also.

Re: Fillums

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

He's great in On The Town, though the film as a whole is a bit of a mixed bag. The Man With The Golden Arm, From Here to Eternity and Von Ryan's Express are all fine movies.

Re: Fillums

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

He's also good in Suddenly. I've never seen Some Came Running, but it looks interesting; I've never made it the whole through Pal Joey, for some reason.

[spittake.livejournal.com]

The Gordon Jenkins "Future" album from Trilogy is kind of insane.