Frank Sinatra would have reached the century mark this December, which makes it a very good year to celebrate this American music icon’s life and legacy.
One big problem with trying to present a full picture of Sinatra is that there’s just so much out there: over 50 years’ worth of studio and live recordings, plus untold miles of film and video footage. We hope that the choices we’ve made for this month’s Hear the Music and Extended Play sections, as well as the handful of clips below, will prompt you to explore the Chairman’s work much further.
First, here’s Frank in the fall of 1957, singing Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” on ABC’s The Frank Sinatra Show. (Yes, he had his own network TV program—more than once!)
Next, a 1962 performance of Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s “One for My Baby” at Royal Festival Hall in London. This melancholy song was one that Sinatra returned to again and again throughout his career, and he doesn’t just sing it, he acts it—watch how he moves, the hand gestures he makes, and of course the whole business with the cigarette. (Please note that we are not in favor of anyone smoking, and if Sinatra were alive today, he probably wouldn’t be allowed to do this on the Royal Festival Hall stage.)
In this 1964 clip, Sinatra takes on Bart Howard’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” with the Count Basie Orchestra backing him up.
For his 1967 TV special A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim, Sinatra joined forces with Brazilian singer/songwriter/guitarist Antonio Carlos Jobim on a medley of four songs: Jobim’s “Corcovado” (also known as “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars”), Irving Berlin’s “Change Partners,” Cole Porter’s “I Concentrate on You,” and Jobim’s “The Girl from Ipanema.”
And finally, the song that so many people around the world associate most with Ol’ Blue Eyes: John Kander and Fred Ebb’s “New York, New York,” seen here in a 1980 performance taped shortly after Sinatra recorded it for his Trilogy album.