Bentley's Bandstand
In 1966, there wasn’t a lot of cross-pollination between the worlds of the Beatles and Frank Sinatra. That was pretty much a yin and yang situation, and those twains just didn’t meet. When Sinatra’s swinging single “Strangers in the Night” beat the Fab Four’s “Paperback Writer” out of the top slot on the hit parade, it was likely a pretty victory for the Chairman of the Board. The story behind that single is intriguing, including how producer Jimmy Bowen rushed the test pressings to radio stations around the country on private planes to ace out competing versions of the song by Jack Jones and Bobby Darin. It worked, and it was the biggest single of Sinatra’s mondo career. Hard to believe, but there it is. What’s even cooler is what a great song it is. Originally from the James Garner film “A Man Could Get Killed,” there is something so inevitable about the music and lyrics that it’s hitdom seems inevitable. Frank Sinatra is in prime voice, and everything about the affair just jelled. The rest of the album was produced by Sonny Burke and arranged by Nelson Riddle, and it’s also a primo creation, even if there are a couple of cases where the singer is stretching to tiptoe into the pop market by covering two songs originally done by Petula Clark. The rest of the lineup is classics like “My Baby Just Cares for Me,” “All or Nothing at All,” “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” and the heart melting “Summer Wind.” When Sinatra, the orchestra, the material and the producer/arranger team all came together as one, there was no greater creation in popular music. Never really a jazz singer, Frank Sinatra was actually his own category. He eventually won over many of the rock fans that ran for the hills during the ‘60s when the cultural divide between them appeared insurmountable, and now all feels forgiven. Frank Sinatra said it best: “May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine.”
Frank Sinatra's biggest album and Grammy Winner's title song was actually written and originally recorded by Croation/Yugoslavian singer Ivo Robic along with Bert Kaempfert. Robic recorded it in Croation and German. The orchestra arrangement is very similar to Sinatra's version including the key change. At the ending Robic sings "La La La La La" as opposed to Sinatra's "Oobie Doobie Doo". It is a known fact that Sinatra despised the song and is caught on video (Concert For The America's) turning to the orchestra and his conductor (Vincent Falcone) dissing it as "a piece of s#%t". He didn't perform it in concert for several years and when it was added back to the show later, He performed a shortened version. Sinatra also shortened "My Way" when performing live (another song he didn't like initially) to "get it over with". Actually his duet with Nancy "Somethin' Stupid" was a bigger single. Frank Sinatra didn't have much use for it or other successful singles like "That's Life", "The World We Knew (Over And Over)", "This Town" and others. Despite his personal feelings about these songs, the recorded performances are what revived and sustained his career during an era of drastic social changes and diverse styles of popular music. He sold a LOT of records, challenged the musical trend and Won! He did it "His Way"!