Sinatra in Retrospect; No. 3; Sinatra the Ballad Singer; Parts 3 & 4

Hey, drink up, all you people. Not anything, you see. This is the third of four programs entitled Sinatra in Retrospect, I'm Michael Lasser. When Frank Sinatra left Columbia Records for Capital in the 1950s, he was trying to rescue a career that only a few years earlier had looked unstoppable. But the voice had given out and his marriage had come to a bad end. And now he was trying to put his professional life back together. That he succeeded goes without saying in the decade that followed, he would make permanent our sense that he was one of the great performers of the century. When Sinatra started working at Capitol, arrangers Nelson Riddle and Billy Mae had him singing uptempo songs, whole albums of them for the first time in his career. But he was always, first and foremost a singer of ballads. They made his reputation when he sang with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey and then is the solo singer they call the voice draped over the microphone, singing

the dreamy, ardent ballads we associate with World War Two. But the capital. He also had new arrangers for his ballads, still Nelson Riddle, but also Gordon Jenkins. The style was more worldly. Now Sinatra was nearing 40, a divorced man with children who lived out his private life in the public press life had kicked him around more than a little. But the new sound was strong. And sure, his first important ballad that day leaving Columbia had a Nelson Riddle arrangement. Sinatra hadn't sung this title song in the movie, even though the movie had turned his career around. This is From Here to Eternity. You've had your love. From here to eternity. It never would.

Kagura loves. So willingly. Kuzman Goodbar. Maureen Mainichi. We'll never know. This love that you left with me. From here to eternity.

My empty. This love that you left with me. Listen. William. From here to here to.

That was from here to eternity to underscore Sinatra's achievement, the capital, let me take you back to his earlier recordings for a few minutes. They were very good. Some of them were wonderful. Has anyone ever sung a popular song as sweetly as the young Sinatra? But it was an approach and a style he'd now outgrown from 1940 his the youthful Sinatra with the song that became his theme. Put your dreams away. Put your dream. We'll take their place.

And you. We're seeing. Never got you far. A new star. But before. To door. Let your kid. This is half in.

Andrew. And dreams at night. Sabetha. But you can.

This is happening at. By the time of the capital years, Sinatra's career had taken him past the innocent romanticism of a song like Put Your Dreams Away, the silky crooning was gone. He began to bring to his ballads the sound and texture of experience. He sang as if he understood what he was singing about, not in some abstract way, but personally and individually, because he'd been through it. He could sing not only to us, but for us. In 1954, Sinatra appeared in a movie as a Down on Your Luck piano

player who finds redemption through the love of a good woman named Doris Day. Sinatra's character was tough and cynical and the sentimental sort of way. But what lasts from the movie is his singing of the title song. It became so successful that Billboard magazine called it the year's best recording and named Sinatra as the male singer of the year. His comeback was complete. This is young at heart. Fairy tales can come true. It can happen to you. If you're young at heart. For it's hard you will find to be narrow of mind if you're young at heart. You can go to extremes with impossible schemes. You can laugh when your dreams fall apart at the seams

and life gets more exciting with each passing day. And love is either in your heart or on its way. Don't you know that it's worth every treasure on Earth to be young at heart for as rich as you are? It's much better by far to be young at heart. And if you should survive to 105. You'll I thought of being like. And here is the best part. You have a head start. If you are among the very young at heart. And if you should survive to 105,

look at all you'll derive out of being alive. You have a head start if you are among the very young. Johnny Richards and Carolyn Lee's young at heart, Frank Sinatra, never had an especially big voice, but it was musical and extraordinarily expressive of emotion as he approached 40 and then passed it. His voice changed. It was deeper now and less sweet. It also sang more energetically, as if he'd learned from his Up-Tempo songs to charge the ballads, to press them forward intensely. And this is ballad singing became less reliant on crooning.

It also became more restrained and economical, like his swinging it to was more adult and also truer. The tempo in this ballad is surprisingly bright, though Sinatra still sings it as a ballad. This is how little we know. How little we know how much to discover. What chemical forces flow? From lover to lover. How little we understand what touches off letting go that sudden explosion when two Tingle's intermingles. Who cares to define?

What chemistry this? Who cares? With your lips on mine, how ignorant blaesing. So long as you kiss me and the world around us shatter how little it matter how little we know. How little we understand what touches off that tango, that sudden explosion when two Tingle's intermingle.

Who cares to define? What chemistry is this? Who cares with your lips on my. Oh, ignorant Bliss's So Long As You Kiss. Little it matters how little we know, how little we know, how little we know. Phil Springer and Carolyn Lees, how little we know the Long-playing record first developed of Colombia in the late 40s created a range of possibilities for popular music. It was now possible to put as much as 45 minutes on

a single disc. That meant, among other things, that albums could be more than miscellaneous of songs. Frank Sinatra at Capital became one of the pioneers of the concept album, an LP organized by theme or style or subject. Sinatra's first attempts were at a fast tempo with titles like A Swinging Affair or Swing Easy. But he also soon turned to ballads, especially the sad, reflective ones. The adolescent hipster finds that he's capable of melancholy and introspection. In these recordings, the sense of loss is palpable. Here's that rainy day and I'll be around. Maybe I should have saved. But here's that rainy day.

The was. That I threw a song. After it brought my love new. Funny how long.

It's funny how. Funny.

The three. I'll be here no matter. You treat me not. I'll be around. From now. Ladies, love can never last, and when it's.

I'll be around when he's gone. Good bye. And if you find a love like mine just now. Drop a line to say you're feeling fine and when. Things go wrong. Perhaps you'll see. So I'll be around. When he's got.

Drop like to say that you're feeling fine and worth. Things go wrong. Perhaps you'll see. You're meant for me, so. I'll be around when he. He's got. Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burks, here's that rainy day and Alec Wilder's

I'll be around these aren't songs about the end of the world. They lack the easy, cosmic hyperbole of so many popular songs Sinatra doesn't sing about forever. Instead, he sings about how one man feels for all his brashness. He could step into a recording studio and create an image of someone frightened and alone in the dark. Here is one of his great recordings in the weeks. In the wee small. As of this morning. There's faster speed. And think about the girl and never.

Just think of counting sheep. Only hard has learned its lesson. You'd be hers if. She would call in the wee small. That's the time. Mercer, most of. Leaphart has learned its lesson,

you'd be. If only she would call. In the wee small. But the time you miss. Dave Mann and Bob Hilliard's in the wee small hours, Nelson Riddle started with Sinatra by arranging Up-Tempo numbers and moving on to ballads,

Gordon Jenkins was just the opposite. He joined capital later when the concept albums were already underway. His first task for Sinatra was to arrange the numbers for the first of what came to be known as the saloon song albums, bluesy knowing ballads for After Midnight songs that traded in Melancholy and Despair with Jenkins', Sinatra sang in the more forthright but also more dramatic way than with Riddel. This is Where Are You? I can't believe we're.

When we said goodbye. What had we to give? When I gave you my love. Rosti go. When we said goodbye.

Well. Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson's Where Are You?

You're listening to the third of four special hours entitled Sinatra in retrospect, I'm Michael Lasser. Through the late 50s, Sinatra recorded several saloon song albums with arrangements by Riddel and Jenkins, Sinatra was increasingly drawn to these reflective, introspective songs and sang them with rare insight. Here were the title songs from two of these remarkable albums Close to You and Only The Lonely. Close to you, I will always.

Close to you.