Sinatra in Retrospect; No. 3; Sinatra the Ballad Singer; Part 2

Close to you. I will always. Used to you. No, you're far away. In my dreams, I'll find you the. Close to me. Sharing your current.

Can't you see? Wherever you go. What can I do? It only wants to be. Wherever you go.

What can I do? He wants to be. Close to. Each place I go.

Only low. Some little small. The song I know only. Each or. Because a love that used to be the dream. Adream only. Let's as one.

The hopeless scheme. That's Susan. And the one that used to kill. Those picnics at the beach when law was. It well could be. Hopeless little dream like that

comes to. If you find. Hang on to each caress. For one, it's gone. The lone. Jerry Levingston, Al Hoffman and Carl Lambells, close to you and Jimmy Van Heusen

and Sammy Kohn's Only the Lonely all through these very successful years, Sinatra would sometimes turn back to a song he'd previously recorded. It was as if he was rediscovering it. The singing was still warm and romantic, but the musical intelligence was mature and the singing disciplined, insightful and believable. Every word mattered. This is the later Sinatra with a song he originally recorded in 1940, I'll Never Smile Again. Never smile again. Till I smile at you. Never love again.

What good would it do? Would realize. So in love with you. I'll never throw.

I know I will never stop. Smile again. I smile at you. Within.

I know. You smile again. Ruthless, I'll never smile again, Sinatra continue to make movies some good, some not so good in The Joker is Wild. He starred as nightclub comedian Joey Lewis. The script used a song to show that Louie could no longer sing after mobsters had slashed his vocal cords. That's why he went on to comedy.

Jimmy Van Heusen Melody served its purpose in the movie, but also became a hit single for Sinatra. This is all the way. When somebody loves you, it's no good unless. By the way, happy to be near you when you need someone to cheer. And the tallest tree, that's how it's got to feet. The deep blue sea is that's how deep it goes.

When somebody needs you, it's no good unless he needs you. Oh. Through the good early years and for all the in-between, you come what may. Will lead us on live. But if you let me love. It's for sure I'm going. Oh. Oh.

So if you let me love you, it's for sure I'm going to love you all. Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Kohn's all the way in the early 60s, Sinatra formed his own record company, Reprise. He'd been happy at Capital, but wanted the freedom that comes only with ownership.

At the same time, as he neared 50, he began to record a group of songs that reflected his awareness of his own advancing years. The songs were reflective, yet assertive. They affirmed Sinatra strong sense of his own individuality and of his stubbornness. The two qualities apparently go together. This is the song Sinatra calls his own national anthem My Way. The end is near. And so I face. The final curtain. My friend, I'll say it clear, I'll state my case, of which I'm certain. I lived. A life that's full.

I traveled. And every highway and more much more than this, I did it my way, regrets. I did what I had to do. Without exemption. Each charted course, each careful step. I did it my.

Yes, it was my.

That was Paul Anka as my way by the early 70s, Sinatra was tired, the kick had gone out of singing. He was approaching 60. He announced his retirement and performed a final concert. But by 1976, he was back. He simply couldn't not sing. The voice had begun to change again, in fact, to decline. And that may have been a factor in his decision to retire. It was husky and sometimes harsh. His ability to sustain a note or even to hit the right note was unpredictable. But the cockiness was still there. So was the mastery of manner, the ability to believe a song and project that belief. The voice was gone, but the substance remained.

He returned to singing with an album entitled Old Blue Eyes is back. It included, You will be my music. When all the songs are out of tune and all the rhymes rings so untrue when I don't find the words to say the thoughts I longed to bring to you when I hear a lonely singing. Who are just as lost as me. Making noises. Not Melody.

I can't wait any longer. I'll never find the song to tell me

all the things. I need to say. And I'm afraid as time goes by. That someday soon. You go away and I'll be lost and try. I'll never sing. You will be my

music. They saw. Joe Raposo, you will be my music, Richard Rogers once said that in opera you sing the music and in musicals you sing the words. He could just as easily have been talking about opera and almost all popular songs. So Sinatra's voice was gone. He could still sing. He could still express believable emotion.

Musically, nothing essential had changed. The mastery remained. And that brings us to the fourth and final program in the special series entitled Sinatra. In Retrospect, please join me again for Sinatra The Master, Dave's the Brewskis. The Technical Director. I'm Michael Lasser. But I got to run. The facts on. Who's now the number one NWI, my angel?