January 18, 2006

Opening number to Sinatra: A Man and His Music


Frank Sinatra turned 50 in 1965. His publicity machine (publicists, promoters, etc.) made a huge deal out of this (if they'd known he'd go on for another thirty-three they might not have). It was as if, suddenly, he was an old man. He could no longer as convincingly pull off the image of the swingin' playboy. It didn't help that the Beatles had invaded the year before. The generation gap had become a grand canyon.

To emphasize this "event", the Sinatra product rolled out of the factory. He released the good, mid-period Reprise album September of My Years and made a TV special to coincide with his birthday called A Man and His Music. It aired on NBC the evening of November 24th. It was an Emmy award-winning show. Here's the opening number, which I think is pretty cool. If you ever saw the video for the Bono/Sinatra Duets version of "I've Got You Under My Skin", you've seen bits of it.

5 comments:

me said...

Wow. Very cool. What an entrance and what a great idea to start a show. The man had style. And a voice of course.

Chris said...

Yeah, it can give me goosebumps, but I have a bit of a Sinatra obsession.

Anonymous said...

He's a legend and there is no day in my life without a sinatra song ;-) don't jou get in trouble with copyright? however the video is great!

Chris said...

rob vegas, I agree. I've had Sinatra withdrawal during the few times I couldn't hear his voice at least once a day.

As far as copyright is concerned, I hope I don't get in trouble. That particular performance was part of a PBS (Public Broadcasting System) show from a couple of years ago featuring his best performances. I was able to tape it on VHS. Would showing it at my blog violate copyright? I truly not sure.

Anonymous said...

Warner Reprise has many of Sinatra's TV Specials available on DVD - they are appx. 20 dollars (U.S.) and worth every penny for the clarity and sound quality that 10 minute or less excerpts on Youtube can't provide - I have 9 of them and can't recommend them highly enough!!! Go Frank!!!