Sinatra does his "thing"

One of the things I admire about Frank Sinatra was his willingness to try nearly anything to stay on top as he weathered the numerous cultural shifts of his 50-plus year career. Marrying Mia Farrow is but one example. Another was donning a nehru jacket and love beads on national TV in 1968 for Francis Albert Sinatra Does His Thing.

As far as what his "thing" was supposed to be, here's what he read off of cue cards at the beginning of the program:

"This is our fourth little get together and I'd like to explain that the title of our show is in the patois of the youth of today. Now no one would really explain to me exactly what my 'thing' is supposed to be, but it can't be all bad, baby, because they let me do it on television."

Starring with Sinatra were artists he must have felt were vital and "with it". The "cutting edge" entertainers included The Fifth Dimension and Diahann Carroll. Knowing Sinatra like I do, my theory is he was actually just in the mood for a little dark 'n' lovely, seeing as both involved beautiful African American ladies.

You must watch at least the beginning of this vid. I can not allow you to leave until you do.

Sinatra more than makes up for the heavy cheese factor with the music, so it's worth a complete viewing. He does a medley of "Nice 'n' Easy" (a song he rarely performed live) and "(How Little It Matters) How Little We Know". I'm guessing he, or someone else, selected the latter due to the menition of "chemical" and "chemistry" in the lyric. It was 1968. The "kids" were all into chemicals and stuff.








Yeah, why won't TV let women speak out?? What's the deal, TV?