A Where Are You? sampler

Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to -- Si-na-tra-land...

Based on the fact this is a photograph taken in March 1956 of the first recording session held in the newly constructed Capitol Records "Circular Tower," and Frankie is conducting the orchestra, I'd say this is a session for the Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color album. And since Nelson Riddle is in the hizouse (just under Frank's left armpit), I'd guess the song being recorded is Riddle's contribution to that album, "Gold." But I'm struck at how nonchalant the crooner seems to be about revealing to all involved his thinning hair, a subject about which he was no doubt touchy.

I mean, my God, he practically extended the fashion of men wearing hats for at least another decade (until The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan) due to his "need" for them. The cover art for Where Are You? was clearly painted from a photograph taken at this recording session. Again, I find it to be so revealing of the singer's mood at the time that he allowed this to be used as the cover. He must have been in one of his emotional troughs.

The first album Sinatra recorded (April 10-May 1, 1957) at Capitol without Nelson Riddle, as well as the first he recorded in stereo, Where Are You was one of four classic downbeat ballad albums he made between 1955 and 1959 (In the Wee Small Hours, Where Are You?, Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely, and No One Cares).

Ladies and gentleman, the lush strings of Gordon Jenkins:


"Where Are You?" (Harold Adamson, Jimmy McHugh)

"Maybe You'll Be There" (Sammy Gallop, Rube Bloom)
"Maybe You'll Be There" was a song Gordon Jenkins had much experience with, as he and Orchestra released a version in 1948, which lasted 30 weeks on the chart, peaking at #3. The 1948 version was Jenkins' first charting record.


"Lonely Town" (Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, Adolph Green)

New York, New York, or a village in I-o-way (I love that)
The only difference is the name
If you're alone, whether on Main Street or on Broadway
If you're alone, they are both the same
A town's a lonely town
When you pass through and there is no one waiting
there for you
Then it's a lonely town
In all it's sturm und drang heaviness:

"I'm a Fool to Want You" (Frank Sinatra, Jack Wolf, Joel Herron)
Nice job on the video!

"I Think of You" (Jack Elliot, Dan Marcotte)

Trek lives!

Because a couple of people may be slightly curious as to my feelings about the new Star Trek movie, I'll do a short post about it, rather than a long, point-by-point review. Basically, I was not disappointed. It was way better than The Phantom Menace (thank God!). Wouldn't Gene Roddenberry be thrilled? The film was rather stirring, at parts, and I only got truly choked up, once, right at the very, very end....I, as any Trek purist worth his or her weight in dilithium crystals should, have major issues with some of the tinkering around the with the mythology, but, oh well. Damn the torpedoes, and full speed ahead!

The sun goes down in Eagle Lake

This weekend, I visited Eagle Lake, the place where my parents met in high school.


Eagle Lake City Hall, c. 1926

"Three O'Clock in the Morning"

The Great Gatsby original cover art by Francis Cugat
“Good night, Nick,” said Daisy.

Her glance left me and sought the lighted top of the steps where "Three O'Clock in the Morning," a neat, sad little waltz of the year, was drifting out of the open door. After all, in the very casualness of Gatsby’s party there were romantic possibilities totally absent from her world. What was it up there in the song that seemed to be calling her back inside? What would happen now in the dim incalculable hours? Perhaps some unbelievable guest would arrive, a person infinitely rare and to be marveled at, some authentically radiant young girl who with one fresh glance at Gatsby, one moment of magical encounter, would blot out those five years of devotion. (p. 115)


F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Stranger on the Shore"

I blogged about this a couple of years ago, but as I was on my run tonight (four miles), my iPod shuffled to the mp3 I made from my scratchy vinyl copy of the Flamingo Kid soundtrack, and I knew what my latest post should be. Most of my music-related posts are born in just this way. "Stranger on the Shore" is a song worthy of being featured here at my little endeavor again. And I'll probably get just as much of a response as I did last time -- NONE! Ha, ha! Has there ever been a recording so haunting, beautiful and achingly sad?? I don't think so. And being a Frank Sinatra nut, brother/sister, I've listened to a lot of haunting, beautiful and achingly sad stuff....

This is the best version I could find of the original 1962 recording by Mr. Acker Bilk:


Mr. Acker Bilk
From the Wikipedia entry:

"Stranger on the Shore" is a piece for clarinet written by Acker Bilk for his young daughter and originally named "Jenny" after her. It was subsequently used as the theme tune of a BBC TV drama serial for young people entitled "Stranger on the Shore."
The track, performed by Bilk (as "Mr. Acker Bilk") with backing by the Leon Young String Chorale, was released as a single on Columbia Records in October 1961, with the label of the single openly proclaiming "Theme from the BBC TV Series." The B-side was "Take My Lips". The single became a phenomenal success, topping the NME singles chart and spending nearly a year on the Record Retailer Top 50. It is the UK's biggest-selling instrumental single of all time, and appears fifty-eighth in the official UK list of best-selling singles issued in 2002.

On May 26, 1962, "Stranger on the Shore" became the first British recording to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, but it was quickly followed, on December 22, by The Tornados' "Telstar", another instrumental. After "Telstar", the first British performers topping the U.S. charts were The Beatles, with their first Capitol Records single "I Want to Hold Your Hand". "Stranger on the Shore" was Billboard's Number one single of 1962.

I guess that means Acker, sorry, Mr. Acker Bilk kicked off the British Invasion of the 1960s!

I wasn't aware there were lyrics, but I've always felt there just had to be. Sho' 'nuff, there are. By Robert Mellin:

Here I stand, watching the tide go out
So all alone and blue
Just dreaming dreams of you

I watched your ship as it sailed out to sea
Taking all my dreams
And taking all of me

The sighing of the waves
The wailing of the wind
The tears in my eyes burn
Pleading, "My love, return"

Why, oh, why must I go on like this?
Shall I just be a lonely stranger on the shore?

The sighing of the waves
The wailing of the wind
The tears in my eyes burn
Pleading, "My love, return"

Why, oh, why must I go on like this?
Shall I just be a lonely stranger on the shore?
Andy Williams recorded a version with the lyrics, which was released two months after Bilk's. Here is a version Patti Page did, which for some reason someone has dubbed in this scene from Das Boot:

Like a Sears catalog cowboy

Jezebel has an amusing and entertaining look at the spring, 1972 Sears catalog's children's clothing section. This reminded me of how every winter during the 1970s, I anticipated, and then consumed (at least the toy section) the annual Sears Wish Books. I look at examples of them now, and the amount and clarity of sensory memories I receive is almost too much to bear. As I scrolled down the Jezebel post, I saw just this, and thought it seemed vaguely familiar:

An odd sense of déjà vu continued, and then, this:

My parents got my sister and me sets like the red one with chaps, for what must have been the Christmas of 1972. I had a green version, and she had the red one. They came with a hat, frilly, plastic-like gloves, chaps, pants, a belt, a bandanna, and a matching checkered shirt. I remember going to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo the following February (probably in the Astrodome) with my parents, and my sister and I wore them (of course!). My little sister got kicked by a calf, behind which she had unfortunately stood, so her memories of that day may not be all that good. For whatever reason, my parents held on to those little Sears cowboy outfits, and a couple of years ago, they had them framed. Here's what was left of my sister's (the picture I took of mine was blurry, so I deleted it):

Hell of a burger

I'm sort of fascinated by these incidents of POTUS (any POTUS, by the way) attempting to maintain some degree of a "normal" life. This time found President Obama and Vice President Biden (VPOTUS?) having their weekly lunch together at an Arlington "hole-in-the-wall" burger spot called Ray's Hell Burger (link goes to Ray's the Steaks).


The President's favorite news network has to fill that 24-hour-a-day news cycle with something, especially now that the Swine Flu panic they created has begun to wane!

This reminded me of a previous president, and his love of such fare: