Tag Archives: Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra & Count Basie: It Might as Well Be Swing

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In August 1964, “Reprise” label released “It Might as Well Be Swing”, studio album by Frank Sinatra, accompanied by Count Basie and his orchestra. It was recorded June 9–12, 1964, Hollywood, and was produced by Sony Burke.

Personnel:

  • Frank Sinatra- vocals
  • Count Basie- piano
  • Quincy Jones- arranger, conductor
  • Al Porcino, Don Rader, Wallace Davenport, Al Aarons, George Cohn and Harry “Sweets” Edison- trumpets
  • Henry Coker, Grover Mitchell, Bill Hughes, Henderson Chambers and Kenny Shroyer – trombones
  • Frank Foster, Charles Fowlkes, Marshal Royal, Frank Wessand Eric Dixon – reeds
  • Emil Richards – vibraphone
  • George Catlett – double bass
  • Freddie Green- guitar
  • Sonny Payne- drums
  • Gerald Vinci, Israel Baker, Jacques Gasselin, Thelma Beach, Bonnie Douglas, Marshall Sosson, Erno Neufeld, Lou Raderman, Paul Shure and James Getzoff – violins
  • Virginia Majewski, Paul Robyn, Alvin Dinkin and Stan Harris –
  • violasEdgar Lustgarten and Ann Goodman – cellos
  • Lowell Frank – engineer
  • Ted Allen – cover photo

Track listing:

  1. Fly Me to the Moon – Bart Howard
  2. I Wish You Love – Léo Chauliac, Charles Trenet, Albert Beach
  3. I Believe in You – Frank Loesser
  4. More (Theme from Mondo Cane) – Riz Ortolani, Nino Oliviero, Marcello Ciorciolini, Norman Newell
  5. I Can’t Stop Loving You – Don Gibson
  6. Hello Dolly – Jerry Herman
  7. I Wanna Be Around – Johnny Mercer, Sadie Vimmerstedt
  8. The Best Is Yet to Come – Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh
  9. The Good Life – Sacha Distel, Jack Reardon
  10. Wives and Lovers – Burt Bacharach, Hal David

Frank Sinatra: Some Nice Things I’ve Missed

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In July 1974, “Reprise” label released “Some Nice Things I’ve Missed”, the 54th Frank Sinatra studio album. It was recorded December 1973 – May 1974, in Hollywood, and was produced by Don Costa, Jimmy Bowen and Sonny Burke.

Personnel:

  • Frank Sinatra– vocals
  • Don Costa, Gordon Jenkins– arranger

Track listing:

  1. You Turned My World Around – Bert Kaempfert, Herbert Rehbein, Kim Carnes, Dave Ellingson
  2. Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
  3. The Summer Knows – Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Michel Legrand
  4. I’m Gonna Make It All the Way – Floyd Huddleston
  5. Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Ole Oak Tree – Russell Brown, Irwin Levine
  6. Satisfy Me One More Time – Floyd Huddleston
  7. If – David Gates
  8. You Are the Sunshine of My Life – Stevie Wonder
  9. What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? – Alan and Marilyn Bergman,Michel Legrand
  10. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown – Jim Croce

Leon Russell

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On November 13, 2016, Claude Russell Bridges aka Leon Russell died aged 74. He was musician (piano, keyboards, guitar, bass, baritone horn) and songwriter, with successful solo career. His best known track “A Song for You ”,has been recorded and performed by more than 100 music acts. Russell has recorded and performed with many famous musicians including  The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, John Lennon, Ringo Starr  ,George Harrison, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Ike & Tina Turner, and the Rolling Stones. In 2011, Russell was inducted into the “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”

Jacques Brel

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On October 9, 1978, Jacques Romain Georges Brel died aged 49. He was a Belgian singer, songwriter and actor, widely considered a master of the modern chanson. He recorded most of his songs in French and in Dutch, but he became a major influence on English speaking songwriters and performers such as David Bowie, Alex Harvey, Leonard Cohen, Marc Almond and Rod McKuen. The English translations of his songs were recorded by many famous performers including Ray Charles, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins, John Denver, the Kingston Trio,  Scott Walker and Andy Williams. Having sold over 25 million records worldwide, Brel is the fourth best-selling Belgian recording artist of all time.

Cake: Fashion Nugget

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fashion_nugget

On September 17, 1996, “Capricorn Records” label released “Fashion Nugget”, the second Cake studio album. It was recorded 1995-1996, and was produced by John McCrea, Greg Brown, Greg Vincent, Victor Damiani and Todd Roper. In 1997, the album was certified Platinum in the US by the “RIIA”.

Personnel:

  • John McCrea – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, organ
  • Greg Brown – electric guitar, organ
  • Greg Vincent – pedal steel guitar
  • Victor Damiani – bass guitar
  • Todd Roper – drums, percussion
  • Vince DiFiore – trumpet, percussion

Track listing:

All tracks by John McCrea, except where noted.

  1. Frank Sinatra
  2. The Distance – Greg Brown
  3. Friend Is a Four Letter Word
  4. Open Book – Greg Brown, John McCrea
  5. Dana
  6. Race Car Ya-Yas – Cake
  7. I Will Survive – Freddie Perren, Dino Fekaris
  8. Stickshifts and Safetybelts
  9. Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps – Osvaldo Farrés, Joe Davis
  10. It’s Coming Down
  11. Nugget
  12. She’ll Come Back to Me
  13. Italian Leather Sofa
  14. Sad Songs and Waltzes – Willie Nelson

Van Morrison: Magic Time

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Van Morrison_MagicTime

On May 17, 2005, “Geffen” label released “Magic Time”, the thirty-first Van Morrison studio album. It was recorded November 2000 – 2003, at “The Wool Hall” and “Windmill Lane”, and was produced by Van Morrison.

Personnel:

  • Van Morrison -vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, harmonica, alto saxophone
  • Mick Green- guitar
  • Foggy Lyttle- guitar
  • Michael Fields -Spanish guitar, lute
  • Martin Winning -tenor and baritone saxophones
  • Matt Holland -trumpet
  • Paddy Moloney- whistle
  • Myles Drennan -piano, Hammond organ
  • Brian Connor – piano, keyboards
  • Dave Lewis- piano
  • John Allair – Hammond organ
  • Jerome Rimson -bass, backing vocals
  • David Hayes- bass
  • Liam Bradley -drums, backing vocals
  • Noel Bridgeman, Johnathan Mele, Bobby Irwin – drums
  • Johnny Scott, Siobhan Pettit, Olwin Bell, Crawford Bell, Aine Whelan, Karen Hamill – backing vocals
  • Irish Film Orchestra -strings
  • Richard Evans – design and art direction, sleeve photographs
  • Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering, London – mastering
  • Javier Pierini / Getty images – front cover photography

Track listing:

All tracks by Van Morrison, except where noted.

  1. Stranded
  2. Celtic New Year
  3. Keep Mediocrity at Bay
  4. Evening Train
  5. This Love of Mine – Sol Parker, Henry W. Sanicola, Frank Sinatra
  6. I’m Confessin’ – Doc Daughtery, Al Neiburg, Ellis Reynolds
  7. Just Like Greta
  8. Gypsy in My Soul
  9. Lonely and Blue – Harry Brooks, Andy Razaf, Fats Waller
  10. The Lion This Time
  11. Magic Time
  12. They Sold Me Out
  13. Carry On Regardless

Bob Dylan: Shadows In The Night

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Bob_Dylan_-_Shadows_in_the_Night

On February 3, 2015, “Columbia” released “Shadows in the Night”, the thirty-sixth Bob Dylan studio album. It was recorded in 2014, at “Capitol Studios” in Los Angeles, and was produced by Jack Frost. The album features covers of traditional pop standards made famous by Frank Sinatra.

Personnel:

  • Bob Dylan– vocals
  • Charlie Sexton– guitar
  • Stu Kimball – guitar
  • Donnie Herron –pedal steel guitar
  • Tony Garnier– upright bass
  • George Receli –percussion
  • Larry G. Hall – trumpet
  • Daniel Fornero –trumpet
  • Andrew Martin – trombone
  • Francisco Torres – trombone
  • Alan Kaplan –trombone
  • Dylan Hart –French horn
  • Joseph Meyer – French horn
  • I. Harper – horn arrangements
  • Geoff Gans – design
  • John Shearer – photography

Track listing:

  1. I’m a Fool to Want You – Frank Sinatra, Jack Wolf, Joel Herron
  2. The Night We Called It a Day – Matt Dennis, Tom Adair
  3. Stay With Me – Jerome Moross, Carolyn Leigh
  4. Autumn Leaves – Joseph Kosma,Jacques Prévert, Johnny Mercer
  5. Why Try To Change Me Now – Cy Coleman, Joseph McCarthy
  6. Some Enchanted Evening – Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers
  7. Full Moon and Empty Arms – Buddy Kaye, Ted Mossman, Sergei Rachmaninoff
  8. Where Are You – Harold Adamson, Jimmy McHugh
  9. What’ll I Do – Irving Berlin
  10. That Lucky Old Sun – Haven Gillespie, Beasley Smith

Ray Charles

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On June 10, 2004, Ray Charles Robinson died aged 74. He was a singer, songwriter, musician, and composer, regarded as one of the most important artists in the history of modern music, referred to as “The Genius”. Charles is important not only as a pioneer in combining rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues into soul music but he also played the main role in the racial integration of country and pop music – he was one of the first African-American musicians who gained artistic control by a mainstream record company. In 2004, “Rolling Stone” magazine ranked Charles at number ten on their list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” and number two on the 2008 list of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time”.

 Frank Sinatra: The only true genius in show business.

Billy Joel: This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley.

Henry Pleasants (music critic and musicologists): Sinatra, and Bing Crosby before him, had been masters of words. Ray Charles is a master of sounds. His records disclose an extraordinary assortment of slurs, glides, turns, shrieks, wails, breaks, shouts, screams and hollers, all wonderfully controlled, disciplined by inspired musicianship, and harnessed to ingenious subtleties of harmony, dynamics and rhythm… It is either the singing of a man whose vocabulary is inadequate to express what is in his heart and mind or of one whose feelings are too intense for satisfactory verbal or conventionally melodic articulation. He can’t tell it to you. He can’t even sing it to you. He has to cry out to you, or shout to you, in tones eloquent of despair—or exaltation. The voice alone, with little assistance from the text or the notated music, conveys the message.

Awards and honors

  • In 1979 – induction into the Georgia State Music Hall of Fame. Charles’ version of “Georgia on my mind” was also made the official state song for Georgia.
  • In 1981 – star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
  • In 1986 – induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
  • In 1986 – awarded with the Kennedy Center Honors
  • In 1987 – awarded with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
  • In 1991- induction to the Rhythm & Blues Foundation
  • In 1991 – awarded with the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement
  • In 1993 – awarded the National Medal of Arts.
  • In 1998 – awarded with the Polar Music Prize
  • In 2004 – induction to the National Black Sports & Entertainment Hall of Fame
  • In 2003 – awarded an honorary degree by Dillard University
  • In 2005 – The Grammy Awards were dedicated to Ray Charles
  • In 2010 – Performing arts center at Morehouse College was named after Ray Charles
  • In 2013 – The United States Postal Service issued a forever stamp honoring Ray Charles as part of it Musical Icons

Capitol Records

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Capitol Records

On June 4, 1942, “Capitol Records” was founded by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn Wallichs. Over the decades, the label became home to artists such as Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Bobby Darin, Glen Campbell, Steve Miller, Dr. Hook, Bob Seger, Tina Turner, Heart,  Nat King Cole, the Four Knights, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Stan Kenton, June Christy, Louis Prima, Keely Smith, the Louvin Brothers, Judy Garland, the Andrews Sisters, Harry James, Andy Griffith, Shirley Bassey, the Kingston Trio, Dean Martin, The Four Freshmen, Helen Reddy, Anne Murray, April Wine, Blondie, Bloodrock, Burning Spear, Buzzcocks, David Bowie, Kim Carnes, Rosanne Cash, Max Webster, Lee Clayton, Natalie Cole, The Goose Creek Symphony, Sammy Hagar, The Knack, Maze, Mink DeVille, Juice Newton, Raspberries, Minnie Riperton, Diana Ross, Sweet, The Specials, The Sylvers, Ten Wheel Drive, The Stranglers, Tavares, George Thorogood, Triumvirate, Little River Band, Wings, The Persuasions, Richard Marx, The Motels, Billy Squier, Crowded House, Peter Blakeley, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, The Doobie Brothers, Willie Dixon, Glass Tiger, Katrina & The Waves, Grace Jones, Lloyd Cole, Pet Shop Boys, Sawyer Brown, Queen, Roxette, Brian Setzer,The Smithereens, Spandau Ballet, The Tubes, Paul Westerberg, Butthole Surfers, Concrete Blonde, Billy Idol, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Megadeth, Exodus, W.A.S.P., Poison, Iron Maiden, Queensrÿche,  Beastie Boys, King Tee, Mantronix, Mellow Man Ace, Robbie Robertson, Dave Koz, Ashford and Simpson, Freddie Jackson, BeBe & CeCe Winans, Skinny Puppy and others.