It's come to my attention (via a discussion linked by Mark Blackburn) that there's a cleaner version of this recording available on RUclips here: ruclips.net/video/L0kRlmmyjtE/видео.html ... Enjoy. (Frankly I don't remember where I had first gotten the recording when I uploaded it with a self-arranged photo tribute, but it did apparently lose a little something in audio translation). Best, Fred
Thank you for adding the link to our version from A VOICE ON AIR, Fred. Yes, everything loses some quality when posted on RUclips due to lossy data compression. It is what it is. I have no idea what source you had used for this video, but I can tell you we used an actual Guest Star 16" pressing as the source for this and "Birth of the Blues" on A VOICE ON AIR. I wet cleaned and vacuumed the record myself, and we painstakingly transferred, restored, and mastered it with a lot of love. We used a Technics SP-15 turntable in a custom stone base. If this needed pitch correction (I do not recall off-hand, by many tracks on the set did), it was done directly on the turntable with it built in speed adjustment during playback. Just the right stylus profile that yielded both the best, most balanced, distortion free sound was used after trying multiple sizes. The signal out of the turntable went through the incredible McIntosh C8S vintage tube phono preamp, then converted to 32 bit/192k hi res digital. We then mixed up some muffin dust in the restoration and mastering. I recall that both of these songs needed very little eq. They are truly among my favorite pieces on the set. -Martin Melucci (Associate Producer of A VOICE ON AIR)
Love this version, Frank’s intonation and dynamics on this tender reading are virtually flawless. Frank’s radio archives are some of my favourite Sinatra moments.
The deeper voiced Sinatra version in 1959 is outstanding but this version truly sounds like the Columbia days and is sweet. It’s ‘53 and He’s about to make his comeback from Frankie to Sinatra, Chairman of the Board...
From Fox & Friends, to Nancy Sinatra, to Mark Steyn: Left a note a moment ago with Sinatra Family: Why try to change (the melody) now? Well, 'cause Frank did that -- twice! Sub titled: When Frank changed a note - it improved the tune! Today I shared a 'Fox & Friends' news item (on the Frank Sinatra 'Here There Everywhere' thread) about a headlined list of “Favorite First Dance Songs at Weddings” - a list topped by Frank's definitive THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT that also included Etta James' AT LAST (the "definitive version of that one," I volunteered). Nancy responded: “Because of the enormous range of the song, Etta James sang the wrong melody to At Last, and since hers is the only recording ever played, (except on Nancy for Frank,) everybody who sings the song copies her record and continues the erroneous tradition. It makes me furious.” ---- Had to chuckle, reading your words, Nancy and recalling something your Dad's good friend Alec ('I'll Be Around') Wilder wrote in his great book about American Popular Song: In his chapter on Gershwin, Mr. Wilder recalled your father changing a single note in a Gershwin tune - “for the better!” Googled just now, for that anecdote: To my delight, first offering this day is a recollection from my friend Mark Steyn from one of his “Song of the Week” columns years ago. In his celebration of WHY TRY TO CHANGE ME NOW? Mark shared, as only he can, a personal anecdote from the song's composer, Cy Coleman. “On September 17th 1952, Coleman attended the recording session. He was excited, as who wouldn't be? His new song was about to be recorded by Frank Sinatra! Percy Faith raised his baton, the introduction began, and in came Frank: I'm sentimental, so I walk in the rain... And Coleman was ever so slightly perturbed: Sinatra had altered the second note. He'd changed "Why Try To Change Me?" But what are you going to do? Tell Mitch Miller to stop the tape and barge in and yell at Frank Sinatra? So Coleman said nothing. "But it bothered me," he told me years later. "When the record came out, I went home and put it on and sat in the dark listening to it over and over, night after night. And, after about a year of listening to him change that note, I said, 'You know what? He's right.' So I changed it on the sheet music." "Do you do that a lot?" I asked. "That's the one and only time," he said. Search for it at RUclips - and first offering this day is this radio broadcast from that same year, 1953. A kindred spirit in a comment below the video (that's arranger Axel Stordahl in the opening photo) John Fury wrote, “Very nice. I like this live reading by Frank more than the record.” Thanks Fred J Walsh for sharing this one. Celebrated this day at Sinatra Family -- Forum -- Siriusly Sinatra -- MY FAVORITE VERSION, YOURS TOO? sinatrafamily.com/forum/showthread.php/50225-My-Favorite-Version-%28yours-too-%29?p=1279029#post1279029
Great anecdote, especially considering two great composers came to the same conclusion. In trying to learn this myself I had trouble hitting that second note. Possibly because I was used to hearing it "his way," I'm not sure. It just felt more natural and sounded better to begin with a whole step rather than the minor 3rd. I was well aware that Sinatra made these kinds of "improvements" as a matter of routine. Usually they were more dramatic as in the last A of Embraceable You on Nice & Easy. That or more subtle changes within the rhythm or phrasing. It never occurred to me to check the second note he sang against what was written. Instead, I checked the chart in several books and it's as originally written in all of them. Cy should have known Frank was right and not deliberated for so long.
The Columbia side don’t sound as if he was at the end. There is lesson in there for me too, always do your best no matter what the current circumstances are. Sinatra couldn’t sing bad even if he wanted to . Also quality does not go away and he knew it
Yes, it does feel rushed, but that is because the copy used here is not at the correct pitch. The version we have on A VOICE ON AIR is at the correct pitch.
It's come to my attention (via a discussion linked by Mark Blackburn) that there's a cleaner version of this recording available on RUclips here: ruclips.net/video/L0kRlmmyjtE/видео.html ... Enjoy. (Frankly I don't remember where I had first gotten the recording when I uploaded it with a self-arranged photo tribute, but it did apparently lose a little something in audio translation). Best, Fred
Thank you for adding the link to our version from A VOICE ON AIR, Fred.
Yes, everything loses some quality when posted on RUclips due to lossy data compression. It is what it is.
I have no idea what source you had used for this video, but I can tell you we used an actual Guest Star 16" pressing as the source for this and "Birth of the Blues" on A VOICE ON AIR. I wet cleaned and vacuumed the record myself, and we painstakingly transferred, restored, and mastered it with a lot of love. We used a Technics SP-15 turntable in a custom stone base. If this needed pitch correction (I do not recall off-hand, by many tracks on the set did), it was done directly on the turntable with it built in speed adjustment during playback. Just the right stylus profile that yielded both the best, most balanced, distortion free sound was used after trying multiple sizes. The signal out of the turntable went through the incredible McIntosh C8S vintage tube phono preamp, then converted to 32 bit/192k hi res digital. We then mixed up some muffin dust in the restoration and mastering. I recall that both of these songs needed very little eq. They are truly among my favorite pieces on the set.
-Martin Melucci (Associate Producer of A VOICE ON AIR)
this is absolute so beautiful. I have that I was born in 99... i wish i couldve been alive to hear this man at his peak
Love this version, Frank’s intonation and dynamics on this tender reading are virtually flawless. Frank’s radio archives are some of my favourite Sinatra moments.
Very nice. I like this live reading by Frank more than the record.
The deeper voiced Sinatra version in 1959 is outstanding but this version truly sounds like the Columbia days and is sweet. It’s ‘53 and He’s about to make his comeback from Frankie to Sinatra, Chairman of the Board...
Fred, thank you for sharing such a rare perfomance of this underrated but beautiful song! I really appreciate it.
Frank Sinatra can sing on any tempo
And his timing is always perfect
The greatest singer that ever lived
Forgive me, Frank...I would not change you🤩 what a voice !
Thanks for this one..
From Fox & Friends, to Nancy Sinatra, to Mark Steyn: Left a note a moment ago with Sinatra Family: Why try to change (the melody) now? Well, 'cause Frank did that -- twice! Sub titled: When Frank changed a note - it improved the tune!
Today I shared a 'Fox & Friends' news item (on the Frank Sinatra 'Here There Everywhere' thread) about a headlined list of “Favorite First Dance Songs at Weddings” - a list topped by Frank's definitive THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT that also included Etta James' AT LAST (the "definitive version of that one," I volunteered). Nancy responded:
“Because of the enormous range of the song, Etta James sang the wrong melody to At Last, and since hers is the only recording ever played, (except on Nancy for Frank,) everybody who sings the song copies her record and continues the erroneous tradition. It makes me furious.”
----
Had to chuckle, reading your words, Nancy and recalling something your Dad's good friend Alec ('I'll Be Around') Wilder wrote in his great book about American Popular Song: In his chapter on Gershwin, Mr. Wilder recalled your father changing a single note in a Gershwin tune - “for the better!”
Googled just now, for that anecdote: To my delight, first offering this day is a recollection from my friend Mark Steyn from one of his “Song of the Week” columns years ago. In his celebration of WHY TRY TO CHANGE ME NOW? Mark shared, as only he can, a personal anecdote from the song's composer, Cy Coleman.
“On September 17th 1952, Coleman attended the recording session. He was excited, as who wouldn't be? His new song was about to be recorded by Frank Sinatra! Percy Faith raised his baton, the introduction began, and in came Frank:
I'm sentimental, so I walk in the rain...
And Coleman was ever so slightly perturbed: Sinatra had altered the second note. He'd changed "Why Try To Change Me?" But what are you going to do? Tell Mitch Miller to stop the tape and barge in and yell at Frank Sinatra? So Coleman said nothing. "But it bothered me," he told me years later. "When the record came out, I went home and put it on and sat in the dark listening to it over and over, night after night. And, after about a year of listening to him change that note, I said, 'You know what? He's right.' So I changed it on the sheet music."
"Do you do that a lot?" I asked.
"That's the one and only time," he said.
Search for it at RUclips - and first offering this day is this radio broadcast from that same year, 1953. A kindred spirit in a comment below the video (that's arranger Axel Stordahl in the opening photo) John Fury wrote, “Very nice. I like this live reading by Frank more than the record.”
Thanks Fred J Walsh for sharing this one. Celebrated this day at Sinatra Family -- Forum -- Siriusly Sinatra -- MY FAVORITE VERSION, YOURS TOO? sinatrafamily.com/forum/showthread.php/50225-My-Favorite-Version-%28yours-too-%29?p=1279029#post1279029
Great anecdote, especially considering two great composers came to the same conclusion. In trying to learn this myself I had trouble hitting that second note. Possibly because I was used to hearing it "his way," I'm not sure. It just felt more natural and sounded better to begin with a whole step rather than the minor 3rd. I was well aware that Sinatra made these kinds of "improvements" as a matter of routine. Usually they were more dramatic as in the last A of Embraceable You on Nice & Easy. That or more subtle changes within the rhythm or phrasing. It never occurred to me to check the second note he sang against what was written. Instead, I checked the chart in several books and it's as originally written in all of them. Cy should have known Frank was right and not deliberated for so long.
So true
❤❤❤❤
I think the Columbia side of this was the last he recorded for that Label.
It was...prophetic.
The Columbia side don’t sound as if he was at the end. There is lesson in there for me too, always do your best no matter what the current circumstances are. Sinatra couldn’t sing bad even if he wanted to . Also quality does not go away and he knew it
Esto es 1943, no 1953
It feels rushed
Yes a bit, but still a great, tender reading by Frank- don’t know why the conductor decided on this tempo- I guess Frank must’ve felt ok with it..
@@cruiseguitar Radio time constraints?
Yes, it does feel rushed, but that is because the copy used here is not at the correct pitch. The version we have on A VOICE ON AIR is at the correct pitch.
The intro was a cringe. Mention bobby-soxers in 1953?
Man son's woman's song
👍la voz 👏👏👏👏