Sinatra / Capitol Sound Quality, etc.: "Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely" (1958)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by MLutthans, Feb 20, 2010.

  1. paulmock

    paulmock Forum Resident

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    Hollywood, CA
    Those translations can be funny sometimes.
     
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  2. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    [​IMG]
    I thought that Voyle Gilmore was credited as producer on this album, but the liner notes on the Dutch LP say that Dave Cavanaugh produced.
     
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  3. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

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    Massachusetts USA
    Cavanaugh was the producer, although Gilmore is incorrectly credited on CD (and SACD) album issues. (The booklet in The Capitol Years 3-CD set has it right.) By this album, Voyle had fallen out of favor with Frank. Of course, Sinatra was always his own "producer."
     
    Last edited: Mar 9, 2016
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  4. jtaylor

    jtaylor Senior Member

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    RVA
    Is it commonly accepted that the distribution/promotional aspect of "Nothing in Common" is what sealed Voyle's fate?
     
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  5. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    Thanks, @Bob F. I've altered the webpage and have also added to that page a nice sounding clip that @Arkoffs shared of his D32 mono LP. (LINK)
     
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  6. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    Only if you believe James Kaplan's account in Sinatra: The Chairman (p. 204), for which there is no attribution. (I think Kaplan's source may be Arnold Shaw's book, but I can't locate my copy. I tend to avoid both "biographies." ;) )
     
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  7. jtaylor

    jtaylor Senior Member

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    RVA
    Wasn't going off either of those, but this Billboard article from 1967. Relevant paragraph is the first, far right.
    Billboard »
     
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  8. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    The Kaplan book gives the same general account, with a bit more colorful detail (and without the Nat Cole connection).
     
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  9. paulmock

    paulmock Forum Resident

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    Hollywood, CA
    Off topic if I may...what is the deal about Nat not wanting his records to drop when Mr. S's did?
     
  10. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    He didn't want to be upstaged, I assume. :)
     
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  11. jtaylor

    jtaylor Senior Member

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    RVA
    I can only assume he didn't want the competition. Mutually beneficial, I'd say.

    Edit: Bob beat me to it.
     
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  12. paulmock

    paulmock Forum Resident

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    Hollywood, CA
    That was pretty powerful coming from a steady record seller like Nat. Thank you both!
     
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  13. Ronald Sarbo

    Ronald Sarbo Forum Resident

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    Gilmore's comments about "Tone Poems" is interesting. "We put it out because he was in the black."
    It's usually assumed that Gilmore was the first casualty in Sinatra's growing unhappiness with Capitol.

    Things were not always so rosy between Sinatra and Cole just like they were not always so rosy between Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Cole felt Sinatra monopolized Nelson Riddle who Cole felt he discovered.
     
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  14. paulmock

    paulmock Forum Resident

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    Hollywood, CA
    Ron,

    What was the friction with Tony?
     
  15. Ronald Sarbo

    Ronald Sarbo Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY, NY, USA
    Bennett felt Sinatra was too competitive....unlike Cole: 'It was never a contest with Nat."
    Notice also how Sinatra and Martin always broke up at Sammy's send-up of Bennett's singing.
     
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  16. paulmock

    paulmock Forum Resident

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    Hollywood, CA
    I remember reading somewhere that Mr.S said that Tony was great on record but was a "lox" onstage.
     
  17. jtaylor

    jtaylor Senior Member

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    RVA
    The opening of the Dorothy Chandler out here would have gone much differently had Nat been there as planned.
     
  18. teag

    teag Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado
    Interesting. Nat did pretty darn good with Gordon Jenkins - Love is the Thing, The Very Thought of You, Where Did Everyone Go, etc. So not sure why he missed Nelson, if he did. Of course Frank did well with Gordon also. Seems to me they both did fantastic with both Gordon and Nelson!!
     
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  19. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    I like Gordon's work a lot, but where his work with Capitol singers was concerned, he tended to stay very much in the string-heavy, "downer song" or "smooth strings" arenas (with very few, yet excellent, exceptions). I don't think that Jenkins was in any way a "one-trick pony," but he tended to be used that way. Riddle, by comparison, was a Swiss Army Knife of arranging creativity and flexibility, and was used as such, demonstrating great music dexterity. If I were in Nat's shoes, I'd miss the heck out of him, and be pretty cheesed off if he were routinely tied up elsewhere and unavailable.
     
    Last edited: Mar 10, 2016
  20. teag

    teag Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado
    We all have our individual taste of course. I actually prefer Jenkins to Riddle. If I line up FS and Nat Cole's best LPs, most of my favorites were done by Gordon Jenkins. Not to say Riddle was not great also, but to me, Jenkins is better, probably because I like the drama he conveyed in particular songs. Again, all individual taste.
     
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  21. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    It's not a matter of which one anybody prefers (I love Jenkins work, too, as did Frank, obviously); it's a matter (in this particular discussion) of what each arranger brings to the table to accommodate the performer. Can you imagine Jenkins working on projects like, say, Sinatra's Swingin' Session? Riddle did that one AND stepped in to replace Jenkins on Only the Lonely and did both jobs beautifully. Jenkins tended to work on Sinatra/Cole album projects that were largely similar (not identical) in mood/feel, while Riddle ran the gamut. Need a Billy May sound-alike (like Sinatra in '53)? Riddle's your guy. Need a fill-in for Jenkins? Riddle's your guy. (For the record, I suspect that Billy May could have done Riddle sound-alike's, too. He was an amazingly creative guy with many more arrows in his quiver than he typically let on, including the under-appreciated ability to write drop-dead gorgeous string arrangements.)

    I would think that if Cole or Sinatra were relegated to using Jenkins for, say, six straight albums, they would have balked and sales would have dropped off, yet the Riddle-arranged set of six consecutive Sinatra albums ('53-'56) is viewed as an amazing and varied (!) set of albums (not to mention the many Riddle-arranged singles of the same time frame).
     
  22. teag

    teag Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado
    I agree with what you are saying and totally respect your view.

    I just prefer the LPs with Gordon for both singers. While I like the faster stuff, like Swinging Session, I consider them inferior to the ballad type albums. They are the ones I pull out and listen to the most. If I never hear half the songs on Swinging Session again I would be OK. Not so for No One Cares, Where Are You, etc. And that is a matter of taste.
     
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  23. jtaylor

    jtaylor Senior Member

    Location:
    RVA
    Jenkins wasn't versatile enough to be the primary arranger -- singles and albums -- for either Sinatra or Cole. We can all agree to love Jenkins' albums with those two, while at the same time acknowledging that his talents weren't suited to meeting the everyday needs of Nat and Frank.
     
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  24. Ronald Sarbo

    Ronald Sarbo Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY, NY, USA
    Cole may have at times tired of the comparisons between himself and Sinatra. He once said "I swing the band...the band swings Frank." As we are talking about "Only The Lonely" think about "Lush Life". Even armed with a Nelson Riddle arrangement Sinatra could not complete a recording of it while Cole made 2 recordings. Billy Strayhorn disliked Cole's recording but could it have been that Cole "created" a melody to sing to with his piano something that Sinatra could not do for himself being only a singer no matter how inventive a singer he was.
     
  25. jtaylor

    jtaylor Senior Member

    Location:
    RVA
    Quite possibly my favorite NKC quote.
     
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