Lesser Known Songs By Sinatra

There were many Sinatra songs that just don't get air play or they were foreign release takes or unusual songs throughout his career. What ten seldom heard or songs you consider forgotten by Sinatra would you list.

My one choice, that I always found unique and seldom ever played on the air is All of Me with the country/western backing from either 46 or 47. I thing the other version went to Europe.

 

Okay, here's a great B-side. Sinatra recorded it a few times but it seems to be rarely heard. Ah what the heck to I know?

 

I can't vouch for exactly how "lesser-known" it is, but "You and Me (We Wanted It All)" was the B-side of the dreaded (for me) "New York, New York" single and the track was also kind of buried on the "Trilogy" release. Sinatra's voice was not in the best shape here but it fits the mood of the song perfectly. Don Costa's arrangement builds beautifully (drums more prominent during the final chorus and the horns & strings really take it home). It's easily one of my favorite FS tunes.

 

The Look To Your Heart album was kind of a mix of singles and b-sides, not unlike This Is Sinatra! or This Is Sinatra 2 but doesn't get a lot of attention compared to the other two.

1. "Look to Your Heart" (Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen) – 3:10
2. "Anytime, Anywhere" (Imogen Carpenter, Lenny Adelson) – 2:45
3. "Not as a Stranger" (Van Heusen, Buddy Kaye) – 2:47
4. "Our Town" (Cahn, Van Heusen) – 3:16
5. "You, My Love" (Van Heusen, Mack Gordon) – 2:56
6. "Same Old Saturday Night" (Frank Reardon, Cahn) – 2:31
7. "Fairy Tale" (Jay Livingston, Dick Stanford) – 2:59
8. "The Impatient Years" (Cahn, Van Heusen) – 3:14
9. "I Could Have Told You" (Carl Sigman, Van Heusen) – 3:18
10. "When I Stop Loving You" (George Cates, Alan Copeland, Mort Greene) – 2:56
11. "If I Had Three Wishes" (Claude Baum, Lew Spence) – 2:56
12. "I'm Gonna Live Till I Die" (Al Hoffman, Walter Kent, Mann Curtis) – 1:54

 

It was also featured in the 1984 film "Irreconcilable Differences," but that wasn't exactly blowing them away at the box office---so maybe "lesser known" still holds.

 

It was also in the 1981 movie "They All Laughed" which wasn't on many people's "must-see" list either.

 

"Same Old Song And Dance".

 

That's right! There's a few Sinatra tunes in that one. It honestly isn't that bad a flick. Irreconcilable Differences, on the other hand...

 

True, "They All Laughed" wasn't terrible and there were some genuinely funny scenes along the way.

 

Re: "The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else"

It's not a B-side. This Capitol ballad version (Gordon Jenkins arrangement) was recorded for the 1959 album No One Cares, but it was dropped and remained unreleased until 1973. It's a bonus track on the 1999 CD played in the YouTube clip. (Which btw is the Norberg remaster; there are better-sounding versions, as well as an alternate, non-intercut take. See —> this SFF post.)

The song itself dates from 1924, when it was popularized by the Isham Jones Orchestra. Sinatra first sang it in 1940, a hit for Tommy Dorsey's band with The Pied Pipers. He also "Reprised" that uptempo version (Sy Oliver arrangement) for the 1961 album I Remember Tommy.

Additional performances have been released from radio, television, and concerts. This particular recording may be relatively rare, but it's not a "lesser known" song in the Sinatra canon.

 

Okay Bob that's the only time you get to use that joke today LOL!

And thanks for the info about the song. Fascinating!!

BTW what do you think of the uptempo version?

 

My B side has "That's What God Looks Like To Me"

One I've played today "Summer Me, Winter Me" nice.

 

There are two little-known Capitol-era tracks that I can never stop playing.

The first is "Take a Chance," which was the b-side to "Young at Heart" which charted in 1953/54. It's Sinatra at his upbeat, swingin' best, with funny lyrics and (of course) a killer chart by Nelson Riddle.

 

I like all three recordings of "The One I Love" in different styles from different eras, and the Sy Oliver duet on the uptempo Reprise version is very catchy. But I'm a sucker for the ballads, especially the Jenkins charts, so the Capitol version ranks as my favorite.

 

...the second is the non-charting a-side "Hidden Persuasion," from 1962.

Despite it's subject matter -- dealing with rejection -- this one finds Sinatra again on an upbeat note, and he even does some finger snapping in the tradition of "Nice and Easy." The instrumental break, in which the strings seem to dance with the horns, is classic Riddle.

 

Mine does as well, now that I think about it.

 

For me, a favorite lesser known song is this:



I absolutely adore Sinatra's vocal on this. Not only the finely tuned interpretation, but just the sound of his vocal: weathered, but showing off that incredible lower baritone range. Really a fine, fine record that should have been something other than what it was.

Recorded in 1973, btw. I always point this to people who say his voice was wrecked by retirement. To me the differences between his sound on this record and, say, the records he made in 1974 are stark.

 

Everything on Watertown because it's a brilliant album.

 

Not ten, but a few of my favorite "obscure" FAS songs would be:

Forget to Remember (60's)
This Was My Love (50's)
All the Way Home (80's)
MacArthur Park (70's)

Of course if you grew up near Philadelphia listening to Sid Mark on the radio (Friday with Frank/Sunday with Sinatra), these songs are not obscure at all.

 

Also, Sinatra does a sweet take on John Denver's Like A Sad Song. Devastating.

 

(Which I did.) +1

 

Lyrics written from the heart and sang with sadness.

 

This is off-topic, but I grew up listening to Sid Mark on WWDB and WPHT, every Friday and Sunday, and to this day cannot listen to I Have Dreamed without thinking of Frank saying "I love you too Sidney".

 

Whereabouts? (Havertown here.)

See —> The Sounds Of Sinatra radio show (post #9)