Who is the female vocalist equivalent to Frank Sinatra (on his ballad albums)?*

There's no doubt in my mind Sarah Vaughan can give Sinatra a run for his blues, but I don't know her music that well. Which of her albums remind you of hs ballad albums?

 

How about Dianna Krall??

 

There's no bigger fan of Annie, her range is incredible, but this style of singing I don't think is her forte. That said, none of the Ladies mentioned thus far could do Shaherazzad or Carpet of The Sun like Annie. Pax

 

There's no female vocalist equivalent to Frank Sinatra, but my best answers to the OP's questions are:

Helen Merrill
Merrill at Midnight

 

Rosemary Clooney - Love

Anne Phillips - Born To Be Blue

 

Let's not forget Annie Ross's swing...

 

It's three albums actually (What's New?, Lush Life & For Sentimental Reasons) although I know them, as you may, through the double album Round Midnight that collects them all. More than anyone, Ronstadt defined for me what the Great American Songbook was or could be but she was a visitor to the genre not a resident. It's difficult to compare her to such a long-serving & committed figure as Sinatra.

I'm not sure what female vocalist 'wins' this thread but I'd dearly like an answer to be found!

 

Mood oriented.
Billy Holiday
Nico

 

Nina Simone and Billy Holiday are the ones that hypnotise me in tha same way Frank does.

 

No poo-poo on Linda from me. She's an all-time favorite of mine. Very talented and versatile.

 

A favorite of mine, as well. I love the work she did with Riddle; I think it's her best. I wish there were live concert recordings in release of the two tours she did with Riddle. It really is time that stuff came out.

 

Well, I think Holiday was as good or better of an lyric interpreter at Sinatra, but she wasn't a pop singer like Sinatra was, she was a real jazz singer in terms of improvisation on the melodies and rhythms. She also didn't probably have the instrument Sinatra had, at least not the young Sinatra.

Fitzgerald wasn't in the league of either of the above two as a storyteller. But she was a great improviser and the timbre and tone of her instrument was just one of a kind.

@AnalogJ mentioned Sarah Vaughan, she had it all -- the incredible range -- both vocally and stylistically, the incredible creative imagination, the breath control (but not Sinatra's mic technique), and the great storytelling, but on her jazz sides she went much further in terms of improvising liberties, and especially in her later years, timbral manipulation, than Sinatra ever was interested in going.

Maybe Peggy Lee -- big band singer turned pop singer who had a way with a lyric even cut a Sinatra style Capitol concept album with Sinatra and Riddle? I dunno that it's an album like those Sinatra ballad albums.

 

I don't think there is truly a female equivalent of Sinatra, but in terms of taste, song selection, presence, catalog, and punk-rock attitude, Nina Simone may be as close as we can get.

 

Another possible vote for Rosemary Clooney's album Love. Twelve ballads, arranged by Nelson Riddle.
Here is "I Wish It So" :

 

I really love Etta James.

 

I can well understand your feeling for Etta James -- she used to play The Bacchanal a night club in San Diego. Unforgettable. Saw B.B. King there several times, James Brown and others in the 1980s.

I'm going to pick up a few of Julie London's albums now -- even though I'm a little disappointed in what I've heard. Her versions of the songs are too short. Half the length of Sinatra's versions. She doesn't turn the songs into movements. She never had the advantage of working with a major conductor / arranger like Nelson Riddle or Gordon Jenkins, that I know of. Her husband the bandleader Bobby Troop is, well, Bobby Troop. Yet those sessions with only Al Viola on guitar and a bass player drip with atmosphere and intensity and her vocals are fully committed.

 

Another vote for Sarah Vaughan.

 

I would never compare Doris Day to Sinatra but she is really a terrific singer. Very expressive, intimate and emotive. Check out her albums Day by Day and Day by Night for examples. Great stuff.

 

I’ve just recently started listening to Julie. Really good singer. I find her a bit remote emotionally but dig her. Only have her first 3 albums.

 

Her first album is pretty good. The first song "Cry Me a River" is memorable. I didn't know she originated that. I've been listening to the downloads. I found her second album, Calendar Girl, on the shrill side. The orchestra drag their knuckles across the instruments. Then they bang the instruments against each other. A few of the songs written for the album should have been thrown out. Poor Julie. She recovered brilliantly in her third, Lonely Girl. Just voice and Al Viola's guitar. Beautiful and intense. The songs are too short, however.

I bought Julie Is Her Name: Complete Sessions and Julie London: The Singles 1955-1962. I'll be buying the Japanese pressings (I think) of Her Name Is Julie, Lonely Girl, Her Name Is Julie volume 2, Make Love to Me, Julie London By Night and Around Midnight. Maybe a couple of others.

The thing about listening to jazz vocalists and ballad singers in the 1950s is that the quality of Sinatra's work caused everybody to expect more from themselves. They're all emulating Sinatra. This makes listening to the same kind of music recorded at the time very interesting, to say the least.

 

Nina is another great choice. There are few artists of that era that would really grab a song by the balls and make it their own and be very intimate with the lyric. Nina Simone is absolutely one who sang a song as though she wrote the song or the song was written for her. Sinatra had that. So did Billie and Sarah. And so did Carmen McRae. I'll add one more - Shirley Horn. Check out her You're My Thrill album on Verve Records.

The OP wants, to my understanding, a female artist counterpart who could both swing as well as really personalize the lyrics and sing from the heart. He has several artists now to explore.

 

I have to say the first name that comes to my mind is Ella Fitzgerald.

Of course I'm very partial to 1940's and 1950's Blues and Jazz, so I'm obviously prejudice.

I always felt that Ella had a better voice than Billy Holiday in terms of any measurable quality, but I always found Billy had more emotional content.

BTW, thank all of you that posted other names I never heard of...now I have some new music to enjoy

 

I've been listening to The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Song Books since the boxset came out:





It's a perfect model of how vintage music should be organized and presented. And remastered for the digital medium. I find her song books uplifting. Joyful, even. There's nothing in her song books I don't love and enj0y. I just don't hear the irony or bitterness or pain on the songs that require the range of emotions.

 

Irene Kral.