Johnny Adams is a great singer from New Orleans who put out a series of albums on Rounder Records that you might enjoy. He is more to the jazz, blues & R&B end of the spectrum rather than the Nelson Riddle type orchestration. His music is first rate and very classy. I recommend that everyone check him out. For Sinatra fans start here:
I meant to say ‘A Case of You’, not the title track. I this version is one of the best things she has done.
The soundtrack for the 2019 film Motherless Brooklyn is similarly first-rate. And if you haven't seen it yet and are looking for an example of a "noir revival" film, it's peerless. One of the best American films of the past 25 years, and maybe one of the best ever.
I really thought that Frank Sinatra should have done a few LP discs of French composer's work a la Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour.
IMDb doesn’t seem to agree, but I like most things that Edward Norton did, so I’m certainly going to check it out. Thanks!
No plot spoilers in this outline: Motherless Brooklyn is a challenging film, for several reasons: 1) it demands a lot more sustained attention from the audience than most films. The plot a quasi-detective story, at least as complex as Chinatown. But it isn't as fast-paced. Thoroughly rewarding, for those who stay engaged. But digressive, in places. And it helps to have some erudition, just in general, on New York City culture and history in the era depicted. Chinatown supplies its background historical narrative (in simplified outline form) through the clues that propel every scene, so it's faster paced. But for me, Motherless Brooklyn is a deeper film. 2) MB doesn't put a lot of weight on keeping eyeballs riveted to the screen and the "action" with scenes featuring sensationalist imagery such as winking sexual teases, scandalous innuendo, and mocking touches of absurdity for its own sake, like some would-be neo-noir films (I'm looking at you, David Lynch.) 3) The film's central focus and protagonist, Bailey, is afflicted with Tourette's syndrome. Which really does ask something extra from the audience, because the vocal tics of Tourette's are inherently disruptive of film dialog, and hence to some extent the plot narrative. A less ambitious screenwriter and director would have simply jettisoned the Tourette's part of the character's profile in the film rewrite, but instead the film stays faithful to the character portrayal of the novel that inspired it. So Norton's gifted-but-afflicted Baily makes for a very unlikely hero-narrator; noir fans revere their antiheroes, but the usual expectation runs more along the lines of Humphrey Bogart doing Sam Spade, and that isn't what's in the picture in this case. 4) The film does rely on voiceover narration (For that aspect, Baily's vocal tics are silenced.) It's important to the plot, not just to the interior musings of the main character. That has a long tradition in the original noir films, like Bogart detective movies, but these days, that's considered sort of an antique convention, and one that's rarely used, at least in American films. So Motherless Brooklyn is demanding, in some ways. A good strong cup of coffee helps. But for those who are able to adjust their expectations and hang in with the story itself, it should be a really rewarding film experience. The acting of the entire cast is uniformly superb, and the cinematography is epic. Excellent soundtrack, as already mentioned. I think it's better work than acclaimed noir classics like Chinatown or The Big Sleep- another film with a complicated plot occasionally summarized with voiceover narration by the hero, and one that isn't nearly as well-explained as Motherless Brooklyn. (Films like David Lynch's gimmicky Mulholland Drive aren't even in the same league. Lynch has done a couple of watchable films with aspects that I respect, but he's overrated; my overall takeaway from his efforts is that he doesn't have that much to say. Mulholland is all sizzle and no steak.)
Sammy made another earlier album where he is accompanied only by guitar, this time it is Mundell Lowe. The 1958 album is called ‘Mood To Be Wooed’. I managed to find a copy of the Japanese CD a few weeks ago. It would fit in this thread beautifully.
Great cover art on that record - I started looking into purchasing it but so far it looks like it was never reissued and exists only as the 1955 10” record. There is a CD titled ‘I Thought of You’ that is a compilation but not sure if it contains all of these tracks.
Chet Baker’s album from 1987. This Japanese edition is titled ‘Love Song’. I’m not sure if it was released as with a different title elsewhere.
Bono wrote a song called Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad for Sinatra but Sinatra was ailing by then. It’s definitely got a “One more For my Baby, one more for the road” vibe. Nancy Sinatra ended up recording it in 2004. Bono does a version on a Pop era B side. In a similar vein Bono does a great reworking of the U2 song If You Wear That Velvet Dress in a late night / noir-ish lounge vibe with Jools Holland.
"Mirrors" by Peggy Lee (1975) has been compared to Sinatra's "Watertown" although I have never heard it.
I would love to know if there is a late night vocal jazz album as "suicidal" (his words) as Sinstra's No One Cares. Lady in Satin would be a solid contender though.