Reel to Real

It’s only appropriate that we launch our new blog with an homage to the "Chairman of the Board" – Frank Sinatra. It was 10 years ago this day (May 14, 1998) that the music stopped when Frank passed away in Beverly Hills at the age of 82. The occasion was marked this week with the issuance of a U.S. postal stamp in his honor.

Did you see him in concert during his ‘50s and ‘60s prime or in the ‘80s or ‘90s when you witnessed the legend rather than the “Voice” (like we did at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Las Vegas' Golden Nugget and the old MGM Grand)?

We’ll try to forget that last heroic attempt to recapture the long-gone Rat Pack magic with the short-lived tour alongside Sammy and Dean. It reminds us of the last elegiac passage of Fitzgerald's Gatsby: "So we beat on, boats against the current borne back ceaselessly into the past."

As it was for any other entertainment journalist, snagging an interview with the media elusive Sinatra – especially in the September of his years – was next to impossible. Pleas to his publicist Lee Solters and later, Susan Reynolds, were met with courteous, but firm “nos.”

So we did the next best thing – we interviewed people who played an integral part in the Sinatra sound, most notably the late Grammy-winning composer, arranger, band leader, trumpeter Billy May. The Sinatra-May team formed the basis of three best-selling Capitol albums, “Come Fly With Me!” (1958), “Come Dance With Me!” (1959) and “Come Swing With Me!” (1961), as well as several later disks on the Reprise label. May, who died in 2004 at the age of 87, served as an honorary pallbearer at Sinatra’s funeral.

We spent some time with Billy in his Burbank condo in 1998 and he provided us with a “perfectly frank” assessment of his almost six-decade friendship with Sinatra.

When it was time to record, we understand that Frank would feel more comfortable singing before a small group of his friends. Is this correct? 

May: We’d call this group his entourage. Toward the end of his association with capitol, he’d always show up with a couple of attorneys. He always had a couple of ladies in tow, and since his kids were older, he sometimes brought them.

Is there any one experience that stands out for you from these recording sessions? 

May: Yes. A production assistant inadvertently scheduled a “Come Swing With Me!” recording session on Dec. 12, Frank’s birthday. Frank came in that night and started fronting the tunes down, and I saw that he wasn’t making it. I asked him if he was having trouble with the lead sheet or something, and he said, “I can’t even see the son-of-a-bitch.” He told me that he had just come from a restaurant where they were doing some early birthday celebrating. Finally, he just hollered out to the band, “Come on guys, to hell with this! Let’s go to my house.” So we did and went up to Frank’s house for a party. He was a good cat.

Share your Frank memories of seeing him live; your favorite recordings, films and what his music means to you.

Fantle & Johnson