Sinatra and Spotlight

I was watching on Netflix tonight after a long deposition day.

I found a documentary about Frank Sinatra.

Here's the thing. Francis Albert Sinatra -- arguably, our greatest male singer and pop star -- was done by the time he was 35.

Like, done. He'd be run off by everyone. He was down on his luck. He was in trouble financially.

But with the support of his volcanic then-wife (marriage number two) Ava Gardner, he got a role in the movie From Here to Eternity.

Frank Sinatra won an Oscar for the part Private Angelo Maggio. Around the same time -- 1953 -- Capitol Records took a chance on the 38-year-old.

The greatest comeback ever was underway. 

Frank would sing "The Best is Yet to Come" and he could have been singing about himself.

Crazy popular -- Beatles popular before the world knew what the hell that was -- Frank had girls screaming at him as he crooned in the 1930s and 40s.

But, quite honestly, he hadn't even hit his best work. While the songs he created with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey and his solo work on Columbia Records were all great, we hadn't seen anything yet. Beginning with Songs for Young Lovers, Sinatra went on an absolute tear. He knew how to work with the best arrangers and performers and nobody -- and I mean nobody -- could translate a work like him.

I always laughed when I'd hear about the singer/songwriters because "they write their own music." Now, that's definitely true, and it's a wonderful trait. Obviously, as a Beatles nut, I love them all.

But Frank didn't write music. Call him one of the exceptions to the rule.

Yet, he was in control in the studio. He could almost conduct in the place of the brilliant Nelson Riddle and other arrangers.

He could act. He could sing. He was the total package of an entertainer.

He also had no tolerance for racism, openly embracing Sammy Davis Jr.

He also embraced scandal, whether he liked it or not. The marriages. Ava. Mia Farrow. Cries of communism. The so-called mob ties.

He created records for literally every mood. I've said it before. I'll repeat: Do not listen to Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely is you're battling any depression. It's the most gorgeous, brilliant and sad album ever. But there were plenty of upbeat, beautiful songs of love, patriotism, and joy.

But, most of all, Frank Sinatra is cool. The absolute epitome of cool. Sure, you can say Clooney's remake of Ocean's 11 had a certain charm to it, but Frank embodied Danny Ocean in the 1960 original. Dean Martin, Sammy, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, etc get the advantage.

And, yet, is it possible the Sinatra fan has aged to the point where we don't talk about him? Beatles fans are still plentiful. Everything since as well. But the people who brought me up on Sinatra -- my parents -- are both gone, for instance. 

It struck me as I watched this documentary that I feel like we don't talk about him as much as perhaps we should. Maybe I'm wrong. He's not forgotten, of course, but I wonder if he has faded.

He was brilliant. He hated rock and roll, but he had business smarts, starting his own record label. He also had the brains to bring Elvis Presley on his TV show after The King of Rock and Roll returned from the Army in 1960. The two did a duet mashup of "Love Me Tender" and "Witchcraft." This was long before Bing Crosby and David Bowie did their famous duet.

Brilliant.

I realize we've sort of lost track of history. I hope that's not really true. If you know Sinatra, embrace it and teach it to younger music fans. If you've never listened, well, I don't know what to say other than try it.

It's (dare I say) frankly some of the best music ever created.

******

So I'm trying to be better about taking a little care of myself and decompressing. I allowed myself a little chill out time last night (like I'm doing now).

I sat on the couch.

I put on The Flight Attendant on HBO Max and allowed myself to watch the two new episodes. I discovered the movie Spotlight was on Netflix, which I had never seen (I really suck). Susan and I were texting each other. She has seen it, of course, so we synced up and watched it virtually.

A side note on that: I could probably do a whole post on that movie alone as it was simply fantastic. I can't highlight any one acting performance as they were all exceptional. But what I did text Susan after having a few minutes to decompress was that I was actually proud -- for a moment -- to have anything to do with journalism.

A longer post would probably take me into a dark alley of thoughts about the content of the movie, so let me just leave it at what they did. What the Spotlight group did at the Boston Globe was the kind of work journalists are supposed to do. 

Susan very much is one of those journalists, and she did similar work in Connecticut for the Darien Times.