Burt Bacharach has been a staple in pop music for so long that it’s strange for me to consider a time when he would be releasing his songs for the first time.
Record #311: Burt Bacharach – The Man! His Songs (1965)
crooners
Record #247: Bing Crosby – My Golden Favorites (1961)
I realized two things listening to this record. Number one: there are two tiers to my record collection. There are the records I pay more than four dollars for because I want to listen to them, and the records I get on the cheap and keep because they aren’t terrible. And number two: I’ve never heard anything Bing has sung besides Christmas songs.
Record #221: Frank Sinatra – The Voice (1955)
Before he was the world famous crooner Frank Sinatra, he was just Frank Sinatra, crooner. And in this ‘55 compilation of early singles, he sounds just as naive as he looks on the cover.
Record #176: Fred Astaire – Nothing Thrilled Us Half As Much (1957)
Fred Astaire, as you know, made a name for himself singing and dancing alongside Ginger Rogers in charming old musical pictures for Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer. What made these films special were not as much Fred or Ginger themselves, but the people behind the music–namely George and Ira Gershwin. This album collects the most memorable songs from those movies (most of them from Shall We Dance, which is my personal favorite), and removes Ginger’s parts out (sadly). I own it because of the track They Can’t Take That Away From Me, which is my favorite song from a musical ever.
Record #175: Frank Sinatra – The World We Knew (1967)
Frank Sinatra’s legend is owed to two halves of his persona. First, you have the voice, and the knowhow to use it in collaboration with the greatest arrangers of his time. Few will argue that Frank is not the best at what he does (and those who will do so because of overexposure). When his voice crescendoes over the swung rock bass line in The World We Knew, or climbs up to the next mode of the melody as the string sections searches for sure footing in Born Free, it does things that no contemporary or copycat ever could achieve. His voice is smooth as velvet, and his taste in collaborators is unmatched.
Record #173: Frank Sinatra – Strangers in the Night (1966)
Once upon a time, I was a counselor at a youth camp. Having grown up staying in the same dorms I was now working in, I knew that the counselors usually had some non-traditional methods of waking up the teenaged campers. Having brought a portable record player, I decided it’d be a good idea to use Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night as an alarm clock.
I was wrong. It was the BEST IDEA.