Here’s what is TRULY a classic show biz moment: World War II teen idol Frank Sinatra does a duet with 1950s teen idol Elvis Presley on Sinatra’s NBC show in 1957. What’s striking about this is:
–The juxaposition of the two eras of music and show biz.
–The different styles. Perhaps there’s a hint here of why Sinatra never quite took off on the tube. He does his stuff and looks into the camera but the connection to the audience over the tube doesn’t look quite as sincere as Presley’s here.
–Sinatra’s “Man, that’s pretty” riff at the end is an echo of what Al Jolson (before TMV’s time but he studies various aspects of show biz) did at the end of some of his songs in Jolson’s mid-40s radio and live performances (even on some recorded numbers), until his death in 1950.
If you haven’t seen it, as grainy as this You Tube clip is, it’s worth it.
Then watch this clip of Sinatra at the END of his life doing a high tech duet with Bono in 1993. Still the impeccable showman and perfectly working within the limitations of his age-impacted voice range.
If you’re a younger person who has never really explored Sinatra (named by Time Magazine as the greatest singer of the 20th Century), or you’re studying and want to sing “Great American Songbook” popular songs, you can start your Sinatra CD searches here (we are NOT signed up with Amazon so we get no commission from these links).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.