Linda Ronstadt/Nelson Riddle

Bif, Now listen to Sinatra sing What's New, on his 1958 album, "Only the Lonely". Make sure there are no sharp instruments around when you do listen to it. Of course, the song was written for him.

Dear Oregon,
Seriously? Andreas Vollenweider? Never heard of that dude.

On "Only the Lonely", Sinatra takes about 12 ballads and hits every one of them out of the park. It's an unbelievable display of talent and sensitivity to lyrics. I bought that album when it first came out in 1958, as a kid too young to drive, and I have lived with it all my life since. However, only as an older adult did I take up the art of jazz singing for myself, as an avocation, and through my own experiences as a singer, I appreciate Frank's work on that album, and many others of course, all the more.

Dear Gvasale, Frank recorded "Lush Life"? I am not aware of that, nor have I ever heard of the album "Sentimental Reasons", which may be why. But legend has it that Frank rejected the idea of singing Lush Life after hearing it played. Supposedly he thought it was too hard and said so in no uncertain terms. The quintessential version of Lush Life is of course Johnny Hartman's, accompanied by Coltrane. But I will have to hunt down "Sentimental Reasons". Other than "Only the Lonely", another other great Sinatra recording with emphasis on ballads is "Wee Small Hours", made in 1954 or 55 I think.

Dear Gvasale,
A search on Google revealed the following quote from Wikipedia and nothing else about Sinatra ever having recorded Lush Life:

"On May 25, 1958, Sinatra unsuccessfully attempted to record Billy Strayhorn's ballad "Lush Life". A bootleg recording of Sinatra's attempt at "Lush life" exists; this was the only time Sinatra sang the song in his career."

In fact, it seems he might have been planning to include it on "Only the Lonely". Nor can I find that Sinatra recorded an album titled "Sentimental Reasons". However, he did record the song by the same name.

OK. I got it. I thought later that you might take my post as a put-down. It was never intended as such, and I do apologize if you felt it was. Lush Life is one of my favorite jazz ballads, if not my absolute favorite. If Sinatra had ever recorded it, I would certainly want to hear that recording, but I had already read about his declining to sing it. Thus I was pleasantly surprised to learn that maybe I was wrong. I was not wrong, sadly, but I did learn in the course of my investigation that there is a "bootleg" tape of Sinatra singing it. I'd love to access that. I can actually see why he may have felt it did not suit him.

Nat King Cole first recorded "I love you for sentimental reasons", I think. It was a hit record for a short while. My basic thought was to remind people that Linda Ronstadt was "covering" tunes that already had a history with some of the greatest jazz and pop singers of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. I also read on Wiki that Nelson Riddle passed away during the time that Linda was doing that recording, and his son finished the session as conductor. Anyway, if you like Lush Life, seek out the Johnny Hartman/John Coltrane collaboration, on Impulse. It's "classic".

Oregon, My mom was an opera singer, and our house was always filled with music, classical and/or operatic, but she did not know much about jazz or the popular singers of her day, such as the ones you listed and more. However, I benefited from her love of music in many ways, including the fact that my dad bought her what I now know is a pretty nice mono audio system in the early 50s, to include Altec Lansing 604 co-axial driver, driven by a mono HK tube receiver off a Garrard changer. Access to this system allowed me to experiment on my own to define my tastes in music, and thus I found out about jazz via mostly Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis. When I first heard "Kind of Blue", that was an epiphany.