Frank Sinatra – Strangers In The Night

This hugely popular album has some folks confused, it's a studio album, not a best of compilation. Interestingly we have the best and worst of Frank Sinatra. Strangers In The Night, was Frank's biggest selling single, thought provoking, multi textured, sublime, perfection, well almost! Will the strangers in the night, even look, or acknowledge each other, or even say hello? The song plays out like a mini film. We begin to wonder if they will just walk past each other, and remain just that, strangers in the night, but then we have that glance, and it most have been one heck of a ionate glance, the type of look that you won't learn in in school, or learn in books, and yes! yes! at last, after all that looking at each other, with longing eyes, our previously, lonely couple fall hopelessly in love. The suspense in this song was masterfully crafted, however, I have an issue with the fade.
Then we have Downtown, in my opinion Frank's worst recording. He just can't help showing his distain, by making the yuck! noise. It should not have been released. Did he think we wouldn't notice, it was rattling away, harmlessly, causing nobody any offense, and then amazingly the world's finest vocalist, began to mock the tune, it's lucky he owned the record label, could any other artist have got away with this? I definitely could have lived with it as a bit of radio friendly background music, but the yuck noise, ruined the tune. If Frank hated the song so much, why in the name of goodness, did he record it, and why did Nelson not fade it out? And stranger still? Why was it released. Downtown and Muddy River, on the Cycles record, when Frank mocked the material, is amongst his worst recordings. Mama Will Bark, is normally viewed as Frank's worst moment, I disagree, it was just a novelty tune, and I love Dagners, sultry sexy voice.
Ah yes, the highs and the lows, a bit like real life, I suppose. What about the rest of the record, well, it's just lovely, easy on the ear swing. Frank misses a beat on Your Driving Me Crazy, but who cares, it's humanistic, and it was a great take. I would have faded out the Scooby Scooby Doo, that you can just about hear on the fadeout, of Strangers In The Night, it's one thing mocking a song that was a big well known hit tune for another artist, but was he on the verge of making fun, and committing financial suicide, by mocking, what became his biggest ever hit? Well, commercially, it did the song no harm, but artistically, it made the song fall short of a masterpiece, a bit like going through the pain of drawing the Mona Lisa, and then for a bit of fun giving her a nose piercing.
I love a record with a bit of controversy, if a record gets people talking, as this one did, then that's a good thing. Some folks back in 1966 said that Frank had no right to be recording pop material! which is a bit curious, as he always did, even way back in the thirties with Harry James and then Tommy Dorsey, not to mention his own, by this stage, very long solo career. I suppose it's possible, that some people had wrote Frank off, and once again, he comes back with a huge monster hit, and is all over the charts.
I love this record, even it's imperfections has Nelson's colourful brush stroke arrangements. Nelson directs the orchestra brilliantly, and the delicate production of Sonny Burke is marvelous.
I really recommend this flawed masterpiece for your collection, it was probably one of Frank's, biggest selling albums. It was definitely however, not his best record, regardless of this, I would consider it to be an essential component of any Frank Sinatra collection.

The Grain Of Salt

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