Thad Jones
Thaddeus Joseph Jones was an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader, called "one of the all-time greatest jazz trumpet soloists." Thad Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan, on March 28, 1923, to Henry and Olivia Jones, a musical family of 10. A self-taught musician, Thad began performing professionally at the age of 16, he served in U. S. Army bands during World War II. After his military service, which included an association with the U. S. Military School of Music and working with area bands in Des Moines and Oklahoma City, Jones became a member of the Count Basie Orchestra in May 1954, he was featured as a soloist on such well-known tunes as "April in Paris", "Shiny Stockings" and "Corner Pocket". However, his main contribution to Basie's organization was nearly two dozen arrangements and compositions, which included "The Deacon", "H. R. H.", "Counter Block", lesser known tracks such as "Speaking of Sounds". His hymn-like ballad "To You" was performed by the Basie band combined with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in their only recording together, the recording Dance Along With Basie contains nearly an entire album of Jones' uncredited arrangements of standard tunes.
In 1959 Jones played cornet on Thelonious Monk's 5 by Monk by 5 album. Jones left the Basie Orchestra in 1963 to become a freelance musician in New York City. In 1965 he and drummer Mel Lewis formed the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra; the group started with informal late-night jam sessions among New York's top studio musicians. They began performing at the Village Vanguard in February 1966, to wide acclaim, continued with Jones in the lead for 12 years, they won a 1978 Grammy Award for their album Live in Munich. Jones taught at William Paterson College in New Jersey, now the site of the Thad Jones Archive, containing pencil scores and vintage photos as part of the Living Jazz Archives. In January 1979, Thad moved to Copenhagen, where several other U. S. jazz musicians had gone to live. There he became the leader of The Danish Radio Big Band, married a Danish woman. Jones transformed the Danish Radio Big Band into one of the world's best; the result can be heard on a live-recording from the Montmartre in Copenhagen.
In July 1979 Jones formed a new big band, with which he recorded a live album, Eclipse. Several Americans were on the album: pianist Horace Parlan, baritonist Sahib Shihab, trumpeter Tim Hagans and trombonist/vocalist Richard B. Boone, along with trombonists Bjarne Thanning and Ture Larsen, trumpeter Lars Togeby, altoists Ole Thøger and Michael Hove, tenor saxophonist Bent Jædig, Jesper Lundgaard on bass. Jones further composed for the Danish Radio Big Band and taught jazz at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen, he studied composition formally during this period, took up the valve trombone. In February 1985, Jones returned to the U. S. to take over the leadership of the Count Basie Orchestra, upon his former leader's death. Thad fronted the Basie band on numerous tours writing arrangements for recordings and performances with vocalist Caterina Valente and the Manhattan Transfer, but had to step down due to ill health, he returned to his home in Copenhagen for the last few months of his life, died of cancer on August 20, 1986, at Herlev Hospital.
In years his playing ability was diminished due to lip injury, but his composing and arranging skills blossomed. His best-known composition is the standard "A Child Is Born". At the time of his death, Jones had a six-year-old son named Thad, with his wife Lis Jones, he had a daughter Thedia and a son Bruce in the U. S, he was buried in Copenhagen's Vestre Kirkegård Cemetery. Thad Jones has a street named after him in southern Copenhagen, "Thad Jones Vej"; the Fabulous Thad Jones Detroit-New York Junction The Magnificent Thad Jones Mad Thad Sonny Rollins Plays split album with Sonny Rollins The Jones Boys with Jimmy Jones, Eddie Jones, Quincy Jones and Jo Jones Olio with The Prestige All Stars – Frank Wess, Teddy Charles, Mal Waldron, Doug Watkins, Elvin Jones After Hours with The Prestige All Stars – Frank Wess, Kenny Burrell, Mal Waldron, Paul Chambers, Art Taylor Keepin' Up with the Joneses as The Jones Brothers with Hank Jones and Elvin Jones Motor City Scene Mean What You Say by the Thad Jones/Pepper Adams Quintet Greetings and Salutations with Mel Lewis, Jon Faddis and the Swedish Radio Jazz Group The Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Quartet with Mel Lewis, Harold Danko, Rufus Reid Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and UMO with Mel Lewis and UMO Live at Montmartre with Idrees Sulieman, Allan Botschinsky, Jesper Thilo, NHOP.
Eclipse with Tim Hagans, Sahib Shihab, Horace Parlan, Jesper Lundgaard Live at Slukefter with Tim Hagans, Sahib Shihab, Horace Parlan, Jesper Lundgaard Opening Night Alan Grant Presents Presenting Thad Jones / Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra Solid State Records Presenting Joe Williams and Thad Jones / Mel Lewis, The Jazz Orchestra Solid State Live at the Village Vanguard Solid State The Big Band Sound of Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Featuring Miss Ruth Brow
A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra
A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra is a Christmas album by American singer Frank Sinatra released by Capitol Records in 1957. This was Sinatra's first full-length Christmas album, it features the Ralph Brewster Singers along with an orchestra conducted by Gordon Jenkins. Capitol reissued the album in 1963 with different cover art and a new title, The Sinatra Christmas Album, both of which featured on the album's initial 1987 compact disc pressing; the original title and cover were restored for subsequent CD pressings in 1990 and 1999. In 2001, the album art was altered from its 1957 version; the CD bonus tracks were issued on a 1954 Capitol 45 rpm single and conducted by Nelson Riddle. In 2007 the album was reissued yet again, with a "50th Anniversary" banner placed atop the 2001 cover art and an additional bonus track added. In 2010, the album was reissued on vinyl for the first time since the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab reissue, #1-135, c. 1986 to independent record stores. "Jingle Bells" – 2:00 "The Christmas Song" – 3:28 "Mistletoe and Holly" – 2:18 "I'll Be Home for Christmas" – 3:11 "The Christmas Waltz" – 3:03 "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" – 3:29 "The First Noel" – 2:44 "Hark!
The Herald Angels Sing" – 2:24 "O Little Town of Bethlehem" – 2:06 "Adeste Fideles" – 2:34 "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" – 2:51 "Silent Night" – 2:31CD reissue bonus tracks"White Christmas" – 2:37 "The Christmas Waltz" – 3:01 Frank Sinatra – Lead Vocals The Ralph Brewer Singers – Background Vocals Gordon Jenkins – Arranger, Conductor Nelson Riddle – Arranger, Conductor
Hank Sanicola
Henry W. "Hank" Sanicola was an American music manager, publisher and pianist, best known for his work and association with Frank Sinatra from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. Sanicola was born into an Italian-American family. Physically large, he was a boxer in his youth and entered the music business as a roadhouse piano player. Sanicola was "song plugger" from the late 1930s onwards; the two met in 1936. Records. Due to their similar backgrounds, the two began working together with Sanicola finding jobs where he played the piano and Sinatra would sing. Sanicola was one of Sinatra's closest friends, served as his bodyguard during Sinatra's performances with the Tommy Dorsey band; the two were involved in several business ventures, including a partnership with Ben Barton of Barton Music Corp, several boxing promotions. The two had a permanent falling-out in 1963 following pressure from the authorities on Sinatra to sell his Cal Neva Lodge & Casino, in which Sanicola had a 33 percent share. Sinatra once said.
I couldn't have made it without him". In return, Sanicola said: I was always his right arm, the strong right arm. I know. I was an amateur fighter. I used to hit guys when they started ganging up on Frank in bars. We were both of Sicilian origin, both Italians, so we became good friends; when Frank wasn't working, I would go along to accompany him. We knew, both of us. Many credited Sanicola with helping Frank diversify his business interests as a hedge against the rise and fall of popularity. Sanicola and Sinatra co-wrote several songs, including "Mistletoe and Holly". S. and the Top 30 in the UK. After the split with Sinatra, Sanicola continued representing singers, including Billy Andre and Tony Gato, but none with the same success as Frank. Sanicola had business interests in the Puccini restaurant. Sanicola died of a heart attack at the age of 60 in October 1974 and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cathedral City, he was survived by a son and daughter Joan Alicata. Sanicola was portrayed by actor Vincent Guastaferro in the 1992 biographical miniseries Sinatra, alongside Philip Casnoff as Frank Sinatra.
Ingham, Chris. Frank Sinatra. Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-84353-414-3. Jacobs, George. Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0786259183. Jacobs, George. Mr. S: The Last Word on Frank Sinatra. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-330-41229-2. Kelley, Kitty, his Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra. Bantam Books Trade Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-553-38618-9. Leigh, Spencer. Frank Sinatra: An Extraordinary Life. McNidder and Grace Limited. ISBN 978-0-85716-088-1. Levinson, Peter J.. September in the Rain: The Life of Nelson Riddle. Taylor Trade Publications. ISBN 1589791630. Niemeyer, Daniel. 1950s American Style: A Reference Guide. Lulu.com. ISBN 1304201651. Silva, Luiz Carlos do Nascimento. Put Your Dreams Away: A Frank Sinatra Discography. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-31055-3. Summers, Anthony. Sinatra: The Life. Transworld. ISBN 978-1-4070-6890-9. Hank Sanicola on IMDb
Frank Sinatra's recorded legacy
Frank Sinatra's musical career began in the swing era in 1935, ended in 1995. Sinatra's vocal style represented a strong departure from the "crooning" style of his idol, Bing Crosby. Sinatra's generation represented the first generation of children that had grown up in the era of the microphone, the amplification of sound enabled singers to sing in a much softer and nuanced style; however Sinatra, as he himself once noted, sang more, by which he meant that he introduced a bel canto sound to the tradition begun by Crosby. And, more he might be said to have brought the Crosby tradition to artistic completion, taking it to levels of intensity and depth of feeling that, because of the displacement of the Crosby – Sinatra tradition by rock and roll and subsequent genres, are unlikely to be achieved again. Two other great performers of the 1930s and 1940s were significant influences on Sinatra: Billie Holiday and Mabel Mercer. Sinatra heard "Lady Day" in New York clubs in the 1940s and learned from her the importance of authenticity of emotion.
From Mercer he learned the importance of the element of "story" in a song. For Sinatra a song is a three- to four-minute narrative — sometimes the story of himself, his own life, his own heartaches, his own feelings of buoyancy — and this is why Ella Fitzgerald could say of him, "With Frank, it's always this little guy, telling this... story." The archetypal examples of the Sinatra song as story could be found in two selections from his 1958 Capitol album, Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely: "Angel Eyes" and "One For My Baby". Sinatra made a point of studying Tommy Dorsey's trombone playing as a means of cultivating a more free-flowing vocal style — he noticed that Dorsey used a tiny airhole at the side of his mouth to sneak breaths when playing. Sinatra would employ a similar technique, so be able to hold notes for long durations. In addition to this, Sinatra started to jog and swim underwater to develop his lung capacity — which enabled him to continue a musical phrase through a stanza without pausing, or breaking the note, for breath.
Sinatra's legato-style of singing/phrasing took pop singing in new directions when most singers of the 1940s were keen to emulate Bing Crosby. As happens with many singers, Sinatra suffered at least one period of major vocal difficulty, which he remedied with the help of Metropolitan Opera baritone Robert Merrill; as a song-stylist, Sinatra's jazz-infused approach to singing seemed to occur with the end of the "Big Band" era and ushering in of an era that favored the vocalist and made him/her the focus, not the bandleader and his band. Sinatra possessed an outstanding vocal range. According to music critic Henry Pleasants "The voice itself was a typical Italian light baritone with a two octave range from G to G, declining, as it darkened in years, to F to F and with greater potential at the top than he was disposed to exploit, he could and sometimes did depress the larynx and'cover' as classical singers do, to sustain a full rounded tone in moving up the scale. On his recording'Day by Day,' for example he gives out with full-voiced, admirably focused D's and E's and lands a held but confident high G just before the end."
His early recordings found him singing in near-tenor range, hitting a high F on "All or Nothing At All" or "Where's My Bess", whilst being adept in the lower register, the low E on his 1962 recording of "Ol' Man River" being a prime example of such. His phrasing was impeccable, getting to the heart of a song by emphasizing words and lines in ways that made a song more personal, whilst his ability to hold notes, sing above or behind the beat and rest on a note were hallmarks of a singer in command of his instrument. Between 1946 and 1983 Sinatra conducted seven albums and conducted live orchestras on stage, his first recordings on which he wielded the baton were instigated by producer Mitch Miller, who approached Columbia boss Maine Sachs to request that Sinatra conduct some of the work of Alec Wilder released as Frank Sinatra Conducts The Music Of Alec Wilder. In 1956 Sinatra recorded the first album in the Capitol Records tower, not as a vocalist, but as a conductor on the album Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color.
In 1957 and 1959 he conducted albums for Peggy Lee — The Man I Love — and Dean Martin — Sleep Warm — the latter, charting inside Billboard's Top 40. A lesser-known project for his own label, entitled Frank Sinatra Conducts Music from Pictures and Plays remains obscure, it was 20 years before Sinatra conducted in a studio again, for Sylvia Syms on the album Syms by Sinatra, which featured the final arrangements of Don Costa; the following year Sinatra conducted for trumpeter Charles Turner on the album What's New?. Sinatra would have been considered a'pop' singer before the "rock and roll" era, the epithets traditional pop or more classic pop have been coined to describe Sinatra's style. In addition, Sinatra would and did tackle several styles and genres of music throughout his career, with differing degrees of success. There still exists a debate as to, he performed with many of the finest jazz musicians and, in fact, headlined the Newport Jazz Festival and toured with the Red Norvo Quintet.
There are few occasions when Sinatra was recorded scat singing, but minor nuances and slight deviations from the vocal line are a hallmark of the material he recorded, he was known for his impeccable jazz timing and phrasing. Indeed, it is impossible to imagine the Sinatra after 1953 without the influence of jazz, it is no accident that he would be Lester Young's ideal singer in the band Youn
Jimmy Van Heusen
James "Jimmy" Van Heusen was an American composer. He wrote songs for films and theater, won an Emmy and four Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Born in Syracuse, New York, Van Heusen began writing music while at high school, he renamed himself at age 16, after the shirt makers Phillips-Van Heusen, to use as his on-air name during local shows. His close friends called him "Chet". Studying at Cazenovia Seminary and Syracuse University, he became friends with Jerry Arlen, the younger brother of Harold Arlen. With the elder Arlen's help, Van Heusen wrote songs for the Cotton Club revue, including "Harlem Hospitality", he became a staff pianist for some of the Tin Pan Alley publishers, wrote "It's the Dreamer in Me" with lyrics by Jimmy Dorsey. Collaborating with lyricist Eddie DeLange, on songs such as "Heaven Can Wait", "So Help Me", "Darn That Dream", his work became more prolific, writing over 60 songs in 1940 alone, it was in 1940. Burke and Van Heusen moved to Hollywood and wrote for stage musicals and films throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Swinging on a Star".
Their songs were featured in many Bing Crosby films including some of the Road films and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. He was a pilot of some accomplishment. Joe Hornsby sponsored Jimmy into an exclusive pilots club called the Quiet Birdmen which held meetings at Proud Bird restaurant at LAX and these men were lifelong friends until the 1970s. Jimmy worked, using his birth name, as a part-time test pilot for Lockheed Corporation in World War II. Van Heusen teamed up with lyricist Sammy Cahn, their three Academy Awards for Best Song were won for "All the Way" from The Joker Is Wild, "High Hopes" from A Hole in the Head, "Call Me Irresponsible" from Papa's Delicate Condition. Their songs were featured in Ocean's Eleven, which included Dean Martin's version of "Ain't That a Kick in the Head," and in Robin and the 7 Hoods, in which Frank Sinatra sang the Oscar-nominated "My Kind of Town." Cahn and Van Heusen wrote "Love and Marriage", "To Love and Be Loved", "Come Fly with Me", "Only the Lonely", "Come Dance with Me" with many of their compositions being the title songs for Frank Sinatra's albums of the late 1950s.
Van Heusen wrote the music for five Broadway musicals: Swingin' the Dream. While Van Heusen did not achieve nearly the success on Broadway that he did in Hollywood, at least two songs from Van Heusen musicals can legitimately be considered standards: "Darn That Dream" from Swingin' the Dream, he became an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971. Van Heusen composed over 800 songs. Van Heusen songs are featured in over twenty films. Although not considered handsome by conventional standards, Van Heusen was known to be quite a ladies' man. James Kaplan in his book Frank: The Voice wrote, "He played piano beautifully, wrote gorgeously poignant songs about romance...he had a fat wallet, he flew his own plane. Van Heusen was once described by Angie Dickinson, "You would not pick him over Clark Gable any day, but his magnetism was irresistible." In his 20s he began to shave his head. He once said "I would rather write songs than do anything else -- fly." Kaplan reported that he was a "hypochondriac of the first order" who kept a Merck manual at his bedside, injected himself with vitamins and painkillers, had surgical procedures for ailments real and imagined.
It was Van Heusen who rushed Sinatra to the hospital after Sinatra, in despair over the breakup of his marriage to Ava Gardner, slashed one of his wrists in a suicide attempt in November 1953. However, this event was never mentioned by Van Heusen in any print interviews given by him. Van Heusen married for the first time in 1969, at age 56, to Bobbe Brock one of the Brox Sisters and widow of the late producer Bill Perlberg. Van Heusen retired in the late 1970s and he died in Rancho Mirage, California, in 1990 from complications following a stroke, at the age of 77, his wife, survived him. Van Heusen is buried near the Sinatra family in Cathedral City, California, his grave marker reads Swinging on a Star. Van Heusen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song 14 times in 12 different years, won four times: in 1944, 1957, 1959, 1963. Wins1944 – "Swinging on a Star" for Going My Way 1957 – "All the Way" for The Joker Is Wild 1959 – "High Hopes" for A Hole in the Head 1963 – "Call Me Irresponsible" for Papa's Delicate ConditionNominations1945 – "Sleigh Ride in July" from the film Belle of the Yukon 1945 – "Aren't You Glad You're You?" from the film Bells of St. Mary's 1955 – " The Tender Trap" introduced by Frank Sinatra in the film The Tender Trap 1958 – "To Love and Be Loved" for the film Some Came Running 1960 – "The Second Time Around" for the film High Time 1961 – "Pocketful of Miracles" for the film
Frank Sinatra discography
American vocalist Frank Sinatra has recorded 59 studio albums and 297 singles in his solo career, spanning 53 years. Sinatra signed with Columbia Records in 1943. Sinatra would achieve greater success with Capitol and Reprise Records, the former of which he released his final two albums on—Duets and Duets II. Eight compilation albums under Sinatra's name were released in his lifetime, with more albums released following his death in 1998. Columbia Records introduced the LP album on June 21, 1948. Sinatra's Capitol studio albums were released on Concepts in 1992, the bulk of his Capitol recordings released on the 1998 album The Capitol Years. Notes 1957 Frankie and Tommy 1988 All Time Greatest Hits, Vols. 1-4 1994 The Song Is You 1996 Frank Sinatra & Tommy Dorsey - Greatest Hits 1998 Frank Sinatra & the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra 2005 The Essential Frank Sinatra with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra 1953 Get Happy! 1955 Frankie 1955 The Voice 1956 That Old Feeling 1957 Adventures of the Heart 1957 Christmas Dreaming 1958 Love Is a Kick 1958 The Broadway Kick 1958 Put Your Dreams Away 1958 The Frank Sinatra Story in Music 1959 Come Back to Sorrento 1966 Greatest Hits: The Early Years 1966 Greatest Hits: The Early Years Volume Two 1968 Someone to Watch Over Me 1968 In Hollywood 1943-1949 1972 In The Beginning: 1943 To 1951 1986 The Voice: The Columbia Years 1987 Hello Young Lovers 1988 Sinatra Rarities: The Columbia Years 1993 The Columbia Years 1943-1952: The Complete Recordings 1994 The Columbia Years 1943–1952: The V-Discs 1994 The Essence of Frank Sinatra 1995 16 Most Requested Songs 1995 The Complete Recordings Nineteen Thirty-Nine 1995 I've Got a Crush on You 1996 Sinatra Sings Rodgers and Hammerstein 1997 Frank Sinatra Sings His Greatest Hits 1997 Portrait of Sinatra: Columbia Classics 1998 The Best of the Columbia Years: 1943-1952 2000 Super Hits 2001 Love Songs 2003 The Essential Frank Sinatra: The Columbia Years 2003 The Real Complete Columbia Years V-Discs 2003 Sinatra Sings Cole Porter 2003 Sinatra Sings George Gershwin 2007 A Voice in Time: 1939-1952 2009 From the Heart 2015 A Voice on Air 1935-1955 1954 Songs For Young Lovers 1954 Swing Easy!
1955 In The Wee Small Hours 1956 Songs for Swingin' Lovers 1956 This Is Sinatra! 1957 Close To You And More 1957 A Swingin' Affair! 1957 Where Are You? 1957 A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra 1958 This Is Sinatra Volume 2 1958 Come Fly With Me 1958 Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely 1959 Look to Your Heart 1959 Come Dance With Me 1959 No One Cares 1960 Nice'N' Easy 1961 Come Swing With Me! 1961 Point Of No Return 1961 Look Over Your Shoulder 1961 All the Way 1962 The Great Years 1962 Sinatra Sings...of Love and Things 1963 Sinatra Sings the Select Johnny Mercer 1963 Sings Rodgers and Hart 1963 Tell Her You Love Her 1964 The Great Hits of Frank Sinatra 1965 Sings the Select Cole Porter 1966 Forever Frank 1967 Nevertheless I'm in Love With You 1967 Songs for the Young at Heart 1967 The Nearness of You 1967 Try a Little Tenderness 1968 The Best Of Frank Sinatra 1972 The Cole Porter Songbook 1972 The Great Years 1974 One More for the Road 1974 Round # 1 1987 The Frank Sinatra Collection 1988 Screen Sinatra 1989 The Capitol Collectors Series 1990 The Capitol Years 1992 Concepts 1992 The Best of the Capitol Years 1995 Sinatra 80th: All the Best 1996 The Complete Capitol Singles Collection 1998 The Capitol Years 2000 Classic Sinatra: His Greatest Performances 1953-1960 2002 Classic Duets 2004 The Platinum Collection 2007 Romance: Songs From the Heart 2008 Sinatra at the Movies 2009 Classic Sinatra II 2011 Sinatra: Best of the Best 2015 Ultimate Sinatra 1963 The Concert Sinatra 1964 Frank Sinatra, Count Basie - It Might as Well be Swing 1965 Sinatra'65: The Singer Today 1965 A Man and His Music 1965 My Kind of Broadway 1965 September of My Years 1966 A Man and His Music: The Frank Sinatra CBS Television Special 1967 Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim 1968 Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits 1972 Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 1977 Portrait of Sinatra - Forty Songs from the Life of a Man 1979 Sinatra-Jobim Sessions 1983 New York New York: His Greatest Hits 1990 The Reprise Collection 1991 Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years 1992 Sinatra: Soundtrack To The CBS Mini-Series 1994 The Sinatra Christmas Album 1995 The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings 1996 Everything Happens to Me 1997 The Very Best of Frank Sinatra 1997 My Way: The Best of Frank Sinatra 1998 Lucky Numbers 2000 Reprise Musical Repertory Theatre 2002 Frank Sinatra in Hollywood 1940-1964 2002 Greatest Love Songs 2004 Frank Sinatra Christmas Collection 2004 Romance 2008 Nothing but the Best 2010 The Reprise Years 1995 Christmas Through the Years 2009 Seduction: Sinatra Sings of Love 2008 Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits 2010 Frank Sinatra: Concert Collection 1993 Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr: Rat Pack is Back A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra by Oscar Peterson Very Sinatra by Ruby Braff Perfectly Frank by Tony Bennett Voices in Standard by The Four F
Frank Loesser
Frank Henry Loesser was an American songwriter who wrote the lyrics and music to the Broadway musicals Guys and Dolls and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won separate Tony Awards for the music and lyrics in both shows, as well as sharing the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the latter, he wrote numerous songs for films and Tin Pan Alley, many of which have become standards, was nominated for five Academy Awards for best song, winning once, for "Baby, It's Cold Outside". Loesser was born to a Jewish family in New York City to Henry Loesser, a pianist, Julia Ehrlich, he grew up in a house on West 107th Street in Manhattan. His father had moved to America to avoid Prussian military service and working in his family's banking business, he came to America and married Berthe, had a son in 1894, Arthur Loesser. In 1888, Berthe's sister Julia arrived in America. Julia and Henry soon fell in love and Julia loved Arthur, but Berthe sent her to Washington D. C. Berthe died in childbirth and Julia moved back in and married Henry in 1907.
Their first child, was born in December of that year. Both his parents, secular German Jews, prized high intellect and culture, Loesser was educated musically in the vein of European composers, but although Henry was a full-time piano teacher, he never taught his son. In a 1914 letter to Frank's older half-brother Arthur Loesser, Henry wrote that the 4-year-old Frank could play by ear "any tune he's heard and can spend an enormous amount of time at the piano." Loesser did not like his father's refined taste of music and resisted when he wrote his own music and took up the harmonica. He was expelled from Townsend Harris High School, from there went to City College of New York, he was expelled from the CCNY in 1925 after one year for failing every subject except English and gym. After his father died in 1926, Loesser was forced to seek work in order to support his family, he held various jobs like restaurant reviewer, process server, classified ad salesman for the New York Herald Tribune, political cartoonist for The Tuckahoe Record, sketch writer for Keith Vaudeville Circuit, knit-goods editor for Women’s Wear Daily, press representative for a small movie company, city editor for a short-lived newspaper in New Rochelle, New York called New Rochelle News.
After his many various jobs, he decided that he wanted to write in Tin Pan Alley and signed several contracts with music publishers before his contracts were terminated. His first song credit is listed as "In Love with the Memory of You", with music by William Schuman, published in 1931. Loesser's early lyrics included two hit songs of 1934, "Junk Man" and "I Wish I Were Twins". However, they did not help his reputation, in years, he never mentioned them. In the mid-1930s he would sing for his suppers at The Back Drop, a night spot on east 52nd Street along with composer Irving Actman, but during the day he worked on the staff of Leo Feist Inc. writing lyrics to Joseph Brandfon's music at $100 a week. After a year, Feist had not published any of them, he fared only better collaborating with the future classical composer William Schuman, selling one song, that would flop, to Feist. Loesser described his early days of learning the songwriting craft as having "a rendezvous with failure." But while he dabbled in other trades, he returned to the music business.
The Back Drop turned out to have some substantial connections. Due to his work there he was able to secure his first Broadway musical, The Illustrator’s Show, a 1936 revue written with Back Drop collaborator Irving Actman, lasted only four nights; the year before, while performing at the Back Drop, he met Lynn Garland. He proposed in a September 1936 letter that included funds for a railroad ticket to Los Angeles where Loesser's contract to Universal Pictures had just ended; the couple married in a judge's office. Loesser was subsequently offered a contract by Paramount Pictures, his first song credit with Paramount was "Moon of Manakoora" written with Alfred Newman for Dorothy Lamour in the film The Hurricane. He wrote the lyrics for many popular songs during this period, including "Two Sleepy People" and "Heart and Soul" with Hoagy Carmichael and "I Hear Music" with Burton Lane, he worked with Arthur Schwartz, Joseph J. Lilley. One of his notable efforts was "See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have", with music by Friedrich Hollaender sung by Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again.
In 1941, he wrote "I Don't Want to Walk Without You" with Jule Styne included in the 1942 film Sweater Girl and sung by Betty Jane Rhodes. Irving Berlin was a huge fan of the song, once played it over and over again telling Loesser why he believed it was the greatest song he wished he'd written. Members of the Western Writers of America chose the 1942 song "Jingle Jangle Jingle", for which he wrote the lyrics, as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time, he stayed in Hollywood until World War II. During World War II, he was in the Army Air Force, continued to write lyrics for films and single songs. Loesser wrote the popular war song "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" inspired by words spoken by navy chaplain William Maguire. Loesser wrote songs to a "dummy" tune, meaning the music was just a stand-in until more suitable music could be composed. After the positive reaction to Loesser writing both mu
