Ol’ Blue Eyes would’ve turned 100 tomorrow. Here’s more: http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/11/opinions/lehman-frank-sinatra/index.html
My favorite song of his: “Come Fly With Me” from 1958: - YouTube
Yours?
I’m a big fan of New York, New York.
Which version? Link, please (and for subsequent posters).
Too many to choose just one, but for this thread I’ll go with I*'ve Got You Under My Skin* (from the ‘87 Songs For Swingin’ Lovers CD, not the remastered reissue).
Funny thing…I’m reading the second volume of Kaplan’s biography, and I’m up to where he quotes an article about Frank’s performance in Can Can(Sinatra added a “ring-a ding-ding” to Porter’s C’est Maginfique):
I dunno what version I have or whether it’s online.
My faves are his 1 1/2 Brazilian influenced albums…especially the first Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
My favorite is “All the Way” from “The Joker is Wild”:
All The Way - Frank Sinatra - YouTube
Check around on YouTube. It’s probably there.
His work with Nelson Riddle at Columbia Records was arguably his best work. Sinatra and Riddle respected each other immensely, and Riddle’s orchestration complemented Sinatra’s style perfectly.
Nitpick: It was* Capitol *Records. Sinatra, at the end of his contract with Columbia, was definitely not happy with the label and the cheesy songs head honcho Mitch Miller was making him record.
“Fly me to the moon”. I didn’t grow up in this era, but Frank, Bing and Dino are among my favorites. They all used their voices as instruments. I don’t know how to explain that, but its different from just singing words to a melody. Their voices “moved” in the songs. Its not about range either, its not like singers now who try to prove they can sing by screaching high notes. Also, and this probably wasn’t them, but the musical arranger, but they knew when to let the band take the lead to enhance the song. It wasn’t all about them. Great music.
Frank Sinatra - I’ve got you under my skin
Not just favorite Sinatra, favorite recording! Kicks major ass! 
So much respect. I listen to Songs for Only the Lonely and Songs for Swingin’ Lovers - so good.
There is a great article in the NYTimes this morning. They discuss how The Great American Songbook - i.e., taking Broadway show tunes and singing them standalone - emerged from Sintra’s work with Nelson Riddle and Ella Fitzgerald’s American Songbook series.
As they say in the article, he was a man if full. As I used to see on jokey buttons you could pin on your jacket “It’s Sinatra’s world; we only live on it.”
I’ll go with “Come Fly With Me.”
I respect Sinatra – he was a great singer – but I find his style offputting, and his versions of Cole Porter are always painful to listen to.
Not surprising. Cole Porter was a brilliant groovemeister - his lyrics needed to be grooved to fit his rhythms, especially for his densely-worded songs. Sinatra was all about interpretation and pulling out of the groove when he wanted his emotions to stand out vs. the music.
Quincy Jones wrote that Sinatra was the best there was ay finding the emotional heart of a song. Love his sad songs.
Best man at it. Billie Holliday was the best woman, and, well to me, ever.
In the NYTimes article I reference above, they discuss how Sinatra would ferry in from Hoboken to see his idol, Billie Holliday. They were the same age, but she had already become famous.
Fascinating to think how he took her fragile-but-strong intimacy and brought it to his Man in Full persona. So brilliant.
Jeez, what a brain fart that was.
The San Francisco jazz station was playing Sinatra nonstop yesterday, going way back to when he was trying to be just another smooth crooner with Harry James, and hadn’t yet developed his distinctive style.
Sinatra and Glenn Miller; one of my all-time favorite songs:
