Robert163:
I mean singers like Van Morrison, Michael McDonald, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Eddie Vedder, Chris Cornell or Anthony Ketis. Very famous singers with great voices who sing with passion and enthusiasm and personality. Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Gnarls Barkley, Carol King, Janis Joplin, James Brown. Jack Johnson. Jack White. Sam Cooke. Mick Jagger. Bruno Mars or John Legend. Those are examples of what I mean by inflection.
The song you selected for me bored me out of my mind. I am not trying to be rude to you, that is simply the accurate description for how much I was bored by that song.
That may just be a matter of differing styles. But I am reminded of the thread With A Little Help From My Friends - you prefer the Beatles, or Joe Cocker? , and the strong preferences people had to the different approaches to performing.
In that thread, I said
I have a half-baked theory that, in general, music fans can be divided into two groups: those whose love is for the music itself, and those whose love is for the performers. For the first group, the job of the performer (singer or band) is to do the song justice. For the second group, the purpose of the song is to give the performer an opportunity to show what they can do.
I’m no expert on Frank, and I haven’t listened to the NPR piece, but from what I’ve read about him, I get the impression Sinatra himself was in the first camp. He respected the song (assuming it was one he thought worth respect) and its inherent qualities.