Concert For The Americas 1982 Archives - Frank Sinatra Dedicated Blog

Strangers In The Night

By Ozgun Akalin|2017-06-10T00:19:38+03:00July 9th, 2011|Categories: Songs|Tags: 1966, A Man Could Get Killed, Album, Barbara Sinatra, Bert Kampfert, Charles Singleton, Concert For The Americas 1982, Eddie Snyder, Frank Sinatra, Grammy Award, Jack Jones, Lyrics, My Life With Frank, My Way, Reprise Records, Song, Strangers In The Night, What Did Frank Sinatra Say?|

The worst fucking song I’ve ever heard. No! It’s not my opinion. In fact, i really love Strangers In The Night, but Frank Sinatra himself did not like this song at all, and in his concert in Dominican Republic in 1982 August, also known as “Concert for the Americas”, Frank Sinatra said so after he finished singing Strangers In The Night, when the audience was applauding for his great performance.

When Frank Sinatra comes to mind, he brings two great songs with him. One is “My Way” without any doubt, and the other is, most probably, “Strangers In The Night”. Though he liked neither, these two songs made him well known all over the world. Strangers In The Night was written by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder, and composed by Bert Kampfert. The song was performed by various singers before Sinatra, but when Frank Sinatra included the song in his album “Strangers In The Night” in 1966, it became a huge hit.

Strangers In The Night was a song written for the movie “A Man Could Get Killed”. It was given to both Sinatra and Jack Jones, and when Reprise Records heard that Jack Jones was to release his version in few days, they immediately recorded it and made it ready before Jack Jones’s version was on the radio. It reached no 1 on the charts, but then replaced by Beatles’s “Yesterday”.

The following parts are form Barbara Sinatra’s book, Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank.

Barbara Sinatra: Songs like “Strangers In The Night” or “My Way”, which he’d been asked to sing over and over again since 1960s, did absolutely nothing for him. He always said the words were not subtle enough, too “on the nose.” Knowing that he’d still have to sing them at every concert, he’d try to lighten the experience by joking with the auidence that those tunes had kept him in pizza for years.

Barbara Sinatra: .. I could see he was thrown. Even when the crowd settled down a bit and allowed him to go on, he was overwhelmed. So much so that when the time come to sing “Strangers In The Night”, he was completely unable to- the first time I’d ever seen that happen. He stood up there on stage, eyes welling, as the music carried on without him. Then the most amazing thing happened. Almost every one of the 175,000 people in that arena, many of whom had learned to speak English by listening to Sinatra records, began to sing the words to him, heavily accented. “Strangers in the night, exchanging glances. Wond’ring in the night, what were the chances…” Their voices welled as one until the night air was filled with melody. Tears slid down my face as well as down Frank’s. It was one of the most beautiful sounds I ever heard.

Frank Sinatra won four Grammy Awards including “Record of The Year” and “Best Male Vocal Performance” for recording “Strangers In The Night”, and many versions in different languages have been performed till then. This is another reason why the song is known by everyone.

A mistress of Saddam Hussein, Parisula Lampsos, was noted to say that Saddam loved to listen Strangers In The Night and dance to it.

What did Frank Sinatra say about the song?

Frank Sinatra: This is a marvelous song written by Charles Singleton and we would like to do it for you. (28-11-1983, Nassau Coliesum)

Frank Sinatra: Ah here is a song everybody in the world knows, everybody! (20-11-1994, Japan)

Frank Sinatra: Yeah here’s a song that I can not stand. I just can not stand this song, but what the hell. (1975-11-27, Jerusalem, Israel)

Frank Sinatra: The worst fucking song I’ve ever heard. (29-08-1982, Dominican Republic)

Frank Sinatra: This is a song that I absolutely detested the first time I heard it. And strangely enough I keep saying to myself “Why are you still singing this song?” (1993-11-21, Faxwoods Casino, Connecticut)

Frank Sinatra: Oh you know this one (Sinatra 80th Live in Concert)

Frank Sinatra: Here’s a song, the first time I heard Don Costa played it for me some years ago. I hated it! I hated this goddamn song the first I’ve heard it. And I still hate it! So sue me, shoot bullets through me. Shoot. (New York Set, Cd 4)

Strangers In The Night was sung by Frank Sinatra many times during his concerts and among them, I love the 1985 Japan Concert version and the following one at most. The album version is as good as the live ones, but of course it lacks the “Do Be Do Be Do.”

Frank Sinatra – Unique and Ultimate Style

By Ozgun Akalin|2015-03-20T22:54:05+03:00June 3rd, 2011|Categories: Articles|Tags: 1979 Egypt Concert, Concert For The Americas 1982, Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra In Japan 1985, Frank Sinatra Live at Caesars Palace|

There’s this thing Sinatra does with his hand. We are not likely to see it before 1975, but after middle 1970s, he does it a lot in his concerts. For the past few months it has been getting my attention when i am watching the concerts over and over, and i decided to make a video about it.

When Frank does this, i know he is enjoying the concert a lot.

[Video is taken down from Youtube, and I have lost the original file. It won´t be available again in the near future]

I’ve mostly used the following concerts when preparing, since the video quality is good and it is frequently done.

Frank Sinatra in Japan (1985)
Live at Caesars Palace (1978)
Concert for The Americas (1982)
Egypt Concert (1979)

Send In The Clowns

By Ozgun Akalin|2017-06-10T00:19:39+03:00June 3rd, 2011|Categories: Songs|Tags: 1973, A Little Night Music, Barbra Streisand, Concert For The Americas 1982, Frank Sinatra, Lyrics, Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back, Reprise Records, Song, Stephen Sondheim, Tony Mattola, What Did Frank Sinatra Say?|

Send In The Clowns is a song by Stephen Sondheim, for the musical “A Little Night Music” in 1973. Frank Sinatra recorded this song in his album “Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back”, in the same year. The song has a deep meaning and chooses an uncommon way to tell about a break-up.

What did Frank Sinatra say about Send In The Clowns?

Frank Sinatra: This is a song about a couple of adult people who have spent quite a long time together to one day one of them gets restless and decides to leave. Whether it’s the man or woman who left is unimportant, it’s a break-up. It’s a lovely marriage of words and music, written by Stephen Sondheim.

Frank Sinatra: I’d like to do a song for you that I think it is one of the most beautiful songs written in maybe all the time i’ve been in this racket. This is very infrequently done, it’s not done often. (1975-03-26, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas)

Frank Sinatra: It’s quite pointing, quite beautiful.

Frank Sinatra: I would like to sing for you a very pretty song. Sad, beautifully written however. From a show called “A Little Night Music”, and it was written by Stephen Sondheim. It’s a story of two adult people who had had a very nice life together, and suddenly, in older age, one of them decides to split. (1974-09-15, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas)

Frank Sinatra: Probably one the best marriages of words and music done in a long time. (1975 MDA Telethon)

The following performance of Send In The Clowns is from his concert, “Concert For The Americas”, 1982. Tonny Mattola is playing the guitar.

Send In The Clowns is a very beautiful song indeed. The lyrics are simply amazing and when listening for the first time, it could be difficult to understand the song completely, but as the song is listened more and more times, it’s real beauty can be understood better. Although the song was written just in two days by Sondheim, he surely did an amazing work. Barbra Streisand’s version is also good, but not as good and emotional as Sinatra’s I believe.

And this is the other, more widely known version of Send In The Clowns, again by Mr. Sinatra.

On the following video, Stephen Sondheim tells about Send In The Clowns. If you would like to find out more about this song, this video could be helpful.

Stephen Sondheim: I get a lot of letters over the years asking what the title means and what the song’s about. I never thought it would be in any way esoteric. I wanted to use theatrical imagery in the song, because she’s an actress, but it’s not supposed to be a ‘circus’. It’s a theater reference meaning ‘if the show isn’t going well, let’s send in the clowns’; in other words, ‘let’s do the jokes.’ I always want to know, when I’m writing a song, what the end is going to be, so ‘Send in the Clowns’ didn’t settle in until I got the notion, ‘Don’t bother, they’re here’ which means that ‘We are the fools. And, that’s the story.