AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Frank Sinatra

Artist:Frank Sinatra
Song:Theme from New York, New York
Album:Nothing But The Best





The theme from the 1977 film New York, New York was Frank Sinatra's final big hit and it quickly became one of his signature songs. After Sinatra returned to the top of the charts with Strangers In The Night and That's Life, he recorded with his daughter Nancy, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Duke Ellington. After the 1970 album Watertown and a series of concerts with Count Basie, he decided to retire. Barbara Sinatra said he was bored doing the same old songs every night. Of course he didn't stay retired and in 1973 he returned with the TV special and album Ol' Blue Eyes is Back. For the rest of the 70s, Sinatra performed mostly at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. But he didn't record for a few years until the 1980 album Trilogy: Past Present Future. This was a three record concept album where each record was supposed to represent a different era. Sinatra planned to record this with longtime arranger Nelson Riddle. But they had a falling out. The first LP was covers of standards arranged by Billy May. It's supposed to represent the past. May worked with Sinatra in the 50s. The second LP was covers of contemporary songs arranged by Don Costa. It's supposed to represent the present. Costa worked with Sinatra in the 60s. The third LP was a suite called The Future written and arranged by Gordon Jenkins. Apparently this was the kind of thing Jenkins had wanted to do with Sinatra for years. This audacious project was the brainchild of producer Sonny Burke. One day Sinatra was fooling around in the recording studio and Burke suggested it. The album was certified Gold mainly because New York, New York was a hit. Of course the song was written by the legendary team of Fred Kander and John Ebb for Martin Scorsese's 1977 film New York, New York. Liza Minnelli sang it in the film. The film was a critical and box office failure but Sinatra popularized the theme and it reached #32 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sinatra performed it regularly in concert sometimes with Liza. He even recorded it with Tony Bennett for the 1992 album Duets. It turned out to be Sinatra's final hit single though he continued to record until his 1995 death. Trilogy was released on 2CDs but I don't recommend it. Jenkins' The Future was criticized at the time as pretentious and it hasn't aged well. So I recommend this comp which has Capitol and Reprise hits. Here's Frank Sinatra performing Theme from New York, New York.