"How Do You Keep The Music Playing?"

"The listening continues behind him, as it will for decades to come. When people will still say without a doubt: This man is the best ever there's been." ~ Stan Cornyn on Frank Sinatra, 1984 Liner Notes



"How Do You Keep The Music Playing?" is such a beautiful song penned by the creative and romantic songwriting team of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and the music was composed by Michel Legrand. This lovely song is the very highlight of this Quincy Jones-produced-and-conducted album, and I must admit that I was drawn to this CD for this particular song. Other great versions that I'd love to listen to are from George Benson and Carmen Bradford with the Count Basie Orchestra (Big Boss Band), Michael Feinstein (Romance On Film/Romance On Broadway) and Patti Austin and James Ingram (The Very Best of Patti Austin). Frank Sinatra's interpretation is simply awesome and his voice is still great considering that he was in his late sixties when he recorded this song.



Picture these great musicians doing a gig with the great Ol' Blue Eyes: George Benson, Bob James, Lee Ritenour, Ray Brown, Lionel Hampton, Steve Gadd, Marcus Miller, Michael Brecker and Ralph MacDonald, among many others. What do you get? An extremely awesome recording such as this, not to mention that they all had a great time during the recording sessions in New York. And some celebrities visited the studio -- Milt Jackson, Jimmy Webb, Roberta Flack and Michael Jackson, to name a few.



There was supposedly a track #12 on this album, another lovely song "Body And Soul" but the Chairman decided not to include it in the repertoire inspite of the Conductor's prodding. Whatever Sinatra wants, Sinatra gets! And he knew exactly what he wanted and Mr. Q couldn't say 'NO' to him.



"How do you keep the music playing and how do you make it last? How do you keep these songs from fading too fast?" By listening to the rest of the highlights over and over again -- Sammy Cahn's "Until The Real Thing Comes Along" and "Teach Me Tonight," his heartfelt rendition of "Harold Arlen's "Stormy Weather" featuring Lee Ritenour on guitar, and his outstanding rendition of Kurt Weill/Marc Blitztein's "Mack The Knife" which has the following revised lyrics:



"But with QUINCY'S BIG BAND

Right behind me

Swingin' hard, Jack

I know I can't lose

When I tell you

All about Mack The Knife, Babe

It's an offer

You can't refuse



We got GEORGE BENSON,

We got NEWMAN, FOSTER

We got the BRECKER BROTHERS

And HAMPTON bringin' up the rear

All these bad cats, and more

Are in the band now

They make the greatest sounds

You're ever going to hear."



Indeed, these are the greatest sounds you're ever going to hear. These are some of the most outstanding performances of Mr. Sinatra. You'll also love the CD booklet with interesting liner notes by Stan Cornyn, some black and white photos of Sinatra, Jones, Benson, James, and the finest studio musicians, as well as the song lyrics.



Very highly recommended!

Frank Should Have Called It Quits Prior To Tiis Fiasco

The seventy year old Sinatra sounds horrible. Unlike Perry Como or Bing Crosby who were crooners and not belters, Sinatra's voice did not grow old gracefully. In this CD, "L.A. Is My Lady," Sinatra sounds like an old, deteriorating singer still trying to hang on and sound "hip." Instead, his version of "Teach Me Tonight" sounds like a funeral dirge, and Sinatra's attempt at Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife" is a travesty: Frank can't even keep his voice from quivering as he tries to match the vocal gymnastics of the much younger and more rythmic Darin. The whole album is humiliating and only diehard Sinatra fans would disagree, since thier misplaced loyalty to Sinatra blinds thier common sense. Don't waste your money!

Good/Bad

Why does this mediocre album rate 3 stars? Because the song L.A. Is My Lady is fantastic!!!!! It really catches the vibe of California and this song should have been a bigger hit.

This was at a time when Sinatra was trying to reach a new generation of fans,you know the MTV crowd and he even released a video for the song!

Mack The Knife comes off quite well and Frank even performed this on Solid Gold!

This is where the good news ends.The rest of the song selections are sub-par to say the least.

How Do You Keep the Music Playing? was a big song in the early 80's and Frank unwisely takes a crack at it.He never quite gets a handle on how the song is supposed to be sung and it flops horribly.

Buy for the title tune anyway.