Jazz Police - Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” (2009 Reissue, Concord)

This issue marks the reappearance of one of the last great Sinatra albums of the 1960s, before his brief retirement (1970 – 1973). By “last great,” I mean one of the final recording projects by Sinatra, the success of which was still based primarily upon the singer’s musical and creative chops, rather than nostalgia or homage to the legend/image.

The title song here, of course, is one of Sinatra’s most successful singles. How one feels about the track depends largely on how much one values the latter-day Sinatra “anthems” (“That’s Life,” “New York, New York,” etc.) versus his peerless renderings of the American standard repertoire, but there is no denying the power and the dramatic intensity of this song, and its relevance to the Sinatra story. As perhaps more vividly satisfying examples of Sinatra’s art, however, some of the other tracks bear closer attention:

“Didn’t We” is the Jimmy Webb ballad, originally written for actor/singer Richard Harris. Sinatra’s version offers a gorgeous example of artful evaluation: he intuits the original lyric’s use of the word “girl” after the title phrase as sounding inappropriate in a Sinatra interpretation, so he wisely omits it every time. “All My Tomorrows,” one of Cahn and Van Heusen’s most beautiful creations, is delivered here as well, a decade after having been introduced by Sinatra in his film, A Hole in the Head. The composition benefits from the added world-weary inevitability the ensuing years have added to the Sinatra vocalism and sensibility. Other newer songs, including such stand-bys of the era as “Yesterday” and “If You Go Away,” are marginally less enjoyable today, not because of anything less artful about Sinatra’s rendering of them, but because arranger Don Costa’s occasional tendency towards a sort of orchestrated “folkiness” when addressing this type of material perhaps has not held up through the decades. Frequently, however, Costa’s charts are powerful, swinging, poignant, and spot-on.

Of course, this album also includes the infamous Sinatra version of Paul Simon’s then-new composition, “Mrs. Robinson,” perhaps the most inappropriate mating of a song with the Sinatra pipes since the horrifying “Mama Will Bark” of two decades before. The song’s impressionistic wordplay is lost on Sinatra, that most literal of lyric interpreters; he attempts to joke and sucker-punch his way out of the wispy symbolism and fools no one, certainly not the song’s creator, who was outraged by this recording.

Excellent renderings of Ray Charles’ “Hallejujah, I Love Her So” and show tune (and Stevie Wonder hit) “For Once in My Life” round out one of the best examples of Sinatra’s ability to address contemporary material, without surrendering to desperate measures. The Sinatra sound remains (for the most part) intact.

Also included are two classy bonus tracks: A rehearsal version of “For Once in My Life” which is, despite a persistent frog in Sinatra’s throat, more spirited and satisfying than the studio track, and a late 80s “live” version of “My Way,” featuring a wonderfully youthful-sounding concert Sinatra.

Arne Fogel is a Twin Cities vocalist, educator and radio personality.