Repertory, Unique Style And Career Of Frank Sinatra

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The focus of Sinatra’s repertory of his music was classical in origin, which was based on Tin Pan Alley and on the electrically refined, jazz-influenced vocalism that aroused in American music due to the invention and increasingly advanced radio and electrical recording process. Sinatra’s arrangement of songs and improvisations were a combination of both white and black jazz bands. His songs reflected the Euro-centered taste with a touch of American musical verve and lyrics, as well as stylish African American characteristics which was appealing to the mainstream white, middle-class, urban audiences.

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Many people considered Sinatra as more of a jazz singer, because of his spontaneity and gloomier emotions in his songs, which were in line with many jazz singers. “Close to you” was an example of his early style of song; that he used a relatively dark voice to sing it, with slight improvisation within the song.

From the 1950s to early 1960s, Sinatra developed a style that combined ballad and swing.

The “swing ballad” was style invented in Sinatra’s Capitol’s period; he fused rhythmic drive and expressiveness to allow him to explore a more unpredictable vocal technique. Sinatra was not a big fan of rock-and-roll music because he thought that many of these songs were written and sung by idiotic ruffians. It is because he saw rock-and-roll as an unsophisticated form of music with bad lyrics, which was opposed to his ideal standard of songs. Sinatra had experienced many ups and downs before the emergence of rock-and-roll and found that less audiences bought his records, so he did not want to risk his own commercial status to embrace another genre.

In addition, many of his fans were adults who also had negative feelings towards rock-and-roll music, suggesting that the music was crude and primitive, that singers used inaccurate enunciation and poor grammar, and that the lyrics were nonsense. Since Sinatra was not able to depend on record sales from teenagers, he had to target the adult’ market; therefore, his records kept the musical elements from previous eras, such as jazz and swing.

Although Sinatra did not like the rock-and-roll generation, songwriting and singing were headed towards that direction to accommodate the population’s taste. By the mid-1960s, rock music began to popularize, especially among teenagers and young adults. It was the era when people were more open-minded and sex was normalized, thus the sentimental ballad and gallant love became less popular. Romance was still favored by the audiences but its concept now also involved humans’ feelings and the need for intimacy and tenderness. Music by this period targeted not only white middle-class people but also to the working class and lower class black audiences. Songs were becoming more straightforward and realistic and less genteel. The tunes were also arranged more roughly and less melodious. These songs were always associated with a special moment of one’s life which made listening to music more personal in the 1960s. “Fly Me to The Moon” was one of those songs recorded by Sinatra in this period; the lyrics explicitly talked about how deep the singer’s love was to his romantic partner. For example, the last line of lyrics from each verse was “I love you”. This song, like many songs in mid-1960s, was less formal and spirited, which were suitable for a wider population. Sinatra performed more tempo rubato and highlighted the last note (“You”) by delaying for few seconds until he sang this word out. There were many singing styles back then; however, Sinatra incorporated different special elements from many of the popular styles and turned it into one.

Collaborations and Corporations

After 1942, Sinatra joined Columbia Records and started his solo vocalist period. His singing technique and voice was shaped during his previous years as a band singer of Harry James’s big band and Tommy Dorsey’s swing-band. Sinatra had a heavy use of sostenuto and vibrato, which means leaving little space between two notes and increasing audiences’ awareness to the act of singing. Sinatra refused to copy his idol – Bing Crosby’s – style of singing, he therefore came up with an “upgraded” version of Crosby’s style and aligned to a more bel canto Italian school of singing. The enunciation of each word had to be clear with no syllable lost, the high notes had to be soften as to avoid screaming into the microphone in order to transit gently from higher to lower notes, and to glide with the vowels. Furthermore, this singing technique also required singers to sing with variations if there was a repetition and to master tempo rubato. Young Sinatra had also recognized the effects of amplification and how to perfectly handle the microphone to create a more intimate crooning voice. “Close to You” was recorded during Sinatra’s first year in Columbia Records, it showed the singing style that he learned from his previous experiences and inventions. This song was produced by a solitary voice enclosed by a cappella rather than musical instruments because the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) called for a strike of instrumentalists in 1943, forbidding them to play for records. As a result, the records of Sinatra’s early year at Columbia Records were produced with a cappella.

There was an increased demand of Western symphony orchestra and use of higher range in music, which was a semitone higher than the standard A. Additionally, this trend mirrored the audience’s demand of exciting, loud, and magnificent vocals and instrumentals. It may be the reason why the tempo and mood of “Fly Me to The Moon” were faster and more active than “Close to You”, as people tend to prefer happier and more energetic music. Sinatra had switched to different record labels between 1943-1964 to search for new sounds and novelty. In 1953, Sinatra shifted to Capitol Records and collaborated with Nelson Riddle. Throughout the years, Sinatra refined and sharpened his swing-era jazz feeling singing style, yet his basis was still largely laid with James and Dorsey. In 1957, Sinatra made some stylistic changes to his singing. His voice became richer, deeper and more resonant. He also stopped crooning and used less sostenuto and vibrato. Sinatra started his own record label – Reprise – in 1960, so he could control every aspect of his musical styles and records. From the mid-1960s, Sinatra wanted to “sing more than Crosby” so he practiced how to sustain a legato line to make musical notes bound together (grooving or swinging). He trained his endurance and wind with running and swimming. This technique enabled Sinatra to sing smoother and more melodious by singing six to eight bars without taking a breath audibly or notably. The ability to groove was what made Sinatra stand out from other singers, because most singers sustained notes for too long that made them hinder the rhythmic relationship between the pulse of the music and the vocal line. Comparing “Close to You” and “Fly Me to The Moon”, the melody of the latter song clearly flowed better and was more unbroken; Sinatra sang the whole sentence without breathing. For the former, it was easy to notice that there are many pauses within a bar.

Popularity and Longevity

Sinatra has had a lot of fans since he released his first record. In his early years as a solo vocalist, majority of his fans were teenagers and many of them were girls, although he also had many male admires. “Close to You” was sang in a romantic, intimate, and sweet voice which made young girls enchanted to Sinatra. Additionally, girls tended to keen on romantic relationships and Sinatra’s songs were very affectionate when singing about love and relationship problems, that made his audiences linked their personal experiences to his songs.

Sinatra had a five-year downhill slide by 1947, his record sales never higher than the Top Ten on the Billboard chart. Sinatra’s scandals and politics, and the shift of public’ musical preferences also explained his fall from audience favor. In the late nineteen forties, a blend of folk music like the blues and hillbilly with black music had begun to make the mainstream chart. At the same time, jazz replaced swing music because of its harder and tougher bebop. Moreover, audiences seemed to favor “belters” over Sinatra’s smooth romantic style of singing, which singers imitated black soul shouting with control. In 1948, Sinatra made an important change to reinforce his career longevity – he altered public’s record-buying habits. Sinatra shifted from releasing singles to albums in order to cater for adult audiences and those who appreciated ballads, who had more money to spend on listening to music. Singles were regarded as the suggested medium for pop-music recordings and those who wanted to listen to energetic dance tunes, which was later called rock-and-roll. Sinatra, who was an interpretive singer, categorized his albums based on themes, mood, and tempo of his recordings. “Fly Me to The Moon” was recorded in his album called It Might as Well Be Swing because this song was from the swinging 1960s. In addition to romance, Sinatra illustrated an image of masculine swagger and the enthusiastic ambition and drive of young people who hoped to become rich in this song, as movies at that period glorified greed as a good characteristic.

In 1960s, the grown-up Sinatra’s voice had somewhat dimmed and deepened, so he started to deploy his voice to emanate a more powerful and mature sexual allure. He used an innovative and swaggering way to sing up-tempo songs in order to cultivate a potent energy through rhythmic attack instead of the overkilling belting. Like “Fly Me to The Moon”, Sinatra’s vocal was sharper and was more rhythmic.