I worked with Sinatra on the very first LIVE performance for the Jerry Lewis Telethon I was the video recording engineer. Frank was a PROFESSIONA of the highest caliber. A very nice person as well.
I can understand how Sinatra feels. He wants to sing with an orchestra and he’s not use to singing to dubbed music. The Chairman of the Board is old school and the way I see it, if Francis Albert wants a live orchestra, he should have it. They should of did it his way. I don’t even like the idea of the duets album. As far as I see it, I want the singers to be together with a live orchestra not the way they did it. Like, having Barbra Streisand record her part and mail it in. That seems so fake. I want to know that they met and sung together with an orchestra. Call me old school but to me, that’s how magic is made, recording live together. Setting a mood. I know this guy is good at his job as a recording dubbing expert but you gotta understand something, these type entertainers like Sinatra can’t do that. They need to have the real thing, otherwise they can’t sing inside a recording booth with earphones on having dubbed music piped in. It’s like having sex, you want the other person in on it. Not watching them moan on a recorded video taped 6 months ago.
Michael Robertson i imagine Sinatra’s work habits were “Ill say and do whatever I want at any given time and if you don’t like it you can go fuck yourself”.
100 years from now nobody will know Pete Doell's name but I'm pretty sure the name Frank Sinatra will still be cherished. The "Duets" Album is kind way for other artist to pay homage but the executives knew that without Frank on an album paying homage to him it wouldn't sell, hence we got "Duets" and it's basically an engineers album not an artistic work.
So I am 82 years old, was a singer with the Cantare Chorale, and still enjoy "live" recordings of singers, with the band, with the audience, with whatever mistakes are made. It is just real. Even my kids, who know nothing about music can tell the difference. My son, all of ten years old heard Benny Goodman, "Swing swing swing," 1938, and loved it. I do have a home theater system, but he never stopped for disco. That Moog synthesizer stuff. And unfortunately with rap and hip-hop that is all you hear. Not me. Turk Murphy. Uptown Lowdown Jazz Band. Royal Society Jazz Orchestra. Did I say I was old?
Read the book "The Way it Was" by Eliot Weisman & Jennifer Valoppi (Eliot was FAS last agent until the end). The Barbara issue according to Eliot was done in Las Vegas. Great book on the last year of FAS.
Great comment. I listened to the album track after watching this video and was in disbelief that the Barbara tag could have been a manipulated bit of conversational audio. Now, I know it wasn’t.
I worked with Sinatra on the very first LIVE performance for the Jerry Lewis Telethon I was the video recording engineer. Frank was a PROFESSIONA of the highest caliber. A very nice person as well.
I personally hate duets more then I can say.I miss FAS so much.Thank God for Sunday with Sinatra with Sid Marks.
I can understand how Sinatra feels. He wants to sing with an orchestra and he’s not use to singing to dubbed music. The Chairman of the Board is old school and the way I see it, if Francis Albert wants a live orchestra, he should have it. They should of did it his way. I don’t even like the idea of the duets album. As far as I see it, I want the singers to be together with a live orchestra not the way they did it. Like, having Barbra Streisand record her part and mail it in. That seems so fake. I want to know that they met and sung together with an orchestra. Call me old school but to me, that’s how magic is made, recording live together. Setting a mood. I know this guy is good at his job as a recording dubbing expert but you gotta understand something, these type entertainers like Sinatra can’t do that. They need to have the real thing, otherwise they can’t sing inside a recording booth with earphones on having dubbed music piped in. It’s like having sex, you want the other person in on it. Not watching them moan on a recorded video taped 6 months ago.
Was the producer unaware of Sinatra's work habits ? I would think any professional would be better prepared.
Michael Robertson i imagine Sinatra’s work habits were “Ill say and do whatever I want at any given time and if you don’t like it you can go fuck yourself”.
100 years from now nobody will know Pete Doell's name but I'm pretty sure the name Frank Sinatra will still be cherished. The "Duets" Album is kind way for other artist to pay homage but the executives knew that without Frank on an album paying homage to him it wouldn't sell, hence we got "Duets" and it's basically an engineers album not an artistic work.
So I am 82 years old, was a singer with the Cantare Chorale, and still enjoy "live" recordings of singers, with the band, with the audience, with whatever mistakes are made. It is just real. Even my kids, who know nothing about music can tell the difference. My son, all of ten years old heard Benny Goodman, "Swing swing swing," 1938, and loved it. I do have a home theater system, but he never stopped for disco. That Moog synthesizer stuff. And unfortunately with rap and hip-hop that is all you hear. Not me. Turk Murphy. Uptown Lowdown Jazz Band. Royal Society Jazz Orchestra. Did I say I was old?
Btw there's a video of Sinatra back stage before a concert adding the "Barbra" to Crush. Wrong information....What else does he have wrong???
Read the book "The Way it Was" by Eliot Weisman & Jennifer Valoppi (Eliot was FAS last agent until the end). The Barbara issue according to Eliot was done in Las Vegas. Great book on the last year of FAS.
Great comment. I listened to the album track after watching this video and was in disbelief that the Barbara tag could have been a manipulated bit of conversational audio. Now, I know it wasn’t.
Foreighn interviewer did not grasp the obvious.
Unfortunate.
Excellent interview. Such a funny recording story !
What's wrong with u I knew he liked to sing w orchestra and I never met him. No respect
learned nothing...