This is a compilation of six Google + posts, and so it's pretty long. I think it ends well. :-)
Related to a conversation last night and earlier, I'm going to share some snapshots of a few of my albums this evening, starting with some of my favorite old jazz and lounge stuff. This is an important part of the#lilialesbirthdaycountown because there is no "Lily Alice" without music, and it has always been so. This is music from my childhood, but it is more meaningful to me now.
Starting with this guy here, someone I never truly appreciated until fairly recently, but who has always just been there, as part of the fabric.
I liked him less than the other crooners because I preferred the lounge vocals to the jazz ones, and I still do. But now I have a sincere appreciation for both. My favorite of these LPs is Long Ago and Far Away, from 1958, and here's a cut from it, but my favorite album of Bennett's is actually Perfectly Frank, from 1991.
Now this guy here, he's inextricably tied to memories of my mom. Also someone I didn't fully appreciate until later, but I remember watching him on TV, and I could see what the ladies saw in him, only I didn't like his sweat.
I have since also come to appreciate there are times when sweat is a perfectly good thing.
Would he have been my type if I were 30 years older? Doubtful. But I dig this cat, anyway. Here's a fun panty-catching cut from Live at Caesar's Palace:
Next, you might assume that Frank Sinatra is my favorite singer. In a way, that's so. I admire his talent, energies and efforts, how he grew, and what he did for music. I never ever tire of him.
But to me, the more perfect singer is Bobby Darin. If he'd been born a decade earlier, who even knows how much better his legacy would have been? It's depressing to speculate, though.
Most of my Bobby Darin music is digital, but I have come across a few good LPs over the years.
A couple of his songs? What they do to me. Oh. Here's one I like better than Frank's version: It's what Dr. Wilson would call a "panty-peeler."
But as much as I swoon over Bobby and am turned on by Frank, if I were an adult during their heydays, the one I'd have probably been gooey about is Dean Martin.
He was just so smart and funny and sharp. But also, a seemingly effortless singer. I like that. I even like his country sound. (And I'm not a great fan of Bobby's country stuff, much like I thought Bobby could do rock and roll in a way Frank never could.)
Back in the day, "Ain't That A Kick In The Head" was censored at first for being too racy? But I think this song is much more sexy (and I picked this video because it has bonus stuff at the end:)
My dad was into jazz, and that's something else I took for granted. He liked horns. (And sax, and clarinet.) So, big band and some swing, Dave Brubeck, Charlie Parker, Al Hirt, Herb Alpert and others, they were always around. The coolest, to me, was Stan Getz. (Yeah, he ended up kind of a mess. Moving along.)
Stan Getz did this cool bossa nova album collaboration series for Verve Records (and then they parted ways cause he wanted to do other stuff plus Gilberto's wife. Moving along.) I have four of them, and this tune is one of my favorites from Stan Getz With Guest Artist Laurindo Almeida:
So then...Frank Sinatra. I can't quit him. He is like a drug to me, well, like booze, anyway. I don't drink too much, but if Sinatra was whiskey, I'd be in big trouble.
Sometimes he does make me feel a little drunk, in the good way. Like sustaining that feeling which comes when you know you've had just enough and the train to Blissville will be arriving in about 20 minutes.
Most of my Sinatra music is digital, but I have collected a few albums on vinyl, and there are 3 or 4 more I'd enjoy owning. Starting with In the Wee Small Hours, (and setting aside the endless compilations,) each LP is a piece of carefully constructed artistry. He basically invented the concept.
Which song to share here? Each one is a mood, a memory, an experience. Maybe this one, from an astonishingly perfect album, is the right one for tonight:
