And I get a kick, you give me a boot, I get a kick out of you

Sinatra eh. Now there's a name I never thought I'd get around to in a post but I have a marathon season of a BBC music programme to thank for this. A few weekends ago the Documentary channel played all 8 episodes of 'Walk On By - The story of the popular song' one after the other. I'd never seen it and I'm a sucker for music documentaries like this. So I recorded it. I'm glad I did!

One of the episodes was centred on Sinatra and I guess I'm now of an age to appreciate his voice and persona. There have been a few pointers of late. When the New York Yankees had their final game at Yankee Stadium, Sinatra's 'Theme from New York New York' was played over and over and over again as the players waved goodbye to the place in typical American hoopla style. It sounded great - the perfect setting actually. I've always liked the power and passion of the song but it took this for me to finally want to own a copy.

The other prompt: at the end of that 'Walk On By' episode Sinatra sang 'I get a kick out of you' over the credits. Wow. It was loose, smiley, full of chutzpah and fun in a twice shy kind of way. This youtube version gives a glimpse of what I mean, although it's not what was on 'Walk On By'.



Anyway - so I actually searched for a (cheap) compilation of Sinatra and came across a good one. Incidentally - the shop assistant looked at me strangely cos I also bought an Avenged Sevenfold CD at the same time. 'Sinatra - Nothing But The Best' concentrates on the Reprise years so it has a limited range but is a nice mix of some classics with some things I'd never heard before.

The best bits for me - 'Come Fly With Me' leads off the collection and it swings! A great 'Girl From Ipanema' as a duet with Antonio Carlos Jobim really surprised me - I've never liked the song much but this one works well and makes sense. And then there's 'Theme from New York New York' to end it all in style. And that's pretty much what Sinatra was - a style. It's a style that's long disappeared and will not be back anytime soon. It's certainly not a style I can identify with but I can admire it from a distance. Now...where's that Avenged Sevenfold album?