A golden saturday to illuminate a black monday
By Mahnuel Muñoz
October 19, 1987 was called “Black Monday“, as it was the scene of a brutal collapse of stock markets around the planet, leading to a crisis from which it would take two years to recover. In this atmosphere of uncertainty, Frank Sinatra, who through his own merits or chance has been present in the hardest moments of the 20th century and part of the 21st, gave one of the best concerts of his long career.
Reunion Hall in Dallas, Texas was home to Dallas’ local basketball and ice hockey teams from 1980 to 2008 (Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars, respectively). With its 18,000 seats, it functioned primarily as a sports venue during its 28 years of life. However, there were times when it was used as a concert venue, hosting some of the biggest names in the world of rock and pop, including Queen, Black Sabbath, Michael Jackson and Madonna. For many, however, the most momentous concert ever held at the hall was when Frank Sinatra honored it with his presence on Saturday, October 24, 1987.
THE CONCERT
At first the idea was to record one of the concerts from the autumn commitment to Carnegie Hall. The trucks with the equipment arrived at the venue on the afternoon of September 17, but Frank had to cancel his last two sold-out concerts due to acute laryngitis. Finally the recording crew showed up at Reunion Hall on October 24 to make history.
The concert would establish a link with the singer’s remote past when it was recorded for a radio special titled “Come Swing With Me-Frank Sinatra In Concert” (broadcast in April 1988) and perhaps, in some way, that first spirit of discovery and enthusiasm that characterized the Hertzian years was present in the evening, as Frank Sinatra displayed absolutely captivating energy and emotion and offered one of his three best shows of the 1980s.
In 1995, part of the concert was published on the album “Sinatra 80Th-Live In Concert”, an opportunistic release for purely commercial purposes, since the booklet does not mention the origin of the recordings and anyone who was initiated into the Sinatra doctrine. You might think that the singer made them when he was 80 years old; That’s exactly what happened to me, but far from being offended by the deception, I appreciate it, since it helped me become interested in the final stretch of the Voice’s career.
Finally, in 2018, the full concert was released (legally) as part of the “Standing Room Only” box set. A concert whose listening can help us forget for a time the anxieties derived from our dramatic pace of life, as it surely relieved many in those days colored by the debacle of that “Black Monday” of 1987.
REPERTOIRE
You Are The Sunshine Of My Life
What Now My Love
My Heart Stood Still
Moonlight In Vermont
Summer Wind
You Will Be My Music
More Than You Know
Mack The Knife
What’s New?
Bewitched
Angel Eyes
If
When Joanna Loved Me
For Once In My Life
Lonely Town
New York New York
Where Or When
My Way
Maybe This Time
The Lady Is A Tramp
If you want to visit more articles about the life of Frank Sinatra enter the following Sinatra Radio 24h link: https://sinatraradio24h.com/category/articles/
We remind you that you can also listen to Sinatra Radio 24 hours on your mobile phone by downloading our free applications for Android in the Play Store https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sinatra.radio24h
