MOONLIGHT SINATRA
By Antonio Baile
Moonlight Sinatra is a studio album by Frank Sinatra, released in March 1966. All of the album’s tracks are centered on the Moon, and were arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle and his orchestra.
The album’s title is a reference to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.
One more of Frank’s albums where the vocal technical quality is sublime and reaches perfection in all aspects to be evaluated: tonal extension, tessitura, tuning, registers, etc…
I was fortunate to buy this album in my adolescence at “Linacero“, a record store in Zaragoza that I visited every time I received a good tip from any of my relatives. The journey from Linacero to my house was a tense journey of well-being, an uncomfortable satisfaction, a swing of conflicting emotions, because I was carrying a jewel in my hands and, however, I still couldn’t hear until I reached my chair, next to my team. of music… With each street I crossed, it was closer but seemed to be further away…
I listened to this album when I arrived as I listened to them at that age, several times in one afternoon, sitting comfortably, looking and re-looking at the cover of the LP and with another new feeling of admiration, of having witnessed another surprising discovery, again The Voice with something different , improving the best of whatever I bought with the previous tip.
However, unlike other albums where I can’t choose a favorite song, this time there are three that were part of my daily listening for a long period of time: “Moonlight Serenade“, “The Moon Was Yellow (and the night was young)” and the one I give you today, “Reaching For The moon“. The latter, especially, melts my auditory sensations in a pleasant journey through the musical scale, voice and orchestra, orchestra and voice, which sway like a small sailboat, and go up, and down, and emulate a pleasant moonlit night over, what What I imagine, a slightly choppy sea.
It’s probably not relevant, but I remembered that I kept this record, like all of them, inside its cover and, at the same time, this cover was inside a plastic case that was stronger than usual. This always gave me a greater feeling of security and, therefore, greater responsibility for the care of the vinyl. I remember now, with great affection, proud of myself, that, from a very young age, I would take the records out of their covers without resting the fingertips on the vinyl: The thick finger resting on the edge of the record and the rest of the fingers with the fingertips on the center, where the paper was with the themes on each side. Of course, I cleaned each record with the special cloth before each audition….
This could be seen as a repellent, manic, excessively correct child… Nothing could be further from my daily reality in the rest of the areas of my life. However, I admit, the books in my personal library and the records and tapes were another world, they were treated like another world and they continue to be another world today.
I invite you to listen to this album, and I do it like a chef does when he recommends how to best enjoy a dish, with a piece of advice: Listen to it imagining a slightly choppy sea and a small sailboat where you are enjoying the moon. The rocking of the small sailboat accompanies the music and The Voice, surprising…
Article written and provided by Antonio Baile
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