THE MAIN EVENT, 50TH ANNIVERSARY
By Mahnuel Muñoz
When? That in 2024 the album “L.A. Is My Lady” will be 40 years old and will be celebrated with a reissue that will soon be in our hands is tremendous news.
But this year three other round anniversaries that deserve to be celebrated have been overlooked.
The first of them is that it marks half a century since the legendary concerts of “The Main Event” tour.
On October 13, 1974, television cameras immortalized Frank Sinatra, backed by the Woody Herman And His Young Thundering Herd orchestra, singing before a packed, fiery, nostalgic Madison Square Garden.
Many of those present remember that just thirty years ago, Frank Sinatra caused a heart attack in Times Square during another of his recitals; He was performing at the Paramount Theater and the singer’s fans, the “Bobby Soxers“, had been waiting in line for many hours. The 3,600 seats at the venue were filled within minutes of opening the doors, while another ten thousand fans were left on the street, blocking traffic. The tension grew by the second. The intervention of almost eight hundred members of law and security, 20 patrol cars and two ambulances was required. The theater box office and several shop windows in the surrounding area were destroyed.
Back at Madison and in 1974, the reason for the recording is to bring viewers the magic and emotion of Sinatra in concert, taking advantage of the fact that, after a brief retirement, the singer has returned to the tour in a big way, with a show titled “The Main Event“, which concludes after six days of success in different cities in the United States.
“The Main Event” is projected as a great artistic event, uniting the singer with the band of the historic musician from the swing era on a central stage similar to a boxing ring, an allegory of the Voice’s tireless fight to remain current in a changing cultural and social panorama, as well as, why not say it, his fierce struggle with himself, with his fears, his insecurities and prejudices. After the “combat“, the public, art and the artist were strengthened and victorious; The Voice will resonate in clubs, theaters, auditoriums and stadiums around the world, without pause, for the next twenty years.
In “The Main Event,” Frank Sinatra enchants his audience with an extraordinary repertoire that spans almost his entire career, from the phlegmatic “The House I Live In” of 1945 to “Bad Bad Leroy Brown,” included on his most recent LP, “Some nice things I’ve missed“, without forgetting classics from the Capitol era like “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” or “I Get A Kick Out Of You“, and of course, the anthem, “My Way.”
The fact of having to submit to the advertising tyranny of television mutilates Sinatra’s own rhythm and intensity in concert, but the show, produced by Jerry Weintraub, (who also worked with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond and Led Zeppelin , among many others) is tremendously enjoyable; The emotion crosses the screen and captures you, almost with the same intensity as the album of the same name, which has a trick: it is made with the best of the six concerts on the tour.
Reprise recorded all or part of all six concerts on “The Main Event” tour. It would be wonderful if they published a box set with them, with video, book, memorabilia… Right? The event deserves it.
Tracklist
Overture: “It Was a Very Good Year”/”All the Way”/”My Kind of Town” (Ervin Drake)/(Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen)/(Cahn, Van Heusen) – 3:12 (introduction by Howard Cosell)
“The Lady Is a Tramp” (Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers) – 3:02
“I Get a Kick Out of You” (Cole Porter) – 4:37
“Let Me Try Again (Laisse Moi le Temps)” (Paul Anka, Cahn, Michel Jourdon, Caravelli) – 3:26
“Autumn in New York” (Vernon Duke) – 2:45
“I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (Porter) – 4:44
“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” (Jim Croce) – 2:49
“Angel Eyes” (Earl Brent, Matt Dennis) – 8:32
“You Are the Sunshine of My Life” (Stevie Wonder) – 2:49
“The House I Live In (That’s America to Me)” (Lewis Allan, Earl Robinson) – 6:41
“My Kind of Town” – 3:01
“My Way” (Anka, Claude François, Jacques Revaux, Gilles Thibault) – 4:57
Access the Complete Discography of Frank Sinatra in the following link of Sinatra Radio 24h https://sinatraradio24h.com/category/discography/
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, and free applications for iOS in the Apple Store https://apps.apple.com/app/sinatra-radio-24h/id6599859344
