THE 1980 HEAT WAVE
By Mahnuel Muñoz
During the summer of 1980, the United States suffered a heat wave that wreaked havoc on agriculture and livestock and claimed at least 1,700 lives. A line of strong pressure in the central and southern part of the nation caused temperatures to reach 89.6°F almost every day between June and September. In Wichita Falls, Texas, it reached 118°F, the value highest to date. In addition, a series of strong and prolonged wind storms caused destruction and death in their wake.
SOMETHING MORE POSITIVE…
Frank worked hard throughout that hellish summer, completing extended stays in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Carnegie Hall, where tickets were consistently sold out on each of the fourteen nights his name graced the theater’s marquee.
Sinatra was in shape, and his popularity was on the rise again after the release of the triple LP “Trilogy“, a controversial exercise in reflection that, in addition to returning the singer to the American standards that had always given such happy results, would provide a new classic, perhaps the definitive one, to his discography “New York, New York”, the composition by Fred Ebb and John Kander that gave title to a Broadway musical made into a film in 1977 by Robert DeNiro and Liza Minelli.
Frank’s masterful performance garnered great success on charts dominated by Blondie. KC & The Sunshine Band and Pink Floyd, whose album “The Wall” will become the best-selling album of the decade. Almost all of the hits that were released in 1980 remain defined classics of that decade for good and bad.
However, “New York, New York” has gone down in history as a Timeless piece, and still thrills listeners in all corners of the globe.
After a long pilgrimage along the often rocky paths of pop rock, 1980 was for Sinatra a sentimental journey to the past, the good times, the American Songbook, and the great tours throughout the United States and the world. This reconciliation with the original sources of his art would continue in his successive LPs and above all in his decision to stay on the road until the end.
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