Thursday, December 10, 2015

Sinatra at 100

I rarely agree with George Will about anything, but I think he nailed it in this column about Frank Sinatra. Will offers his assessment of Sinatra's greatness, and I think he really picks out the factor that made Sinatra so great. Yes, of course, he was a great singer, but there were lots of great singers. Sinatra's greatness was that he was consumed with correctly interpreting the lyrics--to give the lyrics the respect they deserved. He felt those words so thoroughly, it's hard to believe he never wrote a lyric himself. Just watch him. When I saw him live he was toward the end of his life, but he still felt every word to his very soul. That's greatness.