6 June 1966
The modern-era pop charts and pop culture have really done no favours to Frank Sinatra’s legacy. He was a star since the ’40s, recorded his imperial-phase classics in the ’50s… and yet our perception of him today seems to be for dreary late-era kitsch like ‘Theme From New York, New York’ and ‘My Way’. Here also, one throwaway ad-lib in the coda of ‘Strangers In The Night’—all together now: “doo bee doo bee doo”—has now become shorthand for the entire Sinatra songbook and style.
That’s not to suggest the rest of ‘Strangers In The Night’ merits any closer attention. Yes, the sumptuous voice of the 20th century’s greatest male pop vocalist, swathed in the silk scarf of a Nelson Riddle orchestration, is always worth your time. It has that fine descending-staircase mid-section couplet (“Love was just a glance away / A warm, embracing dance away”) warmly lit with Sinatra’s trademark jazz phrasing. Otherwise, this is a corny cabaret imitation of the stylish, witty, world-weary ’50s hits that made him an icon in the first place. Like ‘New York, New York’ and ‘My Way’, ‘Strangers In The Night’ is a Frank Sinatra track for elderly people who don’t usually like music. And there’s worse to come.
