Frank Sinatra was not a big fan of the rock ‘n’ roll music. I suspect that, in part, he was threatened by it. He was just making his comeback in the Fifties and then this Elvis kid comes along and you think the bobbysoxers give a crap about Ol’ Blue Eyes? No, sir. It’s enough to make a man’s blood boil.
“My only deep sorrow is the unrelenting insistence of recording and motion picture companies upon purveying the most brutal, ugly degenerate, vicious form of expression it has been my displeasure to hear and naturally I’m referring to the bulk of rock ‘n’ roll.
“It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. It smells phony and false. It is sung, played, and written for the most part by cretinous goons and by means of its almost imbecilic reiterations and sly, lewd — in plain fact — dirty lyrics, it manages to be the martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth.”
Frank Sinatra, writing in the November 1957 issue of The Western World magazine.
That year, Sinatra charted with songs such as “Can I Steal A Little Love,” “Hey Jealous Lover” and “You’re Cheatin’ Yourself (If You’re Cheating On Me).” Meanwhile, Elvis’ hits that year included (among others): “All Shook Up,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear,” and “Too Much.”
But Sinatra was a bit of a gangsta, or at least he liked to act like one, hanging around with guys like Charles “Trigger Happy” Fischetti, Sam “Momo” Giancana and Charles “Lucky” Luciano. So maybe he would have gotten along with rappers. At least that seems to be the theory behind DJ Cappel & Smitty’s Blue Eyes Meets Bed-Stuy, which matches Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace (from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NYC) with Francis Albert Sinatra (from Hoboken, NJ). Short trip, only ten miles and fifty years.
And just to piss a little more on Sinatra’s grave, here’s early Nineties Philly trio the Barnabys on one of Frank’s signature tunes. Vocalist/guitarist Joey Sweeney now leads The Trouble With Sweeney.
DJ Cappell – Nasty Boy / For Every Man There’s a Woman
Barnabys – One More For My Baby