Want a lot of e-mail? Tell people you don't think Frank Sinatra was all he's cracked up to be. You'll get a lot of arguments, some of which will insist you must be unaware that the Greatness of Ol' Blue Eyes is an inarguable settled fact. I doubt these folks would argue that someone doesn't have a right to his own opinion about anything else…but Frank is different. Frank, after all, is Frank.
Oh, you'll hear from a lot of folks who concur and are glad you said what you said…but you'll also hear from a lot of irate Sinatra fans. Some will even ask if you even like any singers of that era and genre. I certainly do. I've said here before that Mel Tormé is my favorite male vocalist and I also like Nat King Cole, Jack Jones, Dean Martin and several others…
…and Tony Bennett. Is there a happier success story around these days than the fact that Tony Bennett, the Betty White of pop singers, has the number one album in the country? Tony Bennett — who started as a singing waiter in the nineteen-thirties — is a hit all over again at age 85. I think that's great.
It's too bad nobody has written a fine, definitive biography of the man that's just now reaching bookstores. That would be great timing but it's not surprising no one did that. I mean, who would have imagined how hot Tony Bennett would be these days?