I was probably being unfair to Nelson Riddle, whose orchestral
arrangements of many of Sinatra's top hits of the '50s and '60s I truly
deplore as overblown and often completely off the mark in terms of
understanding the song he's arranging. I mark Sinatra's vocal demise as
beginning sometime in the early-mid 1950s - which is about the time he
started working regularly with Riddle. I'm sure it was brought on by more
than the need to squawk out as loud as he could over Riddle's egregiously
bombastic arrangements - smoking, drinking, self-indulgent living, and
hubris probably all contributed to his gradual vocal demise. But it is
interesting to me that the timing also coincided, as I mentioned, with his
almost exclusive work with Riddle.
Tony Bennett always struck me as having a lovely natural voice, an honest,
heartfelt interpretive sense, and a chronically underpitched intonation.
KM
............................
NEIL SHICOFF, TENORE SUPREMO
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Own Website
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ I sing hymns with my spirit, +
+ but I also sing hymns with my mind. +
+ - 1 Corinthians 14:15 +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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