Sinatra wasn't The Voice, he was The Voices

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mat.bez.lima
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Sinatra wasn't The Voice, he was The Voices

Post by mat.bez.lima »

I listened to all his albums from 1954 to 1960 (from Songs For Young Lovers to Nice 'N' Easy) and, listening with attention, Sinatra's timber voice changed much in all tu period and I always think what, of all these voices, what was The Voice, the albums when Sinatra's voice really reached the perfection. I classify his voice in his Capitol Years this way:
1953-1956. Songs For Young Lovers, Swing - Easy, In The Wee Small Hours, Songs For Swingin' Lovers, Close To You and A Swingin' Affair (released in 57, but recorded in 56). Sinatra's voice was great in this period, but would still grew better. His timber and tone voice was perfect for swing with its freshness in his swing albums in this period, but his voice timber and tone would still find the REALLY perfect balance between swetness and bass in the ballads, especially dark ballads.
1957-1958: the short period in that Sinatra's voice find the perfect balance between swetness and bass. His voice reached a unbelievable perfection in albums like Where Are You and Only The Lonely. His baritone voice tone and timber reached an perfect maturity also in swing and the sweet, not dark ballads (check the Come Fly With Me album, Come Dance With Me album and also some singles like Put Your Dreams Away, the 1957 version of Bewitched and, principally, All The Way) His voice was better in the dark ballads than before (compare Close To You and In The Wee Small Hours with Where Are You and Only The Lonely) and his voice in the swing and not dark ballads was different of before, but I can't say that his voice in these kind of songs was better or worse, was still perfect.
1959-1960. His voice in the No One Cares was in some tracks so great like before (A Cottage For Sale and Here's That Rainy Day are the best examples) but in some tracks it is possible see the perfect balance between swetness, "muscle" and bass in his voice reducing, with his voice becoming more dark, harder, heavier, bass and losing some naturality and beautiful (Where Do You Go show this problem very well). Nice 'N' Easy makes this change even more clear (I've Got A Crush On You shows this very well) but his phrasing and great way of manipulate the songs was still there.
Well, I only talked about the Capitol period and I am really surprised in how Sinatra's voice was changing so fast in a so short period (7 years in Capitol that I analised with many details). In Reprise his voice became really clearly even darker and harder that in Nice 'N' Easy. Sinatra & Strings album shows this very well. Tough he still was a master of songs and phrasing, if the subject is just beauty voice, I wouldn't use his Reprise albums to show this, with the only possible exception being the September Of My Years album because his voice, darker that even Sinatra & Strings, matched the theme of oldness in all the songs, especially in so wonderful performances like the title track and It Was Very Good Year. Unhapilly, his biggest sucesses, Strangers In The Night, New York New York and My Way, are when he passed his peak. The only song that is good of these three is New York New York. Tough his voice wasn't more what was, he sings New York New York with personality and I don't know why it isn't the official anthem of New York. It's also sad that the most of his documented shows are also when he had passed his peak a long time and was frequently off key, like his shows in 70s, 80s.
Well, why do you think about what I said in my text and what do you think about how Sinatra's voice changed in his career (I didn't analised his Columbia period, when his voice was higher and had an almost entirely different timber)? Do you agree with my opinions about when the beauty in his voice peaked and what albums show this? What can you also said about how the voices of another singers changed in their careers?
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