Sinatra’s pals Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme showed up, as did old friend Antonio Carlos Jobim and the legendary Lena Horne. This time, Ramone and Sinatra corralled an arguably even more diverse gallery of duet partners. The following year, Capitol released Duets II, once again in time for the holidays. 5 in the U.K., and selling over three million copies in the United States. 2 on the Billboard album chart in the U.S. Three of the tracks that made it to the album are Take Ones.” As he recalled in his book Making Records, Ramone utilized the Entertainment Digital Network system, developed in part by George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound, to record the duet partners via long-distance: Aznavour in Paris, Minnelli in Brazil, Bono in Ireland, Estefan and Iglesias in Miami, and Franklin and Baker in Detroit.ĭuets was an unqualified commercial success, reaching No. It's a way in which I've recorded Jagger and Bono. But he wasn't comfortable, so I got him a stool and a hand-mike. Bill's been with him 40 years…Ordinarily, I would use two mikes on him - one above, one below.
He said, 'I wanna be with the guys.' The only thing to do was to put him out in the middle of the room…We put Bill Miller in front of him, so he could tease him, bust him. Ramone told The Independent just before the album’s release, “We had separated him from the band in the beginning - not extremely, but with enough separators and bits of plexiglass and stuff and he was very uncomfortable. Sinatra would sing an array of his most famous songs in front of a live orchestra, as always, with musical director Patrick Williams conducting his own charts as well as those by Nelson Riddle, Don Costa, Billy Byers and Quincy Jones. He chose to record Sinatra in Capitol’s Studio A, the same room Sinatra had inaugurated in 1956. Phil Ramone was able to deftly blend Sinatra’s classic style of recording with modern technological advances allowing for virtual duets. Gloria Estefan, Julio Iglesias and Charles Aznavour all added international flavor to the album. Natalie Cole, daughter of Nat, had a deep connection to the standards created by the likes of Sinatra and her dad, while Carly Simon had ventured into the Great American Songbook on her 1981 collection Torch. Others came from the worlds of R&B (Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin), and rock (Bono). Some of Sinatra’s choices for duet partners were naturals, such as his friends Tony Bennett (his self-professed “favorite singer”) and Liza Minnelli, or Barbra Streisand. His first studio album for the label since 1962’s Point of No Return, Duets teamed the celebrated icon with producer Phil Ramone, co-producer Hank Cattaneo, and a host of performers from various musical styles. All iterations will include Duets II, the 1994 Grammy-winning follow-up, and both CD editions will include bonus duets with Tom Scott, Tanya Tucker, Willie Nelson, Luciano Pavarotti and George Strait.ĭuets, originally released on November 2, 1993, marked Sinatra’s return to Capitol Records after a more than thirty-year absence. Though 2013 has been a quiet year for the Chairman’s catalogue, that’s about to change on November 19 when Capitol and UMe celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Sinatra’s triple-platinum Duets album with a variety of commemorative reissues including a 2-CD/1-DVD Super Deluxe Edition, 2-CD Deluxe Edition and 2-LP vinyl set.
Frank Sinatra’s influence is still felt every day – in style, in attitude, especially in song.
The way he wore his hat…the way he sipped his tea (or likely, something stronger)…the memory of all that…no, they can’t take that away from us.
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