Sensitive to the questionable wisdom of writing about the much chronicled  Frank Sinatra, I plow ahead, because I actually have fresh material about him. However, I am connecting only those dots that relate to the events with which I was directly involved.  

I share the public’s fascination with him. Even now, he is ranked  #4 in John Rook’s  survey of  major pop music  players in the era from 1950-75. .They are ranked  #1 Elvis, #2 Paul Anka,  #3 The Beatles, and #4 Frank. Actually, Frank’s shadow probably falls cross all time zones from the early 40’s to today. 

Frank’s magic with many women was unique. They didn’t envy the women that Frank sang to.  They just wanted to be one of them. Same with Men, They didn’t hate him. They just wanted to be him. 

Before we  married, my wife Carol was her  producer dad, Chappie’s administrative aide at the Ivan Tors “Flipper”‘ Studio  

Chappie also leased out the studio to moviemakers, among them the producer Aaron Rosenberg, who brought Frank to town to film,” Tony Rome.” 

In Miami, Carol witnessed  Frank’s fabled finesse with women when her mother, Tay, arranged for a family friend, 20 year old  Teresa (I gave her a pseudonym) ,  to be given a bit part in the movie. 

In 1967, now married to me, Carol and I went to Miami to celebrate Chap’s birthday where I had a brief reunion with Frank on the “Tony Rome” set. Later that night, Carol, I, Chappie and Tay, went to see Frank perform at the Fountainbleu Hotel. 

He was translucent on stage, at the peak of his renewed powers.  

Then, Tay spotted Teresa  seated at a front row table, gazing dreamily up at Frank who was singing straight down to her. 

Tay went ballistic. Seeing the chemistry between the two, she exclaimed, “My God!  He’s singing to Teresa. I’ll be damned if I’m going to be Frank’s pimp.” 

We almost had to restrain her from running to Teresa and bum’s rushing her out of the Fountainbleu..  

Just as well. Frank did okay by Teresa  Putting her up in a luxury  suite at the hotel, he bestowed a white Caddie convertible, and  a diamond watch on her when they parted.

Talk about your foreplay, play, and post play!  

I have told you this as a buildup for what happened after I left Paul Weston’s recording session (See last week’s Button Button 2 episode) when Sinatra entered and took over the band for an hour on Paul’s dime. 

In 1955, Frank was on the brink of making history with a collection of Nelson Riddle swing arrangements, soon to be featured in his LP album titled,.” Songs for Swinging Lovers,” perhaps the greatest album of its kind ever produced.  

Everything was right with Nelson Riddle’s electrifying arrangements, perfectly tailored for Frank. 

Frank’s teaming with Riddle had largely  been Paul Weston’s brain child, a plot orchestrated selflessly by Paul, because he wanted to salvage Frank’s career, and regarded Nelson to be the finest arranger in the business. 

The first phase of this twisted tale begins in the early 50’s when Frank was being mis-handled by Mitch Miller. Miller was hell bent on making Frank into a rocker.

He even teamed Frank with saxophonist Boots Randolph of “Yakkety Sax” fame in a  notorious session.  

The story goes that Miller, who produced  the session,  burst out of the control room,  elated after a  successful “take” and ran not to Frank, but to Boots,  and embraced him. 

That did it for Frank. He confided his misery to Paul telling him that he was going to try to reconnect with Axel Stordahl, to restore the glory of his early career.  

Paul knew that his best friend Axel was not the solution, because Frank, who had suffered a rupture of his vocal chords in the early 50’s, was the not same singer he had been in the latter 40’s.  

Their styles no longer jibed, because Frank could no longer sustain his notes from one phrase through the next without taking a breath as he had done in the latter 40’s with Stordahl... 

Paul began a Machiavellian plot  to wrest Frank from Mitch’s clutches. He sought out Nelson Riddle and described the problem They jointly decided that Frank needed to experiment with a more robust rhythmic singing style, a finger popping style with shorter phrases they knew Frank could pull off.  

There was a major hitch. Frank felt a strong loyalty to Axel Stordahl and was loathe to drop him in favor of Riddle.. It also posed a strain on Paul who held Axel in high esteem as a friend. 

It helped that Frank and Axel collaborated in the early 50’s in a couple of LP’s that didn’t do well, setting the stage for Frank to be swayed toward Riddle. 

I happened to be in Paul’s Los Angeles Columbia Records office around 1953, when he was on the phone with a network television  producer, and only heard one end of the conversation, but it was enough to enable me to figure out how Paul solved his problem of loyalty to Axel.  

The Producer obviously was  telling Paul that he and Axel were the sole artists under consideration for a major network plum assignment. 

Paul said to the Producer, “If your choice is between me and Axel, give it to him.”  It hit me later that  he was maneuvering Axel into a high paying gig so he could  feel ethically free to move  Frank over to Riddle. 

Bear in mind that Paul was a high ranking Columbia Records executive and he was moving Frank into competitor Capitol Records that he had co-founded some years before. Paul felt this strongly about the harm that Columbia A and R chief Mitch Miller was doing to Frank’s career. 

Fast Forward to 1955.

I will cut to the year when I had begun working mornings on KCBQ in San Diego. The numbers, since my beginning a few months prior, had jumped from literally nothing to around 10%, and rising fast. 

My Program Director was Al Heacock, later to become a radio legend in Boston and Pittsburgh but right now, newly arrived from being my Baltimore route man at Paul Weston’s record rack jobbing company, Music Merchants. Finally, I had mother henned Al into a position of authority at KCBQ  where he belonged. 

A phone  call came in from Paul one morning, after I got off the air.   

“Harry, I need help” He told me in subdued tones. “Frank is about to do an entire LP with Nelson that calls for a lot of note stretching and liberties with a  swinging tempo. Do you know of a small venue in San Diego where he can duck in and sing a set, and get a live audience reaction? 

Me?....... Arrange for a place for Frank so he could go rehearse without public scrutiny? That was dropping quite a load on me,  

In the two years since I had seen him, Frank had gone from poverty to an Academy Award performance, married Ava Gardner, nailed his own TV show done successful singles, and two LPs with Nelson Riddle, both of which went platinum or gold.

Al Heacock had been in the room when I took the call and witnessed my quandary. When I finished explaining the call from Weston, he was as stunned as I was.  

“Let’s get this straight” Heacock said thoughtfully.” Paul wants you to arrange for Frank, the hottest guy in America, to come down here and do an hour in front of a live audience without causing a ripple. Is that the gist of it?” 

I nodded. 

“Am I missing something?” He said more to himself than me. 

“No, you aren’t missing a thing,“ I told Al, one brightest men I ever knew.. 

“Paul has to keep his role in this a secret, and it fascinates him that  Frank wants to experiment with a tempo away from Riddle, because he probably wants to toy with the rhythm.” 

I suspected what Frank was up to. I told Al, “Frank once told me that he was fascinated with the idea of floating above the beat, instead of always being on it. I think that’s what he working on,” I had Al’s full attention. 

”Obviously,” I said with fake rationality, “We could turn Frank over to Don Howard (My fellow  KCBQ jock) at Club Tempo. It’s a perfect boutique venue for Frank’s purposes….. but Don worships Frank. He couldn’t help it. He would blab it all over town, draw a mob, and…”   

Al nodded in silent agreement, and thought for a long moment,. 

 “Do you want to help Frank?”  He asked. 

I knew he was baiting me, but nodded lamely.   

“Let me think about this,” he said quietly,” and we’ll talk it about it tomorrow morning after the show.” 

I called Paul, and told him I’d call him back.. 

 

Specs Howard’s tribute at the Radio and Television Broadcasters  Hall of Fame of Ohio.

My great friend, and former Cleveland and Detroit morning co-host, Specs  Howard, is  being rightfully honored this coming Sunday October the 7^th  by the Hall of Fame. I have never known a finer broadcaster or had a better friend.  

Haresay:

I am a nobody. Nobody is perfect. Therefore, I am perfect. 

Every day, I beat my own personal record for number of consecutive days of being alive.

No one ever says, “It’s only a game,” when their team is winning. 

If life hands you a tomato, make a Bloody Mary. 

I live in my own little world. It’s okay, Everyone knows me here.