Sinatra & Strings Album

Arranger Don Costa's first collaboration with Old Blue Eyes

Thanks for reading my Substack! If you enjoy these artists and their work, tune in to my radio show “Golden Age Radio” for more of the same. On Thursday mornings, 9-11 AM EST. You can stream live or listen for up to two weeks after airtime at Wfhb.org. Community radio for south-central Indiana.

---

In the mid-70s, there was a Kenny Rankin album circulating among my college friends. We referred to it as “the makeout album”. It featured Kenny’s sexy, soothing voice, but it was the arrangements of those ballads that created the mood. Full of lush strings and mellow orchestral sounds that supported Kenny’s soothing vocals, it definitely created a mood. The arranger was Don Costa. The same arranger that collaborated with Frank Sinatra on his 1962 album “Sinatra & Strings”.

Sinatra founded his own record label, Reprise, in 1960. He wanted more freedom with his recordings than Capitol (his current label) would allow him. Sinatra wanted to create a ballads album and not his usual big band swing sound. “Sinatra & Strings” was his 5th recorded album on his Reprise label and he called in arranger Don Costa as he believed Costa could help him deliver something different. Sinatra’s hunch was certainly correct.

Costa had been a busy conductor, arranger and performer before he began working with Sinatra. He signed a 15-year old Carole King to her first recording contract, he discovered Paul Anka, and arranged for Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme among others.

Sinatra called Costa away from Steve and Edie to work with him on this new ballad album. In my opinion, Costa took his rightful place among Sinatra’s other famous arrangers like Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, Billy May and Alex Stordahl.

The selection of songs for the album are from the great ballad writers - Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Richard Rogers, and Hoagy Carmichael. The “A” list. The tunes are classic, right from the Great American Songbook. But Costa’s full orchestral arrangements, in place of a big band, create a sound for Sinatra unlike any other previous album .

How different? Listen to this arrangement of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust”. The arrangement is only the introductory verse, ending where most other versions of the song begin. Hoagy’s gorgeous song has a verse that is as musically interesting as the chorus and Mitchell Parrrish’s lovely lyrics are rarely ever heard. Costa’s arrangement is the most unusual one of “Stardust” ever recorded - a masterpiece, with strings, harp and French horns.

Nothing formulaic about that arrangement!

Listen to how Costa sets the mood for “Come Rain or Come Shine”. When Harold Arlen first heard this recording, his first reaction was “Who’s the arranger?” Costa’s arrangement frames Sinatra’s singing so perfectly and sets a the superb bluesy mood.

Costa had a great ear for what would be commercially successful. This is what Sinatra was looking for during the latter part of his career. Costa did bring something different to him and helped him to create a true album masterpiece. The two continued to work together for many years afterwards, and Costa (referred to as “the last of Sinatra’s great arrangers”) was instrumental in producing two of Sinatra’s most famous classic songs “My Way” and “New York, New York”.

Duke Ellington referred to some songs as “beyond category”. I believe that is what we hear in these song selections on “Sinatra & Strings”. Sinatra is still in fine voice in 1962 and he delivers these tunes with superb attention as only Sinatra can. Costa’s arrangements are unique, and extremely special.

I think you will be hooked on this Sinatra album. You can hang your Fedora on that!

---

Further reading:

Sinatra & Strings album liner notes, author unknown

https://www.thefranksinatra.com/tag/1946

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinatra_and_Strings

https://sinatra.fandom.com/wiki/Don_Costa

ahttps://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/21/obituaries/don-costa-musician-conductor.html

https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/76676/frank-sinatra-sinatra-and-strings/

https://www.allmusic.com/album/sinatra-strings-mw0000676504

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Costa

https://americanhitnetwork.com/shows/the-top-500-of-the-top-40/frank-sinatra-sinatra-and-strings/2024-04-17

https://www.ejazzlines.com/big-band-arrangements/by-arranger/costa-don/