Karaoke Forums

I was born in 1958, I'm old. I became a Frank Sinatra fan back in the '60s and early '70s. As I go through my Karaoke collection looking for songs for me to sing when I perform I've added several Sinatra songs that don't get sung as often as New York, New York etc.  in my attempt to try to be a little different. I don't want people to say "oh no, New York, New York AGAIN?". I'm trying to do great music that hasn't been over played to the point of being cliche. My audiences will be people in my age group and older, some MUCH older so I figure this is the kind of music they enjoy and want to hear.

I've really fallen in love with this era and genre and several of the songs are in my vocal range and are comfortable for me to sing. The uptempo version of Fly Me To The Moon I speed up about 30% more, One For My Baby is melancholy and sultry, Love and Marriage is fun, You Make Me Feel So Young just has a nice sound to it, all Of Me is one of my favorites right now, I just started singing L-O-V-E, I'll sing That's Life from time to time and Lady Is A Tramp is one I enjoy. Of course I still plan on sining My Way and NY, NY, but sparingly.

I'd love to get my hands on Blues in the Night and some other songs that were on a 1958 album called Only the Lonely which is also a killer song.

He's been called the greatest recording artist of the 20th century and while these things are subjective, he was certainly one of the best and had a lot of great songs given to him to sing. I enjoy his voice and singing style. I try to emulate him while at the same time putting a little of my own phrasing, intonation and vocal style into it.

I forgot It Had To Be You and It Was A Very Good Year.

OMIGOSH...don't use 1958 and old in the same breath please. Any of us born in the '50s surely aren't old yet. PLEASE SAY IT AIN'T SO!


k

Stogie my brother and I do the " I got you under my Skin " duet by Sinatra and Bono, it also is sped up and gives the song a more upbeat and newer feel to it. I really like his standard tunes also. Rudy.

stogie,
1958??!!!! hahahaha......you're still a pup. 1950 here. OH...and the crowd I host for just LOVES all the "old stuff". Catch my post to BlueRose's thread and you'll understand why.

                                                Donny "B"    8)

_________________
It's a wonderful life!!

I like alot of Sinatra's music.  It is a very elegant timeless style.  Often he was singing material from some of our country's best composers (Gershwin, Cole Porter...)   I also like singing Dean Martin and Tony Bennett.  If you ever listen carefully to Tony Bennett singing I Left My Heart in San Francisco, you realize what a piece of art it really is.

One of my favorite Sinatra songs to sing is Where or When (Live at the Sands), which I think is on Music Maestro.   I also love singing That Old Black Magic.  A few others you might want to try:

Begin the Beguine (takes alot of breath!)
Darn that Dream
Embraceable You  (lovely song)
Girl from Impanema
I Had the Craziest Dream
I've Got You Under My Skin
I Wanna Be Around
Moonlight Serenade
Night and Day
Our Love Is Here to Stay
Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars
Remember
September Song
South of the Border
There's a Small Hotel
They Can't Take that Away from Me
When You're Smiling


How about songs older than Sinatra?  Many people love to hear Glenn Miller's Chattanooga Choo Choo.  I've Also sung Elmer's Tune, Maria Elena, As Time Goes By--these are all classic Americana songs deserving more karaoke attention.

Also...Rod Stewart covered a bunch of classics--check out Legends LS182 which has these (The Way You Look Tonight, Moonglow, It Had to Be You) plus some of his newer stuff.

How about Blue Spanish Eyes by Al Martino, one of my karaoke favorites!  Up a Lazy River?

Thanks for the replies, ideas and suggestions, I'm always looking for new material.

I've added a lot of new songs in the last couple of months that I couldn't sing before, didn't think I could sing or I just wasn't familiar with. I listen to songs sometimes over and over to try to decide if it's something I think I can sing or if it's something I would like to try. Some just don't work with my voice it seems.

I love I Left My Heart In San Francisco and I enjoy some Dean Martin songs. I haven't found any Al Martino songs I like or that I can sing.

I've added some fun songs recently that I think people are going to love: Would You Like To Swing On A Star, The Bear Necessities, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, If I Only Had A Brain and a couple more that I can't think of right now.

I plan on adding some Bing Crosby songs eventually especially around Christmas time.

I am going to get Dean Martin's Ain't That a Kick In The Head soon, I love that song.

The thing about growing up in the 1950s (born 1951) is that we know all the best songs. I myself love to sing some of the 1950s era counrty music but I sing a real variety of music from the 30s to the present. A local radio station does a show every sunday featuring country music from the 50s and 60s. It is a great source for me to listen to the original artists from that time. The dj is in his 80s and tells little bits of trivia about the songs and the artists. Also he plays them from the actual vintage records.

Jim-n-TN

I definitely want to learn more classic/vintage country songs like Peace In The Valley for example. I know some folks will say that's gospel.

I want a wide variety of genres so I can adjust to most crowds depending on what I think they like or what they tell me they like. I even sing some rock and roll songs and definitely want to learn more.

Michael Buble' and Rod Stewart and even Robbie William and WestLife may appeal to the younger crowd. Rod Stewart covers a lot of classic standard, and many are avalable in karaoke version (PS6027 and 6028)
For some reason I don't particularly care about Frank Sinatra singing but prefer the version of other singers of his time. I listen to Michael Buble versions of the song and love the style of Rod Stewart singing those standards

I really like many of the Buble versions of older songs. I enjoy his voice and singing style. I'm definitely a fan.

My song book contains 76 one of a kind Sinatra songs.

Frank was like Elvis.   If it was written, they sang it.

I sing 10 or 11 Sinatra songs right now, I might eventually be able to add 4 or 5 more hopefully. Lots of songs that I like, I can't sing, they just don't sound right with my voice.

Totally unrelated. . .  I just added Neil Diamond's Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show. It was suggested to me a few months ago and when I listened to it I thought "no way could I sing that song". For some reason I decided to try it a couple of weeks ago and I practiced it over and over and to my surprise I found I could sing it decently. I like the song and feel it's unique and different and that's what I'm looking for. I want to be unique and different-in a good way hopefully.

I have a Neil Diamond cdg with 15 of his songs and do most of them including Brother Loves T S S.

My favorite gospel songs are on an Elvis gospel cdg from Chartbuster.  I don't even try to sound like Elvis when I sing them they are just great old songs and fun to sing.

Sounds like you might be in my range vocally have you ever done any of Eddy Arnold's songs? My favorite Eddy Arnold songs are "Make the World Go Away",  "I Really don't Want To Know", "What's He Doing In My World" and "Welcome To My World".  Looking at those titles I just realized he was a worldly guy. Look in your songlist and if you have any of those give them a try and let me know what you think.

Jim-n-TN

I've tried to sing Make The World Go Away, but it's too hard for me to sing, I can't do it. I don't know any of the others. I think there is a line I don't want to cross. I'm looking for great old music, I love it, but I don't want to sing elevator music. I want music that has some sort of quality that makes people tap their toes or snap their fingers but that has a certain something. Make The World Go Away reminds me of Lawrence Welk sugary stuff. I'll never do that kind of music. I hope you're not offended, it's not my intention.

I intend to do Blood Sweat and Tears, Three Dog Night, Led Zeppelin and other edgier music. I'm working on Temptations, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye and other soul/funk songs too. At the same time I do Billy Joel and Elton John.

I'm trying to have a minimum of 300 songs so I can try to keep things fresh. I expect to be at some of these places several times if not regularly and I don't want it to get stale for the audience or for me. I don't want to get bored singing the exact same songs over and over, week after week. If that happens I'll be looking for something else to do.

I'm still working on Mustang Sally, I can't quite sing that song as well as I'd like. For some reason it's a very difficult song for me. I won't do it in public until I feel like I can nail it. If I can't then I won't sing it.

When we speak of the Beatles, except in a few instances, we speak of songs they wrote and they often are the only ones associated with recording those songs.  As to Frank Sinatra, it’s a “mixed bag”, Some he sung originally, some were written for him, most were covers.  Please consider the following:

Come Fly With Me – 1958 Sammy Cahn & Jimmy Van Heusen written for Sinatra

My Way – (Adapted from a French song) by Paul Anka for Frank Sinatra

It’s Alright With Me – Cole Porter:  
Written 1953 for Broadway show Can Can.  Frank Sinatra was in 1960 movie     of the same name

I’ve Got The World On A String – Harold Arlen 1933  

Strangers In The Night – Bert Kaempfert in 1965 for the movie A Man Could Get Killed.
Per Wikipedia …
"Strangers in the Night" was made famous in 1966 by Frank Sinatra.  Reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100, it was the title song for Sinatra's 1966 album Strangers in the Night, which would become his most commercially successful album.

This is a partial list of songs introduced by Frank Sinatra per Wikipedia.
· 1954 – Three Coins in the Fountain by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn Introduced in the film Three Coins in the Fountain  NOTE: Frank Sinatra sang the song during the film’s opening credits but GOT NO CREDIT himself for doing so!!!  And it was The Four Aces who had a #1 hit with the song
· 1955 –  The Tender Trap by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn Introduced in the film The Tender Trap,
· Love and Marriage  by Jimmy Van Heusen and by Sammy Cahn Introduced in the television film Our Town.
· This Love of Mine by Sol Parker,  Hank Sanicola and Frank Sinatra
· 1956 – The following by Cole Porter: Mind if I Make Love to You,  and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,   and You're Sensational"
· 1957 –  All the Way by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn (introduced in the film The Joker Is Wild).

· 1959 – High Hopes by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn (introduced with Eddie Hodges in the film A Hole in the Head)

So, without belaboring the point, much of what you youngun’s consider to be Frank Sinatra songs is nothing more than standards covered/sung by Frank Sinatra.  

PS:  Click here for info on "Fly Me To The Moon"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_Me_to_the_Moon

Just like Elvis, if it was written , they sang it.

What better way to make money than by singing a song that was already a hit?

I.E. Michael Bubble-head and Michael Bolton and Harry Connick Jr.

I have the Chartbusters Three Dog Night CDG (CDG90239 )--lots of good material on it.  I'm still hoping some of the other great Three Dog Night songs get done, like Brickyard Blues (Play Something Sweet) and Sure As I'm Sitting Here .

No offense taken on the Eddy Arnold.  I do lots of stuff more upbeat, I just think of him having a great voice from the past.

Jim-n-TN

Last night I went and saw a friend who was hosting. It was quiet, not many singers so I got a chance to sing a lot. He had never heard me sing so I wanted to do an assortment so he could hear my voice and singing style. First song was Beatles Come Together, next was Billy Joel Vienna, then Manhattans Kiss And Say Goodbye, last one was Righteous Brothers Unchained Melody. I'm trying to mix things up and do mostly upbeat songs with a few slower songs thrown in here and there. I wanted to do Fly Me To The Moon, All Of Me and You Make Me Feel So Young but I didn't want to do all Sinatra songs. I'll do that Saturday at the VFW. I plan to do several Sinatra songs, a couple in a row with Dean Martin You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You thrown in for good measure and later Louis Armstrong Wonderful World near the end of the night.

If anyone knows how I can get a hold of Sinatra's 1958 Only The Lonely, Blues In The Night, Weeping Willow and What's New, Karaoke tracks I would really appreciate it-if they exist. These are some of my favorite songs in the world which I love dearly.