Strangers in the Night — Frank Sinatra

            By the mid-1960’s Rock & Roll had firmly became entrenched as the most popular form of music in America.  Unfortunately for many artists, who had found monumental success in the 1940’s and 1950’s, the shift to Rock & Roll left many of them desperate for continuing success.  Artists such as Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee and the Chairman of the Board himself, Frank Sinatra found themselves struggling in the face of artists such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan who were clearly speaking to America’s youth.

            Frank Sinatra had an immensely successful career that began in the 1930’s with Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra and had reached its pinnacle in the 1950’s when he recorded a series of concept albums for Capitol Records.  In 1960 Sinatra left Capitol and formed his own record label Reprise Records; in forming Reprise, Sinatra was one of the first recording artists to form their own label.  One of the goals Sinatra put in place at Reprise was giving artists signed to the label complete artistic freedom over the releases.  Unfortunately for Sinatra sales of records on the new label did not live up to expectations so in 1963, Sinatra sold the label to Warner Bros. Records, however Sinatra would stay with the label until 1981.

            In 1966 Sinatra recorded Strangers in the Night, an album that would be the last to pair him with Nelson Riddle & His Orchestra.  While the album is composed of the phenomenal instrument that is Sinatra’s voice another element was added to some of the tracks on the album: an upbeat, swinging sound augmented with an electric organ, especially apparent on "All or Nothing at All", which is the third of a total of five recordings that Sinatra released of the song, the first being with Harry James in 1939 and the last, a live recording from 1982 (released in 2006).

            Recorded in Hollywood in early 1966 and released in April of that year, Strangers in the Night would prove to be a huge success becoming Sinatra’s first number one album since Nice and Easy in 1960.  The title track would also reach number one on the pop singles chart and would win three Grammy awards (Record of the Year, Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist or Instrumentalist, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male) at the 9th Annual Grammy Awards on March 2, 1967.

Strangers in the Night — Frank Sinatra

Reprise Records FS-1017 (mono version F-1017)

Arranged & Conducted by Nelson Riddle

Produced by Sonny Burke

“Strangers in the Night” Produced by Jimmy Bowen; Arranged by Ernie Freeman

Engineers: Lee Herschberg and Eddie Brackett

Front Cover Photo and Art Direction: Ed Thrasher

Released: April, 1966

Track Listing:

            Side 1

1.      Strangers in the Night (2:36)

2.      Summer Wind (2:55)

3.      All or Nothing at All (3:59)

4.      Call Me (2:46)

5.      You’re Driving Me Crazy! (2:16)

Side 2

1.      On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever) (3:19)

2.      My Baby Just Cares for Me (2:32)

3.      Downtown (2:10)

4.      Yes Sir, That’s My Baby (2:09)

5.      The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (2:25)

Two singles were released from the album:

           Strangers in the Night B/W Oh, You Crazy Moon                    Reprise 0470

           Summer Wind B/W You Make Me Feel So Young                  Reprise 0509

            “Strangers in the Night” reached number one on the Billboard Top 100 Singles chart while “Summer Wind” peaked at number 25.