Reprise 1017
Producer: Sonny Burke
Track listing: Strangers in the Night / Summer Wind /All or Nothing at All / Call Me / You’re Driving Me Crazy! / On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever) / My Baby Just Cares for Me / Downtown / Yes Sir, That’s My Baby / The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
July 23, 1966
1 week
If anyone thought the arrival of the Beatles would keep the Chairman of the Board from the top of the charts, they had to think again during the mid-’60s. By 1961, Sinatra already had three Number One albums to his credit in the rock era, and a shift in the musical landscape, no matter how revolutionary, wasn’t about to render him obsolete.
In 1961 Sinatra launched his own record company, Reprise. With his former label Capitol continuing to issue his material while new albums were released on Reprise, Sinatra titles flooded the market. In 1961 alone, he had six albums in the top 10. In the following years, however, with Capitol throwing together compilation albums, his chart performance became more erratic. For example, 1963’s Tell Her You Love Her stalled at number 129, while 1965’s September of My Years reached number five, and earned the crooner a Grammy for album of the year.
Strangers in the Night began to take shape after Sinatra recorded the song of the same name for the film A Man Could Get Killed. It was Reprise A&R man Jimmy Bowen and music publisher Hal Fine who enlisted Sinatra for the project. Fine had played Bowen an instrumental version of the song written by German multi-instrumentalist Bert Kaempfert. Bowen promised that if Fine could provide English lyrics to the track, Sinatra would sing it.
Songwriters Charlie Singleton and Eddie Snyder composed the lyrics and Sinatra agreed to sing the song like only he could. Bowen produced the track with Ernie Freeman handling the arrangement, rather than Sinatra’s longtime arranger Nelson Riddle, who is credited on the album’s other nine tracks. Drummer Hal Blaine, who played on the song, also added his own personal touch. “I stole the Phil Spector thing I used on ‘Be My Baby,’ except I slowed it down,” he says. “It’s a slower tempo, so everything just kind of fit.”
Also playing on the session was guitarist Glen Campbell. “I was sitting about 10 feet from Sinatra’s vocal booth,” he says. “It was a V-shaped booth aimed out toward the orchestra so he could hear it. I don’t even think he had earphones on.” Campbell was awed to be in the presence of the legendary crooner. “I was just hoping I wouldn’t make a mistake,” he says.
Sinatra’s recording sessions were always special, says Blaine. “The mystique of Frank Sinatra is just amazing,” he says. “He always booked double sessions. The first three hours were rehearsals for the orchestra and studio hands would check everything and every seat for squeaks, because Sinatra would walk in, he would want everything perfect.”
After the rehearsals, Sinotra get down to business. “He shake a few songs and then he would everything live with the orchestra in one or two takes,” Blaine says. “It was amazing.”
After the single was cut successfully, a full album was assembled around the track. Sonny Burke was brought into produce the rest of the tracks, which ranged from Lerner and Lana “On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever),” Rodgers and Hart’s “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” to a cover of Petula Clark’s 1965 Number One “Downtown,” but it was “Strangers Night” that stood out.
On July 2, 1966, the song became Sinatra’s first Number One single of the rock era. Three weeks later, Ol’ Blue Eyes was at the summit of the Top LP’s chart for the fourth time in his career.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of July 23, 1966
1. Strangers in the Night, Frank Sinatra
2. “Yesterday”… and Today, The Beatles
3. What Now My Love, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
4. Lou Rawls Live!, Lou Rawls
5. Aftermath, The Rolling Stones