Album Review: Frank Sinatra Live at the Meadowlands (2009)

Album cover of Frank Sinatra Live at the Meadowlands, a 1986 concert that was released in 2009.

Frank Sinatra in concert in the 1980's.

The 2009 CD Frank Sinatra Live at the Meadowlands is a recording of Sinatra’s concert on March 14, 1986. It’s an excellent concert recording from late in Sinatra’s career. By this point in his career, Sinatra’s voice was not what it once had been. However, on this recording he sounds very good and his phrasing was still immaculate, as always. This isn’t just a great concert for late-period Sinatra; it’s a great Sinatra concert, regardless of the time period. The set list is an interesting mix, and it only has seven songs in common with Sinatra’s 1987 Dallas concert that was just released on this year’s Standing Room Only boxed set, which I reviewed here. 

Some highlights of the show are the lovely “Where or When,” “Nice ‘n’ Easy,” which Sinatra didn’t often sing in concert, and the beautiful “My Heart Stood Still,” which features Frank holding the last note for about ten seconds. It’s a wonderful thing to hear. There’s a nice, swinging version of Irving Berlin’s “Change Partners.” Sinatra never recorded that arrangement, so it’s a nice rarity. He recorded a gorgeous bossa nova version in 1967 for the sublime Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim album.

You can hear how Sinatra would always change his phrasing on songs like “It Was a Very Good Year,” where his inflections are quite different from the 1965 studio version. On the studio version, he smoothly connects the phrase “for blue-blooded girls, of independent means,” but here he sings “of in-de-pen-dent means.” 

This concert also features a fantastic version of “You Make Me Feel So Young.” It’s never been my favorite Sinatra song, but his subtle changes in phrasing might make this my favorite version of the song. He just sounds so exuberant singing it; it’s very fun to hear. 

There are superb versions of the ballads “The Gal that Got Away” and “Come Rain or Come Shine.” “Come Rain or Come Shine” has long been one of my favorite Sinatra recordings, with a stirring arrangement by Don Costa.

The swinging side of Sinatra is also well represented by exemplary versions of “Theme from New York, New York,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” and Frank’s take on “Mack the Knife.” I love Bobby Darin’s version of “Mack the Knife,” but I love Frank’s version too. In it, Sinatra credits the singers who have sung the song before him, as he sings, “Old Satchmo-Louis Armstrong, Bobby Darin/they did this song nice, Lady Ella too/they all sang it with so much feeling/that Old Blue Eyes he ain’t gonna add nothing new.” Sinatra then sings: “But with this great big band right behind me/swingin’ hard, Jack, I know I can’t lose.” He then name-checks his rhythm section: “We got Don Baldini we got William Miller we got Tony Mottola Irv Cottler bringin’ up the rear/all these bad cats are in this band now/they make the greatest sounds/you ever gonna hear.” It might sound cheesy, but I really like it, maybe because it’s just fun to hear Frank singing about singing. 

Sinatra obviously enjoyed “Moonlight in Vermont,” as it shows up on other concert recordings of the period. He’s no longer able to do the marvelous phrasing device he does on the 1957 recording on Come Fly with Me, where he strings together the phrase “people who meet in this romantic setting are so hypnotized by the lovely evening summer breeze.” He elongates the e at the end of “lovely,” holds the note, and then connects it to the e at the beginning of “evening.” It’s a spine-tingling moment. I read an interview with Steve Lawrence, who was saying that he was discussing “Moonlight in Vermont” with Sinatra, and Lawrence pointed out to Sinatra that the song didn’t rhyme. For all of his close attention to lyrics, Sinatra hadn’t noticed that before. 

As in other concerts of this period, Sinatra mentions the songwriter and the arranger before almost every song, and always says what a fantastic song it is. I feel as though in those little moments we get a sense of Sinatra the musician, the artist behind the icon, the singer who is interpreting the lyrics to the best of his considerable talents. I have no doubt that Frank Sinatra was a difficult man at times, and that he had a more than healthy ego; however, what I hear in those little moments is the humble Frank Sinatra, the one who knew that it was through the hard work and great talents of many other people, including songwriters, arrangers, and musicians, that he was able to express himself through song, and to present his amazing talent to the world. In the twenty years since Sinatra left us, his artistic legacy is stronger than ever, and Live at the Meadowlands is a reminder of how great Sinatra was.