Greetings and salutations Hivers. Today let's go into another Three Tune Tuesday post.
As always, thanks to 
I thought for this post we'd go back to that old crooning style. But instead of just pulling up three hits from the Chairman of the Board, I thought we'd instead do one each from the group he's most associated with, The Rat Pack. That means, Frank, Deano, an Sammy.
Frank Sinatra - Fly Me to the Moon
This may be a staple of crooners, but there is a reason for that: it's a great song. Written in 1954, Frank's version is usually considered the definitive.
Sammy Davis Jr - Mr Bojangles
I don't know if it's possible to think of a song more associated with a singer. Unlike Frank who always sang My Way but hated it (again, see the above link), Sammy was always singing Mr Bojangles and absolutely performed it as well as sing it. In a strange way he embodied the song: having his own problems with alcohol and ending up bankrupt, but dancing all the time.
Dean Martin - Volare / On An Evening In Roma
It's hard to find an entirely serious performance of Dean. Far from his image as Mr Cool, he always had a twinkle in his eyes and was cracking jokes. Later when he adopted the comedy gag of always being drunk, he added even more silliness to his performances. You can really see why he was such a good fit for Jerry Lewis. Of all the Rat Pack, he may have had the best voice.
BONUS: Birth of the Blues
But you know, the best part of the Rat Pack was when they performed together, throwing jokes and barbs at each other the entire performance. Unfortunately we don't have much video of these performances. Here's one we do have:
So what's your favorite?
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| David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon. |