Rawls Sings Sinatra

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Tackling the Sinatra songbook seems like a dicey proposition. Who wants to be compared to one of the greatest singers of all time? Most likely you are going to come up short in comparison. Lou Rawls decided to take on the challenge on his 2003 release Rawls Sings Sinatra, which features Rawls wrapping his distinctive baritone around 12 songs associated with Sinatra. It is produced very cleanly by Billy Vera, arranged swingingly by Benny Golson. Savoy Jazz.

Tracks:

Come Fly With Me
Nice N Easy
All The Way
Learnin' The Blues
That's Life
The Lady Is A Tramp
Summer Wind
The Second Time Around
My Kind Of Town/ Chicago
In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
They Can't Take That Away From Me
One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)

Album Description

Tackling the Sinatra songbook seems like a dicey proposition. Who wants to be compared to one of the greatest singers of all time? Most likely you are going to come up short in comparison. Lou Rawls decided to take on the challenge on his 2003 release Rawls Sings Sinatra, which features Rawls wrapping his distinctive baritone around 12 songs associated with Sinatra. It is produced very cleanly by Billy Vera, arranged swingingly by Benny Golson. Savoy Jazz.

Customer Reviews:

Rawls Sings From A Phone Booth.......2004-05-17

That's what the CD should have been called...this guy has an impeccable voice...so what do they do? They make a recording that was basically unlistenable to me....the orchestra was obviously recorded first and then Rawls sang overdubs....he sounds completely disconnected from the music...if you can get by this then the CD is recommended.

RAWLS DOES IT H I S WAY...and WHAT A WAY HE HAS!.......2004-04-19

RAWLS sings SINATRA is really a welcome addition to the RAWLS collection. Mr. Rawls' voice is as strong and listenable as when he was 40 years younger. There isn't a bland song in the collection and I hope there is RAWLS SINGS SINATRA...Vol. 2 in the near future. It works, Lou! Thanks to the wonderful 'behind the scenes' people who made it happen, also.

Well, actually 4 1/2 stars!.......2004-02-21

While I agree with some that Lou Rawls' voice is past its prime, I'd still rather listen to him paying tribute to Sinatra than anyone else! What his amazing voice has lost over the years (and it hasn't lost all that much), he makes up for with phrasing and timing. These songs sound so well-suited to him! Highly recommended.

Rawls takes Crown.......2004-01-13

Rawls sings Sinatra is the type of album many Lou Rawls fans have waited years for him to produce. A swinging big band, jazzy arrangements with a blues vain throughout. Great songs, fine playing all topped by Rawls' magnificent vocal performances. We have been listening to these songs by Sinatra, Sinatra wanabes or the latest prodigy for over 40 years. How fitting then that Lou Rawls in the autumn of his career should produce one of his finest albums. He takes Mr. Sinatra's classics and makes them his own, given a few listenings the songs on this album sound as if they were written especially for him, dare I say even the phrasing is inch perfect!
Everybody involved in this project can be truly proud to have produced a superb Album that repays repeated plays and the chance to hear one of the Greatest singers of all time with the right material, in the right setting - Frank who!

His baritone NEVER sounded so sexy and smooth.......2003-12-08

OH MY GOSH, his voice sounde even BETTER than it did in his classic 1962 lp, Stormy Monday. This cd is as classic as his jazz debut album Stormy Monday(with Les McCan). This cd is his most jazz based since his 1st lp too! Here we have jazz legend Benny Golson lending fresh yet classic sounding arrangements, and trumpet playing, though not a whole lot of soloing. This cd is exellent all the way thru(& if you buy it from Borders, you get a bonus track, You Make Me Feel So Young). As a matter of fact some of the highlights are You Make Me Feelo So Young*, Come Fly With Me, All The Way, Nice'N'Easy, and the whole cd flows, thanks to Golson's Billy May/Nelson Riddle like arrangemets, that are slightly jazzier than May or Riddle. Rawls vocie is in peak form, I mean his baritone has never sounded richer, creamier and smoother than now, he certianly sounds better than he did in the 60's. He sounds sexy, mature, and sure of himself, without sounding cocky(though cocky was a Sinatra trait). Rawls swings on a Sinatra level, I mean Rawls swings hard for this, one of his finest sessions. Rawls' vocie sounds so appelaing here i doesn't need be compared to Sinatra, and since rawls makes these songs all his own, this really is a tribute(unlike other unsucsessful tributes like Barry Manilow's, part parody, part insult cd). The main reason to buy this is to hear a singer like rawls who has the voice but hasn't recorded an entire set of standards(or a decent non-Christmas album since 1962), here is a great excuse not to hear him on his usual R&B throwaway albums. this is Rawls at his best, he should continue to do all standard albums, with even trio jazz backing... Rawls is a jazz singer at heart, and weather you are a siantra fan or not, you will enjoy this set of basicly standards. Fine singing by one of the greatest baritones today(other than Herb Jeffries). You wil love this, and so will anyonw, these make good stocking stuffers.

Average customer rating:

Rawls Sings Sinatra
Lou Rawls
Manufacturer: Savoy
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Traditional Jazz General | Traditional Jazz & Ragtime | Jazz | Styles | Music

Vocal Jazz General | Vocal Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Traditional Vocal Pop | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music

General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music

Traditional Pop | Oldies | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000254TEQ
Release Date: 2003-09-09

Tracks:

Come Fly With Me
Nice 'N' Easy
All the Way
Learnin' the Blues
That's Life
Lady Is a Tramp
Summer Wind
Second Time Around
My Kind of Town/Chicago
In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
They Can't Take That Away from Me
One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)

Music:

Music

Music