(don’t ask me why), and I am experiencing something that must have been dormant in my brain for years.
Sinatra’s pitch seems constantly, albeit variably, a tiny tad sharp, like if the selected keys for the songs were always a tiny tad low and he struggled not to sing a bit higher…
He’s making me seasick, and I am also aware that it must have been so forever as far as I am concerned, because I’ve never been able to listen to Sinatra light-heartedly.
I mean, Dean Martin was always perfectly in tune, as were, in a completely different context of beauty of voice, Astaire and Armstrong. Sinatra makes me seasick…
Anyone ever felt the same?
Thanks,
M.
(Just now he started 'Santa Claus is coming to town and the first not was almost completely out)
I once had a test for detecting pitch differences and I turned out being able to hear about 4/6 cents of differences between pitches - although I am not special at all at remembering melodic sequences; it’s something like the 25th part of a tempered half-tone.
That’s why I can’t stand the majority of turntables when piano or long stringed notes are played.
But Sinatra, plus the likely effect of those 50s recorders and tape stability, is unlistenable to me.
And yes, his range is very limited but in turn his pronounce is perfect.
Just tried a pitch test (Search for “Test Your Sense of Pitch”, then click on the nidcd.nih.gov link). I did get 26/26 but it was very easy. I suspect you found a better test
I never liked his singing style until I saw one of his last comeback concerts. The I realised what a master of selling a song he was. The phrasing, the timing, and the control of the band/orchestra to work with him. I’m now a fan.
Undoubtedly, and I mentioned his perfect pronounce - I could always follow the lyrics perfectly even at an earlier stage of my knowledge of English.
My mention was only of his strange pitch, sometimes a shade higher than the key… There were singers who seemed to fit the key easily and perfectly, but he never seems in his true range to me…
Weird, for the most celebrated modern singer.
I would suggest, if you haven’t already, having a read of his Wiki page. Very different times, and I find it’s easy to have one’s thoughts & opinions conditioned by when you’ve seen someone in their later years, completely missing their earlier years and evolution as an artiste.
If you’re suggesting this to me, I bought my first Sinatra LP in 1967 and have collected some ten or twelve more, ranging from his very early years to his last.
I think I have a pretty good idea of how his voice was in the 40s and in the 70s, of how it evolved from a light tenor to a light baritone, of how his full range was never very ample as feeling_zen said above.
I wasn’t criticizing him, his singing, anything. I was asking if someone else here has experienced the vague feeling of ‘seasickness’, as I jokingly called it, at his sometimes uncertain pitch in some lower notes.
If I wanted to be more specific I’d mention his rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, which he sang both in Ab Major and, in more recent times, lowered of a semitone, in G. The range of the song was Ab1 to Db3, or G1 to C3.
In the earlier version, when his voice was younger, his ‘difficulty’ with the lower notes is more audible and he’s clearly happier as the melody rises to higher ones.
I’ll read the wiki page you mentioned anyway, although what I had to say was, in my opinion, very clear at my first post.
Maybe Ol’ Blue Eyes was a better actor than singer? Or better entertainer than actor? A crooner rather than a singer? Crooners are not typically not known for extended vocal range.
That’s the point I was trying to make (in rounder terms) in responding to @MaxBertola (although I don’t get any ‘seasickness’). The crooners, in general, often played with big bands/orchestras behind them (e.g. Nelson Riddle), so they swung with the tune. As you say, being pitch perfect, having extended range, wasn’t a pre-requisite for the job. It was about entertainment & performance.
Ok, it’s clear(er) now. Thanks. But again, I want to make even clearer that I was not evaluating Sinatra’s qualities as entertainer, but simply wondering if anyone else felt his occasional, slight out-of-tuneness as a perceptual and hedonic issue…
(Anyway, there are crooners with much better intonation and that doesn’t seem to adversely affect their quality as entertainers… )
)