This is a new one on me. I thought some of you may enjoy it so I'm sharing it here. Well, it's not entirely new. I had heard that Sinatra hated the song, but I had never heard why he hated it.
Evidently it was because he thought it was a gay song. Gay as in Brokeback Mountain gay, not happy gay. I'm getting used to making that distinction because my son often likes to read older books that use the older meaning.
Anyway. According to the head of Reprise Records, Joe Smith, "[Sinatra] thought it was about two fags in a bar". Evidently Dean Martin use to tease Sinatra about it, at one time remarking that he (Dean) turned down the song because "it's about two faggots".
Sinatra always dreaded performing the song. He knew it was popular, though, so he would reluctantly add it to the set list often. This didn't stop him from purposefully flubbing some of the lines, however, like changing "Love was just a glance away, a warm embracing dance away" to "a lonesome pair of pants away", and "wondering in the night, what were the chances" to "just where my pants is".
There are many many comments attributed to him over the years showing his hatred of the song. When he was first offered the song he said "I don't want to sing this piece of shit". After one performance of the song, his mic wasn't cut off in time and picked up him complaining "That's the worst fucking song I ever heard". I wonder what the audience thought of that?
Not only did he dislike the song, but evidently it is known as a gay song in the gay community, with the lyrics painting what would have been a very typical homosexual experience at the time, so I guess he and Dean were on to something in their opinions.
As long as we are on songs he hated, evidently he also disliked My Way. Upon first receiving it from Paul Anka, he called it "kooky", then later said of it:
Every time I get up to sing that song I grit my teeth, because no matter what the image may seem to be, I hate boastfulness in others.
But being perhaps his single most popular song, he was expected to perform it at almost every show.
Anyway, interesting stuff. This isn't Three Tune Tuesday, but here are both of those songs if you are one of the three people on earth who have never heard them.
Boastful or not, My Way is still a great song.
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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. |