August 26, 2025 • 22 mins
On this episode join Buzz Knight and step into a world where style meets modern wit with acclaimed creator, entertainer, and Grammy nominated vocalist Seth MacFarlane. You know Seth from his hit TV creation "Family Guy", from "American Dad" and "Ted" but here we celebrate the release of his "Lush Life" The Lost Sinatra Arrangements which is his groundbreaking album featuring 12 never before heard Frank Sinatra arrangements. "Lush Life" is Seth's 9th studio album and he proudly shares behind the scenes stories on the creation of it.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a walk. I remember my father standing in the
doorway in my room at one point, which is this
is hilariously out of character for him because he's he's
such a progressive guy. He said, you like a good
rock song now? And then right, what if you.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Could step inside a time capsule, unlock a vault, have
never heard Sinatra Treasures, and let the golden glow of
the classic American songbook light the way I'm buzznight and
on today's episode had taken a walk. We're doing just that,
taking you on a journey into the heart of Lush Life,
the dazzling new project from Seth McFarlane. That's right, that's
(00:41):
Seth McFarlane. What an amazing talent he is. You know
him for so many things, including family guy, But Seth
is resurrecting the lost arrangements of Frank Sinatra. Get ready
to stroll down memory lane with unreleased orchestrations and fresh
stories as we dive into an album that promises to
(01:02):
be as timeless as the chairman of the board himself.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Taking a walk, Well.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Seth, that's absolutely joyous having you on taking a walk
discussing your joyous project Lush Life, The Lost Sinatra arrangements.
I have to ask the opening question of my guests,
which normally is who would you take a walk with,
living or dead? And where would you take that walk?
Answers go everywhere Seth, Mothers, Fathers, Bach, McCartney, Harrison, Jesus Christ.
(01:38):
I assume for the purposes of this special episode, it's
gonna be Francis Albert Sinatra.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, you know, that's probably a good that's probably Carl
Sagan would be high on that list, but I think
it would be It would be interesting to ask a
few questions. I mean, certainly Nelson Riddle would be on
that list. You know, how how did you do it?
What were you tapping into that that has somehow been
(02:05):
lost from our world? But yeah, those those are all
people who were It would be uh, you know, fun
to take a walk with on a maybe not too
hot day.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, it's normally an impossible question, but that's why that's
why I like it. But what was your first memory
back in the the mean streets of the Waterfall Village
of Connecticut where music first impacted you?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Well, music was everywhere in that town. It was a
very artistic community. There were a lot of people who
sang a lot of people who played instruments. I was.
I was in a church choir when I was very young,
if you can believe that, and that was that was
kind of my first introduction to what that community had
(02:53):
to offer musically. And the director of the choir had
kind of branched out into local theater productions and she
was really into Gilbert and Sullivan. So I remember doing
a lot of Gilbert and Sullivan in that town from
about age nine on. We did The Sorcerer when I
(03:15):
was nine, and then followed up with the HMS Pinafore
and the Mecado, and so I was exposed to that
music at a very young age, which is a nice
way to kind of get a good grounding in the
origins of what would eventually become show music of the forties, fifties,
and sixties.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Did your parents have concerns about your early obsession with
the Great American Songbook and in particular Frank and was
there a support group that they tried to enroll you
in of young kids who were wiser beyond their years.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Concerns. I remember my father standing in the doorway in
my room at one point, which is this is how
hilariously out of character for him, because he's such a
he's such a progressive guy. He said, you like a
good rock song now? And then right there was just
just so much subtext there. It doesn't even need to
(04:14):
be elaborated upon. But no, you know, I listened to
the music that was popular at the time when I
was when I was growing up. I listened to what
we were being fed. The problem that I always had
was that I could see how they were making the soup.
I could see how the gears were making the watch
turn and and it wasn't particularly challenging, And so I
(04:37):
gravitated to film music. You know, the composers that were
working regularly at that time, like you know John Williams obviously,
who's who's still as prolific as ever, Jerry Goldsmith and
Elmer Bernstein and James Hornered, even Henry Mancini was still
working then. And that music was was what really grabbed me,
(04:58):
because I I it was so accessible and so impactful,
and yet at the same time, I couldn't see how
they were doing it. I couldn't see how these sounds
were I couldn't hear, rather, how these sounds were being
made I couldn't see how the soup was being made,
and that was just kind of magical to me. And
I found a lot of that when I discovered Sinatra's music,
(05:20):
that there really are a lot of links between film scoring,
which is very, you know, closely related to classical music,
and Sinatra's music, which was related to both. And it
made sense. Sinatra was a big classical music fan. He
had a huge record collection, and so it was, you know,
a natural progression.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I suppose I saw this quote of yours. I love
the lush orchestration in old fashioned melody writing. It just
gets you excited. That kind of music. It's very optimistic
and it's fun. The one thing that's missing for me
from popular music today is fun guys like being Frank
(06:00):
and Dean and meltor Maade. They sounded like they were
having a great time.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, yeah, they weren't. And by the way, it's deceptive,
because I mean, it's like seeing a stand up comic
who just seems like they're having the time of their
life and it seems so easy for them. But the
fact is it's an illusion because that's the result of
thousands of hours of training and workshopping and it's the
(06:26):
same thing for Frank and Dean and Sammy and those guys.
They made it look so easy, but it's because they
really were just that good. And yeah, I do miss that.
I do miss that sense of lightness coupled with undeniably
great musicality. I feel like music now is takes itself
(06:46):
a lot more seriously and perhaps has less of a
reason to do.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So that's an understatement. Tell me about the initial interest
in the Lost Arrangements, how the idea for Lush Life
first took shape. I know you previously had connected with
the Frank Sinatra Junior because he was on a few
episodes of Family Guy.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah he was. I remember seeing him on The Sopranos
and thinking, gosh, maybe he'll do our show. And so
we reached out to him and he agreed to come
on and agreed to sing. And he was just a
he was just game for anything. He was a real
true participant in the process of making an episode, and
(07:34):
he was an encyclopedia of not just great vocalists, but orchestras.
I had never heard of the Solder Finnegan orchestra, and
Frank Junior turned me on to those guys. I mean,
he was just a walking encyclopedia of the most obscure
but undeniably great arrangers and composers from that era. And yeah,
(07:57):
we were very sad to lose him. He was he
was a great friend to the show. And you know,
I in many ways, I've become even closer with Tina Sinatra,
who is is just a truly wonderful person and just
a great hang. She's a magnificent steward of her father's
(08:19):
legacy and also someone that you just love having a
drink with. So she's she's been great, and she's been
such a great partner and supporter in this project and
in giving us access to all of these charts that
you know, I've just been a luxury to play. What
was your first.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Reaction when you knew you were being given you know
this access to this you know, private group of arrangements,
this collection.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
It was I mean, anyone who loves music would salivate
over something like this. The biggest question for us was
what's in there? What? What's what's in these boxes? There
were a few unplayed gems that we had been alerted
to by Charlie Pinnon of Sinatra Enterprises, so we knew
that certain songs like Shadow of Your Smile, which actually
(09:13):
is not on this record, it'll be on the next one.
Flying down to Rio, that song in particular, he had
alerted us was somewhere in the files the song that
was cut from the Come Fly with Me album, So
that was really exciting. Really, the most thrilling part was
hiring an orchestra, going over the Fox lot, setting up
(09:34):
on the Newman stage and just playing what was in
these boxes and having no idea in many cases what
it was we were about to hear. You know, that
arrangement Woul Give Me the Simple Life, which is the
first song on the record, was one of the first
songs that we played, and you know, Joel McNeely raised
his baton and the orchestra started playing, and instantly you
(09:57):
know it's Nelson Riddle. Instantly you know it's you. This
is this is going to be great, and it gives
you chills because you're you're hearing something that was written,
I mean, what seventy five years ago and you were
in that moment hearing it played for the first time
by one of the greats.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I got chills when I first that, you know, as
the lead track when I heard that one, but all
of them, I mean, that one just is I can't
get it out of my head. I mean, and I
challenge somebody, if you're in a damn bad mood and
you put on the whole collection, but start right there.
You're not going to be in a bad mood. You're
(10:39):
going to be in a great mood. You're going to be,
you know, just walking with some pep in your step.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
It was very selfless music. It was very That's probably
the big difference that I encounter, even even in just
watching these guys perform, like I you watch Sinatra perform live,
you watch, you know, somebody like Nancy Wilson, who was
was a phenomenal jazz vocalist. You watch Crosby or or
(11:05):
Rosemary Clooney or or you know, any of these, any
of these vocalists performed. They're they're performing for the audience.
There's a very there's a very selfless dynamic too to
what it is that they're offering up that I don't
see as much of now. Oftentimes when I when I
see a live performance, I get the sense that the
performer is performing for the performer, But there's a little
(11:27):
bit of kind of musical masturbation going on. That's that's
that where if the audience were there or not, this
person would still be loving themselves and I and I
think that's that's a fundamental stylistic difference that has evolved
and changed over the years. Uh, when it comes to
(11:48):
the art of certainly of of live singing and in
some cases recording.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
I couldn't help but thinking about this and listening to
the collection, you know, Frank and the rest of the
the rat Pack, they had this this unmistakable knack and
art for for breaking balls and you know, it was
an art form, the Don Rickles factor alone, the Dean
(12:17):
Martin factor. Jackie Gleeson, did you channel any of that
vibe when you were in the middle of this work
and are there any favorite Frank moments that you think
of that exemplified his master class and breaking balls?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I mean, it's a you know, it's a good question.
I was kind of on my own here. It's not
like I was part of a group I was. I was.
I mean, I have these magnificent musicians who had each
one has so much of a history that that is
unique to them specifically. But uh, it's it's a that's
a tough one when certainly when I recorded my Christmas
(12:57):
album with Liz Gillies, it was much more that feel,
because we're two people who are essentially the same person
in two different bodies. Yeah, I mean one of my
favorite stories is you bring up Don Rickles. Is that story?
I'm sure, I'm sure this is the game of telephone
at work where I'm not going to tell it exactly right,
but it's something to the effect of Don Rickles was
(13:20):
was out with a woman. He went up to Frank
Sinatra before and he said, listen, I'm gonna be having
dinner with this lovely woman to night. You know, would
you come over and say hi? And just so you know,
because I feel like if she sees that I know you,
it's going to make me look really cool, and you know,
I might have a good night. And so during the
middle of dinner, Frank walks over and says, Don, Hi,
how are you? And Don goes, Frank, please, I'm in
(13:40):
the middle of dinner. I can't remember exactly where that
was or who tells that story, but it's I'm probably
butchering it, but that's like, that's a great that's probably
more Rickles breaking balls than Sinatra, but it's balls were broken.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yes, But you had a lot of work to do,
so there was no time for this. You had to
go about selecting which over the eighteen hundred arrangements in
the archive would be brought to life, so there was
no time for much tomfoolery there. How did you ultimately
decide on what made it? On at least this first collection,
(14:19):
it was really just gut instinct.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
There are only two or three songs that we trimmed,
just because we had a limit for the LP that
we were given by the label. But you know, there
were songs that were very obviously not even in question,
songs like how did She Look? Or give Me the
Simple Life? Or Who's in Your Arms Tonight? Or even Shadows,
(14:45):
you know, songs that were just obviously of course flying
down to rio, songs that were just no brainers. This
has to be on the album. So it's you want
a mix of tonality, you want some ballads, you want
some up tempo tunes. Neely is very good at seeing
an album and obviously he's a truly great film composer,
(15:07):
but also a really fantastic producer. He's really great at
zooming out and seeing an album in its entirety. He's
always the one that decides the order of the songs
on the album when we when we released them, because
he just kind of has the ability to let it
marinate in his brand, and he always always seems to
be right. It's just kind of gut instinct, you know.
To cut a song like Shadow of Your Smile, a
(15:30):
Nielsen Riddle arrangement of a Johnny Mandel song from an
album like this, it is certainly difficult, but you know,
we look at it this way. Look, it can be
the censor piece in the next record.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I love that now. How important was it for you
to record the album live with the musicians from both
you know, La and London versus any digital or overdubbed methods.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Impossible to do it any other way with this kind
of music, Impossible to do any other way. Mainly certainly
for the up tempost stuff, without question, for the ballads.
You cannot record a roboto ballad like how did She Look?
Or even something like Hurry Home or when Joanna Loved Me.
You can't record those songs in isolation. You have to
(16:15):
be in the room with the orchestra. The orchestra has
to be looking at the conductor. The conductor has to
be looking at the singer. The singer has to be
looking back at the conductor. It's like trying to shoot
a movie and shooting your two actors individually in two
different cities. You will not get a performance. You'll get
two people delivering lines who have no idea what the
(16:35):
other person is doing, and a complete inability to make adjustments.
It's exactly the same. So it was the only way
to do it. It's how they did it back then,
and that's how we did it today.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
How did you balance sort of honoring you know, Frank's
classic sound, but putting your twists and your team's twist
on it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
It's why I'm glad I did this album today and not,
you know, ten years ago or fifteen years ago when
I started recording these records, because I've reached a point
where my style is my style. I sound how I sound,
I interpret lyrics the way I interpret them, and I've
settled into something that feels comfortable for me. This one,
(17:23):
there was a little bit of at times putting some
of that aside, because you are really trying to honor
the intention of the arranger more than anything else. I mean,
certainly something like Lush Life itself. That was the only
recording where we had any kind of a guideline. There
was that half recording of Lush Life from nineteen fifty
(17:45):
eight that Sinatra abandoned, and so certainly his vocal choices
for the first half of that song. I tried to
stay pretty faithful too. I didn't. I couldn't think of
any single reason that I was gonna icond guess what
it was that he was going after, because you know,
I mean, he was his instincts were that he was
(18:06):
just never wrong. That was sort of a paint by
number part of the record. But once that recording dies off,
you run out of train tracks and you're kind of
on your own in the wilderness. The arrangement itself, you know,
kind of guides you. It's you know, you take something
like flying down to Rio or any Billy may chart
where it's you know, he always has those scoopy saxophones.
(18:29):
It gives you a hint as to what the tempo
of the song wants to be, and in many cases
I did choose a tempo that that I felt like
was the most comfortable for me vocally, But I think
in most cases it's a pretty good guess that that's
where they would have landed back then. As well.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
You bring the project to the stage at venues like
the Walt Disney Concert Hall at the Venetian. What can
folks expect when they go to these great, lush life experiences.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Well, you know, it's well, we'll do some songs from
the album, but I think it's also a celebration of
great orchestration period. You know, we'll do some songs from
the record, but also some classic charts that that people know,
that that you just you just want to hear live.
And that orchestra is I just saw them last night
(19:25):
actually at Bollywood bull like that. That's that's a world
class orchestra and I'm very excited to be playing with them.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Are there any other lost projects by Well, you mentioned
there's going to be a follow up, so there obviously
are by by Frank or any other artists you would
dream of exploring.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
You know, I think at some point I would love
to record an album of actual stored all arrangements from
the Columbia years, because there are some stunning and lots
of them stunning arrange moments from that era. Which was
obviously the younger Sinatra's career when he was in his
(20:08):
twenties and maybe you know, early thirties there. You know,
those charts only exist in old mono recordings that don't
even you know, they don't have the richness of the
engineering breakthroughs of the nineteen fifties and early sixties. They're
very compressed, and it would be nice to hear those
(20:29):
arrangements in a larger scope. I used to travel to
London from time to time to record and do live
shows with the John Wilson Orchestra, which was at the
time they were specializing in reconstructions of these MGM charts
that have been lost, you know, from things like Singing
in the Rain or Brigadoon or with the Wizard of Oz.
(20:54):
These were orchestrations that were they were gone. You know,
Hollywood assume that this was always going to be something
that was going to be part of our culture, and
I think a lot of these charts were destroyed. The
building where they were all kept was bulldozed to make
a parking lot, and so what John Wilson and his
(21:15):
team did was to reconstruct all of these charts from
existing conductor's fragments of conductor scores that remained in their
own ears, and they did it. And I remember landing
in London and going to the sound stage and they
were right in the middle of playing I think they
were playing Somewhere over the Rainbow from The Wizard of
Oz and I got chills because I've never heard this
(21:39):
in any other form than in the film, in its
nineteen thirty nine mono form, and it was just astonishing
to hear. And that's why I think the stort all
arrangements would be really interesting to record today, because I
think it's a whole library of music that that was
(22:00):
so beautifully played, but deserves to be played with a
bit more fidelity behind it.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Seth, it's thirty seven minutes of pure joy on Lush Life.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I think it's thirty seven minutes.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, I believe it sounds good to me.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I absolutely love it, and I know the audience loves
it or those that haven't picked it up will love it.
I'm so grateful, Seth MacFarland for you giving us this
music and giving us everything that you do. Thanks for
being on taking a.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Walk, Thanks for having me, Thanks for listening to this
episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. Share this and
other episodes with your friends and follow us so you
never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a walk. I remember my father standing in the
doorway in my room at one point, which is this
is hilariously out of character for him because he's he's
such a progressive guy. He said, you like a good
rock song now? And then right, what if you.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Could step inside a time capsule, unlock a vault, have
never heard Sinatra Treasures, and let the golden glow of
the classic American songbook light the way I'm buzznight and
on today's episode had taken a walk. We're doing just that,
taking you on a journey into the heart of Lush Life,
the dazzling new project from Seth McFarlane. That's right, that's
(00:41):
Seth McFarlane. What an amazing talent he is. You know
him for so many things, including family guy, But Seth
is resurrecting the lost arrangements of Frank Sinatra. Get ready
to stroll down memory lane with unreleased orchestrations and fresh
stories as we dive into an album that promises to
(01:02):
be as timeless as the chairman of the board himself.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Taking a walk, Well.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Seth, that's absolutely joyous having you on taking a walk
discussing your joyous project Lush Life, The Lost Sinatra arrangements.
I have to ask the opening question of my guests,
which normally is who would you take a walk with,
living or dead? And where would you take that walk?
Answers go everywhere Seth, Mothers, Fathers, Bach, McCartney, Harrison, Jesus Christ.
(01:38):
I assume for the purposes of this special episode, it's
gonna be Francis Albert Sinatra.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, you know, that's probably a good that's probably Carl
Sagan would be high on that list, but I think
it would be It would be interesting to ask a
few questions. I mean, certainly Nelson Riddle would be on
that list. You know, how how did you do it?
What were you tapping into that that has somehow been
(02:05):
lost from our world? But yeah, those those are all
people who were It would be uh, you know, fun
to take a walk with on a maybe not too
hot day.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, it's normally an impossible question, but that's why that's
why I like it. But what was your first memory
back in the the mean streets of the Waterfall Village
of Connecticut where music first impacted you?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Well, music was everywhere in that town. It was a
very artistic community. There were a lot of people who
sang a lot of people who played instruments. I was.
I was in a church choir when I was very young,
if you can believe that, and that was that was
kind of my first introduction to what that community had
(02:53):
to offer musically. And the director of the choir had
kind of branched out into local theater productions and she
was really into Gilbert and Sullivan. So I remember doing
a lot of Gilbert and Sullivan in that town from
about age nine on. We did The Sorcerer when I
(03:15):
was nine, and then followed up with the HMS Pinafore
and the Mecado, and so I was exposed to that
music at a very young age, which is a nice
way to kind of get a good grounding in the
origins of what would eventually become show music of the forties, fifties,
and sixties.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Did your parents have concerns about your early obsession with
the Great American Songbook and in particular Frank and was
there a support group that they tried to enroll you
in of young kids who were wiser beyond their years.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Concerns. I remember my father standing in the doorway in
my room at one point, which is this is how
hilariously out of character for him, because he's such a
he's such a progressive guy. He said, you like a
good rock song now? And then right there was just
just so much subtext there. It doesn't even need to
(04:14):
be elaborated upon. But no, you know, I listened to
the music that was popular at the time when I
was when I was growing up. I listened to what
we were being fed. The problem that I always had
was that I could see how they were making the soup.
I could see how the gears were making the watch
turn and and it wasn't particularly challenging, And so I
(04:37):
gravitated to film music. You know, the composers that were
working regularly at that time, like you know John Williams obviously,
who's who's still as prolific as ever, Jerry Goldsmith and
Elmer Bernstein and James Hornered, even Henry Mancini was still
working then. And that music was was what really grabbed me,
(04:58):
because I I it was so accessible and so impactful,
and yet at the same time, I couldn't see how
they were doing it. I couldn't see how these sounds
were I couldn't hear, rather, how these sounds were being
made I couldn't see how the soup was being made,
and that was just kind of magical to me. And
I found a lot of that when I discovered Sinatra's music,
(05:20):
that there really are a lot of links between film scoring,
which is very, you know, closely related to classical music,
and Sinatra's music, which was related to both. And it
made sense. Sinatra was a big classical music fan. He
had a huge record collection, and so it was, you know,
a natural progression.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I suppose I saw this quote of yours. I love
the lush orchestration in old fashioned melody writing. It just
gets you excited. That kind of music. It's very optimistic
and it's fun. The one thing that's missing for me
from popular music today is fun guys like being Frank
(06:00):
and Dean and meltor Maade. They sounded like they were
having a great time.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, yeah, they weren't. And by the way, it's deceptive,
because I mean, it's like seeing a stand up comic
who just seems like they're having the time of their
life and it seems so easy for them. But the
fact is it's an illusion because that's the result of
thousands of hours of training and workshopping and it's the
(06:26):
same thing for Frank and Dean and Sammy and those guys.
They made it look so easy, but it's because they
really were just that good. And yeah, I do miss that.
I do miss that sense of lightness coupled with undeniably
great musicality. I feel like music now is takes itself
(06:46):
a lot more seriously and perhaps has less of a
reason to do.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So that's an understatement. Tell me about the initial interest
in the Lost Arrangements, how the idea for Lush Life
first took shape. I know you previously had connected with
the Frank Sinatra Junior because he was on a few
episodes of Family Guy.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah he was. I remember seeing him on The Sopranos
and thinking, gosh, maybe he'll do our show. And so
we reached out to him and he agreed to come
on and agreed to sing. And he was just a
he was just game for anything. He was a real
true participant in the process of making an episode, and
(07:34):
he was an encyclopedia of not just great vocalists, but orchestras.
I had never heard of the Solder Finnegan orchestra, and
Frank Junior turned me on to those guys. I mean,
he was just a walking encyclopedia of the most obscure
but undeniably great arrangers and composers from that era. And yeah,
(07:57):
we were very sad to lose him. He was he
was a great friend to the show. And you know,
I in many ways, I've become even closer with Tina Sinatra,
who is is just a truly wonderful person and just
a great hang. She's a magnificent steward of her father's
(08:19):
legacy and also someone that you just love having a
drink with. So she's she's been great, and she's been
such a great partner and supporter in this project and
in giving us access to all of these charts that
you know, I've just been a luxury to play. What
was your first.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Reaction when you knew you were being given you know
this access to this you know, private group of arrangements,
this collection.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
It was I mean, anyone who loves music would salivate
over something like this. The biggest question for us was
what's in there? What? What's what's in these boxes? There
were a few unplayed gems that we had been alerted
to by Charlie Pinnon of Sinatra Enterprises, so we knew
that certain songs like Shadow of Your Smile, which actually
(09:13):
is not on this record, it'll be on the next one.
Flying down to Rio, that song in particular, he had
alerted us was somewhere in the files the song that
was cut from the Come Fly with Me album, So
that was really exciting. Really, the most thrilling part was
hiring an orchestra, going over the Fox lot, setting up
(09:34):
on the Newman stage and just playing what was in
these boxes and having no idea in many cases what
it was we were about to hear. You know, that
arrangement Woul Give Me the Simple Life, which is the
first song on the record, was one of the first
songs that we played, and you know, Joel McNeely raised
his baton and the orchestra started playing, and instantly you
(09:57):
know it's Nelson Riddle. Instantly you know it's you. This
is this is going to be great, and it gives
you chills because you're you're hearing something that was written,
I mean, what seventy five years ago and you were
in that moment hearing it played for the first time
by one of the greats.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I got chills when I first that, you know, as
the lead track when I heard that one, but all
of them, I mean, that one just is I can't
get it out of my head. I mean, and I
challenge somebody, if you're in a damn bad mood and
you put on the whole collection, but start right there.
You're not going to be in a bad mood. You're
(10:39):
going to be in a great mood. You're going to be,
you know, just walking with some pep in your step.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
It was very selfless music. It was very That's probably
the big difference that I encounter, even even in just
watching these guys perform, like I you watch Sinatra perform live,
you watch, you know, somebody like Nancy Wilson, who was
was a phenomenal jazz vocalist. You watch Crosby or or
(11:05):
Rosemary Clooney or or you know, any of these, any
of these vocalists performed. They're they're performing for the audience.
There's a very there's a very selfless dynamic too to
what it is that they're offering up that I don't
see as much of now. Oftentimes when I when I
see a live performance, I get the sense that the
performer is performing for the performer, But there's a little
(11:27):
bit of kind of musical masturbation going on. That's that's
that where if the audience were there or not, this
person would still be loving themselves and I and I
think that's that's a fundamental stylistic difference that has evolved
and changed over the years. Uh, when it comes to
(11:48):
the art of certainly of of live singing and in
some cases recording.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
I couldn't help but thinking about this and listening to
the collection, you know, Frank and the rest of the
the rat Pack, they had this this unmistakable knack and
art for for breaking balls and you know, it was
an art form, the Don Rickles factor alone, the Dean
(12:17):
Martin factor. Jackie Gleeson, did you channel any of that
vibe when you were in the middle of this work
and are there any favorite Frank moments that you think
of that exemplified his master class and breaking balls?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I mean, it's a you know, it's a good question.
I was kind of on my own here. It's not
like I was part of a group I was. I was.
I mean, I have these magnificent musicians who had each
one has so much of a history that that is
unique to them specifically. But uh, it's it's a that's
a tough one when certainly when I recorded my Christmas
(12:57):
album with Liz Gillies, it was much more that feel,
because we're two people who are essentially the same person
in two different bodies. Yeah, I mean one of my
favorite stories is you bring up Don Rickles. Is that story?
I'm sure, I'm sure this is the game of telephone
at work where I'm not going to tell it exactly right,
but it's something to the effect of Don Rickles was
(13:20):
was out with a woman. He went up to Frank
Sinatra before and he said, listen, I'm gonna be having
dinner with this lovely woman to night. You know, would
you come over and say hi? And just so you know,
because I feel like if she sees that I know you,
it's going to make me look really cool, and you know,
I might have a good night. And so during the
middle of dinner, Frank walks over and says, Don, Hi,
how are you? And Don goes, Frank, please, I'm in
(13:40):
the middle of dinner. I can't remember exactly where that
was or who tells that story, but it's I'm probably
butchering it, but that's like, that's a great that's probably
more Rickles breaking balls than Sinatra, but it's balls were broken.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yes, But you had a lot of work to do,
so there was no time for this. You had to
go about selecting which over the eighteen hundred arrangements in
the archive would be brought to life, so there was
no time for much tomfoolery there. How did you ultimately
decide on what made it? On at least this first collection,
(14:19):
it was really just gut instinct.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
There are only two or three songs that we trimmed,
just because we had a limit for the LP that
we were given by the label. But you know, there
were songs that were very obviously not even in question,
songs like how did She Look? Or give Me the
Simple Life? Or Who's in Your Arms Tonight? Or even Shadows,
(14:45):
you know, songs that were just obviously of course flying
down to rio, songs that were just no brainers. This
has to be on the album. So it's you want
a mix of tonality, you want some ballads, you want
some up tempo tunes. Neely is very good at seeing
an album and obviously he's a truly great film composer,
(15:07):
but also a really fantastic producer. He's really great at
zooming out and seeing an album in its entirety. He's
always the one that decides the order of the songs
on the album when we when we released them, because
he just kind of has the ability to let it
marinate in his brand, and he always always seems to
be right. It's just kind of gut instinct, you know.
To cut a song like Shadow of Your Smile, a
(15:30):
Nielsen Riddle arrangement of a Johnny Mandel song from an
album like this, it is certainly difficult, but you know,
we look at it this way. Look, it can be
the censor piece in the next record.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I love that now. How important was it for you
to record the album live with the musicians from both
you know, La and London versus any digital or overdubbed methods.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Impossible to do it any other way with this kind
of music, Impossible to do any other way. Mainly certainly
for the up tempost stuff, without question, for the ballads.
You cannot record a roboto ballad like how did She Look?
Or even something like Hurry Home or when Joanna Loved Me.
You can't record those songs in isolation. You have to
(16:15):
be in the room with the orchestra. The orchestra has
to be looking at the conductor. The conductor has to
be looking at the singer. The singer has to be
looking back at the conductor. It's like trying to shoot
a movie and shooting your two actors individually in two
different cities. You will not get a performance. You'll get
two people delivering lines who have no idea what the
(16:35):
other person is doing, and a complete inability to make adjustments.
It's exactly the same. So it was the only way
to do it. It's how they did it back then,
and that's how we did it today.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
How did you balance sort of honoring you know, Frank's
classic sound, but putting your twists and your team's twist
on it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
It's why I'm glad I did this album today and not,
you know, ten years ago or fifteen years ago when
I started recording these records, because I've reached a point
where my style is my style. I sound how I sound,
I interpret lyrics the way I interpret them, and I've
settled into something that feels comfortable for me. This one,
(17:23):
there was a little bit of at times putting some
of that aside, because you are really trying to honor
the intention of the arranger more than anything else. I mean,
certainly something like Lush Life itself. That was the only
recording where we had any kind of a guideline. There
was that half recording of Lush Life from nineteen fifty
(17:45):
eight that Sinatra abandoned, and so certainly his vocal choices
for the first half of that song. I tried to
stay pretty faithful too. I didn't. I couldn't think of
any single reason that I was gonna icond guess what
it was that he was going after, because you know,
I mean, he was his instincts were that he was
(18:06):
just never wrong. That was sort of a paint by
number part of the record. But once that recording dies off,
you run out of train tracks and you're kind of
on your own in the wilderness. The arrangement itself, you know,
kind of guides you. It's you know, you take something
like flying down to Rio or any Billy may chart
where it's you know, he always has those scoopy saxophones.
(18:29):
It gives you a hint as to what the tempo
of the song wants to be, and in many cases
I did choose a tempo that that I felt like
was the most comfortable for me vocally, But I think
in most cases it's a pretty good guess that that's
where they would have landed back then. As well.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
You bring the project to the stage at venues like
the Walt Disney Concert Hall at the Venetian. What can
folks expect when they go to these great, lush life experiences.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Well, you know, it's well, we'll do some songs from
the album, but I think it's also a celebration of
great orchestration period. You know, we'll do some songs from
the record, but also some classic charts that that people know,
that that you just you just want to hear live.
And that orchestra is I just saw them last night
(19:25):
actually at Bollywood bull like that. That's that's a world
class orchestra and I'm very excited to be playing with them.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Are there any other lost projects by Well, you mentioned
there's going to be a follow up, so there obviously
are by by Frank or any other artists you would
dream of exploring.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
You know, I think at some point I would love
to record an album of actual stored all arrangements from
the Columbia years, because there are some stunning and lots
of them stunning arrange moments from that era. Which was
obviously the younger Sinatra's career when he was in his
(20:08):
twenties and maybe you know, early thirties there. You know,
those charts only exist in old mono recordings that don't
even you know, they don't have the richness of the
engineering breakthroughs of the nineteen fifties and early sixties. They're
very compressed, and it would be nice to hear those
(20:29):
arrangements in a larger scope. I used to travel to
London from time to time to record and do live
shows with the John Wilson Orchestra, which was at the
time they were specializing in reconstructions of these MGM charts
that have been lost, you know, from things like Singing
in the Rain or Brigadoon or with the Wizard of Oz.
(20:54):
These were orchestrations that were they were gone. You know,
Hollywood assume that this was always going to be something
that was going to be part of our culture, and
I think a lot of these charts were destroyed. The
building where they were all kept was bulldozed to make
a parking lot, and so what John Wilson and his
(21:15):
team did was to reconstruct all of these charts from
existing conductor's fragments of conductor scores that remained in their
own ears, and they did it. And I remember landing
in London and going to the sound stage and they
were right in the middle of playing I think they
were playing Somewhere over the Rainbow from The Wizard of
Oz and I got chills because I've never heard this
(21:39):
in any other form than in the film, in its
nineteen thirty nine mono form, and it was just astonishing
to hear. And that's why I think the stort all
arrangements would be really interesting to record today, because I
think it's a whole library of music that that was
(22:00):
so beautifully played, but deserves to be played with a
bit more fidelity behind it.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Seth, it's thirty seven minutes of pure joy on Lush Life.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I think it's thirty seven minutes.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, I believe it sounds good to me.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I absolutely love it, and I know the audience loves
it or those that haven't picked it up will love it.
I'm so grateful, Seth MacFarland for you giving us this
music and giving us everything that you do. Thanks for
being on taking a.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Walk, Thanks for having me, Thanks for listening to this
episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. Share this and
other episodes with your friends and follow us so you
never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.
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