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Sinatra Song of the Week: I've Got the World on a String

When considering the greatness of Frank Sinatra--both the man and his voice, and the music he created--it is important to place his achievements within the context of the man's life. It is easy to forget that there was a time when he wasn't 'The Chairman of the Board' and when he wasn't regarded as the greatest male popular vocalist in history. There was a time when he was just another washed up teen idol trying to figure out a way to jump start his career and continue collecting a paycheck for being a singer. And then there were his personal problems--the love of his life, Ava Garnder had left him, his vocal chords were shredded from overuse, and he was on the skids financially as well as no longer in demand professionally. Frank recalled this time in his life by saying "It was all Mondays."

To make matters worse, the impresarios at Columbia Records were abusing his talent in an effort to revive his album sales. His pairing with producer Mitch Miller was particularly disastrous. The nadir of this unholy alliance was probably the recording of "Mama Will Bark", where the greatest voice of the 20th century shared the microphone with a buxom actress named Dagmar (sort of a Rhonda Shear of her day) and some other cretin howling and barking like a dog in the background. Not surprisingly, Sinatra's recordings with Mitch Miller were not a resounding commercial success and in 1952 he was dropped by Columbia.

In 1953, several singers who here friends of Sinatra, most notably Jo Stafford and June Hutton brought him to the attention of Capitol Records A&R man Dave Dexter, Jr. This led to a contract, and begun a nine year association with Capitol that many consider (myself included) the finest era of Sinatra's work. Initially, Frank worked with Axel Stordahl (June Hutton's husband, with whom he had worked at Columbia) and these sessions produced some decent recordings, including "I'm Walking Behind You" and "Lean Baby", but nothing incredibly significant. Dexter wanted Frank to try something different, and with Stordahl leaving to accept a job with Eddie Fisher in New York, he agreed reluctantly to a pairing with Nelson Riddle. Riddle was an experienced big band conductor, known best at that point for his work with Nat King Cole. Dexter had envisioned this pairing ever since he had signed Sinatra, but its doubtful that even he could have foreseen the magic that was to result.

To say that the first Sinatra/Riddle session was a success is an understatement, and "I've Got The World On The String" is somewhat of a 'shot heard round the world' for Sinatra's career and popular music in general. The Ted Kohler/Harold Arlen song is given new vibrancy with Riddle's buoyant arrangement and Sinatra's new found vocal maturity. The song was a modest commercial success at the time, reaching #14 on the single charts, but became a classic. It was also a favorite of Sinatra himself, and he continued to perform the song live, frequently as a show opener, for the rest of his life.

When the phoenix-like rebirth of Frank Sinatra's career is put into a modern context, it becomes even more remarkable. Today one can scarcely imagine a 'teenybopper' idol--say, Justin Timberlake or Kevin "K-Fed" Federline--being able to sustain a serious musical career at all after their initial stardom among the adolescent set. Frank Sinatra not only revived his career, but left an imprint on America popular music--and its culture--that is unlikely to ever be equaled. "I've Got The World On A String" can easily be considered the 'big bang' in the creation of Frank Sinatra's world that we all inhabit. It is a celebration of the good life, of which the music of Frank Sinatra will always remain an intrinsic part.

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