Frank Sinatra - Lost In The Stars Lyrics

Listen very very closely to the intro, this very recording was the inspiration for the intro to The 5th Dimension's Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In.

A friend asked today, "If you could keep only ONE of his albums, which one goes with you to the proverbial desert island?" The short answer is, "This one." But a big ocean of memories will surround that island.

Back when I was just six years old, I attended my best friend David Pearce's birthday party, and his mother -- a widow, who I can remember thinking was so beautiful -- took out a picture of little David's late father and told us boys how she'd married on the "Day of Infamy." (Much later I'd learn that was the term used by President FDR for December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was hit, launching American involvement in WWII).

Then Mrs. Pearce told us that "Frank Sinatra -- you don't know him, was always our favorite singer." I remember feeling honored, at that moment -- in some way that my six year old heart could never express in words---that she would share with us that photograph, and her memories of David's late father. And then, speaking to me alone (as the other boys at the party gravitated towards David's new toys) Mrs. Pearce told me in a soft voice:

"Frank Sinatra is the greatest singer, Mark. Maybe someday you'll agree with me." Then she put on one of his records---something from the first Capitol album of 1953 (how I wish with all my heart that I could recall which song she selected---but I do remember listening, dutifully, and feeling very much like a big man who was seeing eye-to-eye with this beautiful woman who was treating me like an adult.

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I grew up in a musically literate home, with loving (and very musical) parents who once saw a live performance by Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey's band in July of 1940 (at Toronto's "Canadian National Exhibition"----a sort of glorified `state fair' in Canada's largest city). My parents had no Frank Sinatra LPs from the 1950s (only one or two old "Columbia" 78s from the late 1940s). Dad gave Mom two Nat Cole LPs in the 60s, including one arranged by Gordon Jenkins---my Mom's favorite singer and her favorite arranger, right up until her death three years ago.

My parents always took us to see "Broadway" musicals as performed locally, (in my hometown of Ottawa Canada) and eventually---in 1960---they took us to see the "real thing"----I remember being told that the theatre house lights were being dimmed all over Broadway that very night because Oscar Hammerstein had just died. Mom told me "He's the greatest lyricist, Mark" suggesting (like Mrs. Pearce) that one day, perhaps when I was older, I might agree with her.

On that same visit to NYC I remember stepping off an elevator in the Plaza Hotel, and my father immediately telling me "that man there, you just rode in the elevator with is Richard Rodgers" (who would one day be my favorite composer). But as with beautiful Mrs. Pearce trying to introduce me to Frank Sinatra, I just "wasn't ready" to appreciate greatness . . . "

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Any track from that album is “my favorite recording right this minute.” As it happens Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio just played THIS one (one of the few NOT written by my favorite composer). Yes, as Frank said in another context -- introducing Fred Astaire dancing with Eleanor Powell: 'You can wait around a hundred years, and you'll never see (hear) the likes of this again.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6VMMa0YDbg Thanks, JdvH for posting this great sounding selection.

Quite simply an astonishing achievement!

That's the word! "astonishing." Just posted a note of my own, Ian George. Thanks for posting yours.

This LP contains the very best collection of ballads ever recorded by any human being.

That's the simple truth: And the singer considered it his crowning achievement. The arranger Nelson Riddle, conducting the largest orchestra ever assembled on a Hollywood film stage (Goldwyn -- and the sound was recorded on 35 mm tape! -- Riddle said he never saw Frank better prepared -- or in better voice. So yes: "The very best collection of ballads ever recorded by any human being." The simple truth. (Just posted a note of my own -- Thanks for posting yours, Noe Berengena.