Frank Sinatra was the king of the Saloon Song singers

November 2, 3:32 PMFrank Sinatra ExaminerRick Busciglio

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FRANK SINATRA  NO ONE CARES

Frank Sinatra was a master at singing a wide variety of songs, from big swinging numbers to slow romantic ballads. One of my favorites on the sad, lost love side is what is called a saloon song. Here is how Frank described this type of song at a 1980's concert; "We have arrived at the section of the performance, ladies and gentlemen, where we do our saloon songs,in this case there are two songs that blend quite beautifully together in their lyrics … one was written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer ("One For My Baby") and the second one by Rodgers and Hart ("It Never Entered My Mind").

I'd like to take a second to explain saloon songs to you, those of you who've never seen me work before – you must have been living in Lapland, under an ice cap. Anyway, saloon songs are songs of unrequited love and sadness or the simple story of the guy whose chick has split and left him with a quarter ounce of grass, but no paper and no matches and she never even paid the electric bill, and she stole the VW with the flat tire. She split, the chick. She got the hell out of there, baby. She flew the coop. And he's hurtin'. Oh boy, is he hurtin'. He's the kind of guy that you find alone at two o'clock in the morning with either a piano player or a jukebox, and this is the kind of music they usually play or they like to listen to. If you please …"

Here is Frank with Mercer and Arlen's "One For My Baby (and one more for the road).

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Also click to read  The-story-of-a-song-One-For-My-Baby