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Frank Sinatra wasn't really a great singer.

Context matters.

Even if you don't care for his music Sinatra was a great singer because of his innovations in the studio. His use of German audio tape recording devices in music production was groundbreaking. His use of electronic microphones with sound cancellation was revolutionary because he could lay down a vocal track with no instrumentation even while working with a full orchestra.

The man gets little credit for being the first to use "mixing" and "dubbing" to produce recordings that had not been completely cut in one take.

He was a giant of the music industry and is IMHO utterly unappreciated for the amazing advances in technology he brought to the industry.
 
Context matters.

Even if you don't care for his music Sinatra was a great singer because of his innovations in the studio. His use of German audio tape recording devices in music production was groundbreaking. His use of electronic microphones with sound cancellation was revolutionary because he could lay down a vocal track with no instrumentation even while working with a full orchestra.

The man gets little credit for being the first to use "mixing" and "dubbing" to produce recordings that had not been completely cut in one take.

He was a giant of the music industry and is IMHO utterly unappreciated for the amazing advances in technology he brought to the industry.
Those all sound like things that engineers (electrical, audio, or otherwise) should really get the credit for.
 
I agree with you. Singing and Acting are two areas where the cream most assuredly does NOT rise to the top with any regularity.
Sinatra was talented for sure, but it wasn't his talent that got him to the top, it was the intangibles.
He was charming and a showman. He also had great agents who managed to obtain other people's songs, which were then made into Sinatra's hits. Almost every single one of his great ones is a re-arranged song that someone else performed first.

But he was also the embodiment of the American dream, a child of Italian immigrants who came to America seeking a better life. And with some luck, he made it bigtime.
 
Context matters.

Even if you don't care for his music Sinatra was a great singer because of his innovations in the studio. His use of German audio tape recording devices in music production was groundbreaking. His use of electronic microphones with sound cancellation was revolutionary because he could lay down a vocal track with no instrumentation even while working with a full orchestra.

The man gets little credit for being the first to use "mixing" and "dubbing" to produce recordings that had not been completely cut in one take.

He was a giant of the music industry and is IMHO utterly unappreciated for the amazing advances in technology he brought to the industry.
I'm pretty sure Les Paul was the first to overdub recordings (mixing) -- he invented the mechanism to do it. And he had an impressive singing career of his own, as well as creating the iconic electric guitar that carries his name.
 
He was charming and a showman. He also had great agents who managed to obtain other people's songs, which were then made into Sinatra's hits. Almost every single one of his great ones is a re-arranged song that someone else performed first.

But he was also the embodiment of the American dream, a child of Italian immigrants who came to America seeking a better life. And with some luck, he made it bigtime.
He was also despised by many of the troops in WWII, because he used connections (mob connections) to stay in the states (where young men were a rarity) during the war. He represented the men that scared GI's that they were romancing their wives/girlfriends.
 
He was also despised by many of the troops in WWII, because he used connections (mob connections) to stay in the states (where young men were a rarity) during the war. He represented the men that scared GI's that they were romancing their wives/girlfriends.

The OG Jodie?
 
I'm pretty sure Les Paul was the first to overdub recordings (mixing) -- he invented the mechanism to do it. And he had an impressive singing career of his own, as well as creating the iconic electric guitar that carries his name.
I used to own one of those. The Gibson Les Paul is one of the most iconic electric guitars in history.
 
It grows on you. I hated it the first time I heard it, and the more I thought about the choices they're making the more I love it.
it reminds me a lot of Dinosaur Jr's cover of Just Like Heaven...


it benefits from the listener being familiar with the original, but the emotional vibe of the cover makes me feel some kind of way 😍
 
Dinosaur Jr is underrated, and this cover is amazing.
When I was in college, I was at the Bursar's office on what must have been the first week I was there. I'm in line, and I'm behind these two guys, and one of them is throwing a hissy fit that he saw The Toadies the weekend before and they sounded exactly the same live as they did on their album.

The other guy he was talking to was mystified by this criteria, but the first guy was adamant that bands should sound different live.

I disagree, but a cover that takes a strong divergence from the original often wins me over even when I loved the original. I respect creativity.
 
It's not bad, but that's not the kind of song where you can let the vocals get overpowered like that.

But if we are doing hot takes on remakes.
The Canons version of Dancing in the Dark is the better than Bruce's.

It's too "pretty" for me, her voice is too thin. Needs far more grit.

I'm hearing in my head Marianne Faithfull or Lucinda Williams doing a cover of the song - either would bring far more to it than this girl. 'cept Marianne is dead, so there's a problem!
 
It's too "pretty" for me, her voice is too thin. Needs far more grit.

I'm hearing in my head Marianne Faithfull or Lucinda Williams doing a cover of the song - either would bring far more to it than this girl. 'cept Marianne is dead, so there's a problem!
Speaking of Marianne Faithfull:

Load and Reload are good, actually, and everyone who was upset about the demise of Metallica post-Black Album was a few years premature.
 
Even if you don't care for his music Sinatra was a great singer because of his innovations in the studio. His use of German audio tape recording devices in music production was groundbreaking. His use of electronic microphones with sound cancellation was revolutionary because he could lay down a vocal track with no instrumentation even while working with a full orchestra.
Do you have a source for this? Trying to find specific brands for the audio tapes and have come up with nothing. For the microphone, I assume you are referring to the Neumann U 47 which doesn't have "sound cancellation"; it picks up sound better in one direction because it can switch to a cardioid polar pattern.

The man gets little credit for being the first to use "mixing" and "dubbing" to produce recordings that had not been completely cut in one take.

He was a giant of the music industry and is IMHO utterly unappreciated for the amazing advances in technology he brought to the industry.
Sinatra was the electrical and audio engineer you're referring to.
As @iwatchus said, Les Paul is largely credited with developing what I assume you are referring to as "multi-track recording". If you are referring to something different, please let me know.

I wasn't aware Sinatra was an electrical & audio engineer who mixed and dubbed his own recordings. Curiously, his own website makes no mention of any of the accomplishments that you've referred to.
 
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