MYSTAR CAR SUMMER TUNES 1966: ‘STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT’: FRANK SINATRA

You’re 19 and you just made your first payment on a brand new 1966 375 horsepower Chevelle SS396. What were you hearing on that brand new radio in your brand new car?

The summer of 1966 was a time when the top 40 musical sounds on a car radio were a playground for the Beatles, the Stones and an assorted mix of shaggy musicians that ran the show on the pop charts.

But a cat named Sinatra was not willing to grow out his hair and join the club. He had always done things his way and he was not about to change his game.

So he released ‘Strangers in the Night’, complete with orchestra and an old school sound. The song was at least ten years out of step with the then- current Top 40 sound- after all a French horn or trombone was rarely seen in the hands of Clapton, Page or Lennon in 1966.

But Frank didn’t really care what the world thought was hip at the time because he was always cool- it was a major component of his DNA. So he recorded a sophisticated song that played well to a larger audience.

‘Strangers in the Night’ hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on July 2 1966. It kicked the Beatles’ ‘Paperback Writer’ out of the spot and the new champ proved that Sinatra was always going to matter in popular music.

The summer of ’66 was more proof why Frank Sinatra was the Chairman of the Board.

He played well on many radio stations found on that 1966 SS96 car radio that summer.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlF1hKkTtm4

Jim Sutherland

More car related stories at http://www.mystarcollectorcar.com/

COMMENTS

DENNIS:"In 1966, I was 21 and the 'music' I was listening to the sound of a C-130, in Viet Nam".