APRIL 2009 REVISITED STAR CAR TUNES 'Fly me to the Moon' FRANK SINATRA

JUNE 1964 "Fly me to the Moon" by Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra singing "Fly me the Moon" in 1964-an ultimate driving song?

Absolutely and here's why.

The song was born when Johnny Mathis recorded it in 1954 and for a decade every car with an AM radio played some version of this classic tune. There were covers from Nat King Cole in 1961 to the instrumental in 1962 that shot to #4.

Many other performers like Doris Day and Tony Bennett took on the song...

but none came close to the one, the only, the incomparable, legendary 'Chairman of the Board' Frank Sinatra's version in 1964.

 

Frank didn't just sing this song-he took over complete ownership of it when he recorded it on June 9 1964. Biased musical history forces us to see that year as all Beatles and British Invasion. Sure that was true-if you were a 13-year-old girl.

Now we call it Jonas Brother's Syndrome.

The other 95% of the world known as adults in 1964 faced the realities of life and Ringo Starr wasn't the guy to buffer them from the drudgery of uninspiring careers, screaming infants and relentless mortgage payments. Frank was the guy, the human flak jacket that backed off reality. Anybody over 35 in 1964 knew that Sinatra had seen the world through the end of a Depression and a World War.

These British punks wouldn't have had the stones to do that. Songs like 'Help' and Hard Day's Night' might capture the average teenybopper heart but for real meat in a song back in 64 - Frank was the god. Frank was the man so when adults were chauffeuring scuffed up Dodge or Mercury station wagons full of brats on vacation there was one reality in their life.

The only thing that kept them from swerving into a full-loaded Kenworth was this great song done by an American music institution on their static-filled AM car radio with one crappy speaker.

Frank picked up the tempo on the song-gave it his patented swingin' Sinatra-esque beat and for a little over 2 minutes the real breadwinners in the world got to escape. Maybe not in a brand new Mustang or GTO because genuine family guys sure didn't drive anything with less than 4 doors.

Owning a GTO?

Why not talk about curing cancer or knocking out Ali? All 3 carried about the same odds of happening if you were a 42-year-old insurance salesman in 1964.

But Frank- he could always give you that brief trip to the moon.

At the wheel of a 61 Bel Air wagon