THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD TAKES ON MICHAEL BUBLE

There are some very good reasons to appreciate the impact of Michael Buble on popular music.

The guy has made a forgotten style of music popular again for the first time in many decades. His army of fans is primarily female, and they are represented in every possible age group under the sun.

Buble blends old-school orchestra with a mix of new pop tunes and a large collection of classics from the Great Singer era of the 50s and 60s.

He has embraced the style and swagger of the greatest singer from that era; The Chairman of the Board himself, Francis Albert Sinatra.

I have always been a big fan of Frank, even though I was too young to initially appreciate his 50s sound. The man was the embodiment of style and I can understand why Michael Buble would choose to use him as a role model in his own musical career. 

Thank you Mr. Buble for popularizing a sound that should never have gotten unpopular, in my humble opinion

But let’s put things in perspective at the risk of alienating every woman that ever heard a Buble cover of a Sinatra classic like ‘Fly Me to the Moon’.

There is only one chairman of this board and his name isn’t Michael Buble.

Frank Sinatra grew with his music. His early success as a crooner made him the 40s object of affection for the teen idol crowd, composed mainly of very young women known as “bobby soxers” at the time. Bobby soxers wore rolled-down socks and poodle skirts as a fad of the period. It was a little milder fad compared to a large tattoo and ring through the lip in today’s world.

The real essence of Frank Sinatra’s greatness was not this period of his career. His voice dropped an octave and his career teetered over a cliff by the 1950s. The skinny kid from New Jersey was into his thirties and found himself in reinvention mode. He adopted a style that became his signature sound of relationships gone bad, or a lifestyle gone crazy.

Either way, Frank was now a performer for adults in adult situations and that was the golden years of the Sinatra sound. Booze, bars, fast planes, and even faster women punctuated the music from Old Blue Eyes during this period in his career.

Sinatra lived the life in the 50s and 60s with party wingmen like Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. to keep him company on a very social Rat Pack circuit. If you wanted to hang out with Frank, then you better bring along a cast-iron liver for survival.

These guys owned Vegas and it was a non-stop party train, even by Las Vegas standards.

The signature Sinatra sound was seasoned by booze and cigarettes into the powerful vocal package that most fans recognize as his finest musical hour by the mid-60s. He had slowed down a little from the crazy lifestyle and he sounded better than ever by the time ‘Strangers in the Night’ became a major hit in 1966.

‘My Way’ became his ultimate signature song in the early 70s, and it was a good look at the man’s life. He was the man when it came to the sound resurrected by Michael Buble. So I thank Buble for his efforts, but he is not Sinatra.

Sorry ladies.

COMMENTS

GAYLE:"He may not be Sinatra but Buble is very smooth"

DENNIS:"Sinatra was a Party Animal "Gangsta". He didn't play one on MTV."

MARGARET: "Have read the link and have to agree that really there IS only one Chairman and although I like Michael Buble's style, he doesn't get under the surface of a song like Frank did."

BERNHARD: "I think all these Sinatra comparisons are quite useless - for naturally, there will never be another Sinatra.
Michael Bublé is quite an excellent artist, though (he already was when he started at the local music clubs in Vancouver - check his first album "Babalu").  I'm much looking forward to see Bublé in concert in Germany in spring (his German tour was a quick sellout, so additional concerts have now been scheduled in October 2010).
I won't be expecting "a new Sinatra" - no artist will ever compete with what Sinatra was in concert. But I will be expecting a fine evening with high-class musical entertainment, and I think I won't be disappointed."

RICK:"You and Margaret are both right on the money. MB just scratches the surface while Frank's  engulfed in the song."

LUC:"Surely Buble is very fine singer and a great performer.  But of course, nobody could ever take the place of Frank Sinatra. Nowadays, I think that only Tony Bennett can be considered as the greatest heir of the Sinatra Legacy and he bears the flag very high. FS himself has considered him as the best singer in the business. Isn'it the best certification he could ever receive ? However, I guess that the best we could grant Michael Buble is congratulating him for being himself at the peak and keeping alive the great american songbook for the forthcoming generations."

CAROLYN:"Frank Sinatra was able to get deeply and completely into the heart of each and every song and extract all of the meaning and the emotion. No other singer was able, or is able, to do this as well as Frank. And of course, Frank was breathtakingly handsome and charming and he possessed a captivating and magnetic stage presence. He had impeccable taste and style and insisted on perfection in everything. I could go on and on and on! He was in a class by himself. No one could, or ever will, come close to Frank. As for Buble, his singing is extremely superficial. Yes, he is helping to preserve the great American Songbook, but that's about it. When I listen to Frank, he overtakes me completely with his singing, but when I listen to Buble, I feel nothing. "

CAROL:"Rod Stewart released 4 CDs from the American Songbook. Many of these wonderful songs are songs that Sinatra sings.  But Rod does not try to sound like Sinatra, he has his own style and sound.  unlike Buble who in my opinion tries to be Frank. Never liked Rod Stewart, until he started to sing my kind of music."