Frank Sinatra's Recorded Legacy - Sinatra As A Conductor

Sinatra As A Conductor

Between 1946 and 1983 Sinatra conducted seven albums and occasionally conducted live orchestras on stage. His first recordings on which he wielded the baton were instigated by producer Mitch Miller, who approached Columbia boss Maine Sachs to request that Sinatra conduct some of the work of Alec Wilder, later released as Frank Sinatra Conducts The Music Of Alec Wilder. In 1956 Sinatra recorded the first album in the Capitol Records tower, not as a vocalist, but as a conductor on the album Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color. In 1957 and 1959 he conducted albums for Peggy Lee — The Man I Love — and Dean Martin — Sleep Warm — the latter, charting inside Billboard's Top 40. A lesser-known project for his own label, Reprise, entitled Frank Sinatra Conducts Music from Pictures and Plays remains relatively obscure, and it was 20 years before Sinatra conducted in a studio again, for Sylvia Syms on the album Syms by Sinatra, which featured the final arrangements of Don Costa. The following year Sinatra conducted for trumpeter Charles Turner on the album What's New?.