Sinatra Sings Sinatra
by Bobbie Katz

When Frank Sinatra Jr. returns to the MGM Grand August 21–25, audiences will get a unique glimpse into why his father felt that Las Vegas was his kind of town. He’ll be singing the music from his father’s vast repertoire spanning 60 years, and decades of performance in Las Vegas. The “Chairman of the Board,” as Frank Sinatra has been tagged, first appeared at the Desert Inn on September 4, 1951, and is considered to be one of the foundations on which the city was built.

“Las Vegas has always been a special part of my father’s musical history,” says Sinatra Jr., who will be peppering the musical selections in the show with his personal insights into Frank Sr.’s connection to the city. “I came to the city to see him perform for the first time in 1954, forty-eight years ago. I saw so many stages of his career go by in those Vegas years. I want to bring those years to life for the audience.”

He will have some loyal, high profile help. Among members of the 38-piece orchestra will be 87-year-old Bill Miller, Sinatra Sr.’s accompanist for 46 years; Hank Cattaneo, who was Sinatra’s production manager for 14 years, and orchestra conductor Terry Woodson, who joined Sinatra in 1980. Woodson has also been the keeper of the Sinatra music library for the last 22 years. All the musical arrangements are the original ones by such well-known names as Billy May, Nelson Riddle, Don Costa and more.

“My own career as such ended on May 14, 1998 when my father died,” Sinatra Jr. explains. “Since my father’s death, people want to hear Sinatra music and they’re looking to me to give it to them. Therefore, I’ve put my career on hold in terms of the music I pick. Out of a 25-song show, 20 of them are Sinatra tunes and only five are not.”

Interestingly, the way the show came about was purely accidental. During the summer of 1998, Sinatra Jr., who was due to play the Sands in Atlantic City that October, was having a 7 a.m. cup of coffee when he suddenly had an epiphany. “The Sands in Atlantic City was the last place that my dad played,” he says. “What I had to do suddenly hit me like a bolt out of the blue. I told my stage manager to get the darkest blue light he could, and my manager to get a large orchestra. I envisioned that as the music was being played, my conductor, Jeff Morrison, would leave the stage and Bill Miller would come on, lit in the blue light. He would start playing ‘One For My Baby’ and I would come out and sneak into the crook of the piano, with my back to the audience. I still wore my glasses in those days—it was before my laser surgery—but I knew that when I took off my glasses, at my age and in very dim light, my resemblance to my father could be scary.”

At that Sands engagement, Sinatra Jr.’s physical and vocal resemblance to his father found its’ intended mark. When Sinatra Jr. turned around and began singing ‘One For My Baby’, the audience grew incredibly still, reacting with true passion when the song ended and he continued on with his father’s repertoire.

The response to “Sinatra Sings Sinatra” continues. In fact, it was so overwhelming this May at the MGM Grand that Sinatra Jr. was invited back right then and there. After all, Las Vegas is his kind of town now, too!

Back to Events and Places | More Bobbie Katz Columns | Mail this Article to a Friend