September of My Years
release date: May 27, 1965
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]
Tracklist: A)
1. "The September of My Years" - 2.
"How Old Am I?" - 3.
"Don't Wait Too Long" - 4.
"It Gets Lonely Early" -
5. "This Is All I Ask" -
6. "Last Night When We Were Young" - 7.
"The Man in the Looking Glass" - - B)
1. "It Was a Very Good Year" - 2. "When the Wind Was Green" -
3. "Hello, Young Lovers" - 4.
"I See It Now" - 5.
"Once Upon a Time" -
6. "September Song"
The king of croon with just one of his majestic albums. It's one of those essential albums in an artist's repertoire that you shouldn't skip. Also, I think it's kinda nice to own something released in the year I was born. At this point of his long career, Sinatra was a shining star and he had already made great covers of pop ballads but here he goes off the mainstream popular track and proves his talent as an emotional vocal jazz crooner. It's not Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald or Nina Simone vocal jazz but it's a more genuine Sinatra who seeks an expressiveness you hardly find on his blue-eyed jazz pop ballads, suited for coffee table arrangements and chit-chats about the husband's new well-paid job, or the kids' good grades. The type of swing and popular standards made him... popular at the time but looking at his long and shinning career, it is his jazz repertoire that shines the brightest. And he made lots of albums of this type of albums that also became known as easy listening. In a way it's almost like a natural progression from
Where Are You? (1957),
Only the Lonely (1958),
No One Cares (1959),
Point of No Return (1962), and
Softly, as I Leave You (1964). The titles already signals the lost love theme. Instead of his blue-eyed pop ballads albums, this is like the aforementioned songs of:
"ah, there's a real life, it ain't all blue sky, roses and happy-ever-after" tone and quality, which suits him and his splendid voice so well.
I most certainly didn't listen to this album until the mid-1980s but I certainly knew of Sinatra from quite a young age. I was familiar with at leat half of these songs before even going into my teens 'cause Sinatra was one of those familiar voices that I associate with my pre-teen years lisening to whatever came out of the national radio - and this was definitely something I enjoyed.
1965 Favourite releases: 1. Otis Redding
Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul - 2. The Beatles
Help! - 3. Frank Sinatra
September of My Years
Not this particular album as such, but Sinatra plays a big part of my earliest music memories that wasn't purely children's songs.
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This post is part of
MyMusicJourney, which enlists key releases that have shaped my musical taste when growing up and until age 14. Most of these releases come from my parents' and / or my older brother's collection.
