FRANK SINATRA JR. "Spice"

"These songs represent what are, after all, my favorite musical tastes and I hope that these tastes which bring spice to my life will bring spice to yours, now and in the future". Holy shit, livin' on the edge with Junior! Was "spice" a catch phrase back in the late 60s? Wow. I so have to use it now.

Not a clue what I was thinking when I grabbed this elpee from the Phase Four shop in Cambridge, Mass several years ago (anyone know if it's still open?). I must've been suckered in by the tracklisting and my complete curiosity of what Ol' Blue Eyes offspring might sound like. Oh, now I know, it was the fact that he covers a Free Design song. I wonder if that was the equivalent of James Blunt covering Sufjan Stevens. Released in 1971, Jr. muddles the spices with his shaky pestle, his non-distinct croon up in the mix over some pretty solid Nelson Riddle arrangements.

The best thing about this elpee though is the over the top biography and synopsis of the songs on the back of the cover. Good, no, great reading. "From the clove of the WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND, to the pepper of the TROLLEY SONG, from the sugar of SO MANY STARS, to the garlic of BLACK NIGHT, we have, I think, examined and utilized all of the tastes and fragrances...". The garlic? You can't make this shit up, someone wrote it, possibly Jr. himself. High fives all around.

Anyway, for your listening pleasure, I've included the Free Design cover, a Holiday Inn lounge take on "Everybody's Talkin'" from Midnight Cowboy (Nilsson = pissed), and the Williams/Nichols penned "We've Only Just Begun" which was a monster hit for the Carpenters. Have a great weekend, I'm off to the Delaware Water Gap to eat lobster and see how many PBR's it takes to rock myself to sleep.

TOMORROW IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE
EVERYBODY'S TALKIN'
WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN