Every record Sinatra made is a singing lesson. If you don't believe me, try singing along with him sometime. You find yourself upping your game every time.

By pure chance I started listening to "Songs for Swingin' Lovers", from Sinatra's Capitol era, when I was 21. By the time the stylus lifted from the vinyl, I realized there was entire exhilirating universe I had not been told of. Went out and bought the entire set of remastered Capitol albums. Only then did I really grasp why Elvis became such a cultural phenomena. Sinatra had perfected the singing of the music of his time. Yes, there were other great singes of those songs, and there still would more great singers to come, and even some more great songs of that kind to be written. It would never, ever, be done better than Sinatra, however, so something in an entirely different vein would have to come along, and since the culture of the time limited Ray Charles' appeal to all parts of society, a good lookin' white fella from Mississippi, who had great chops of his own, would bring forth the new banner.

I still isten to those albums with some frequency, and it never ceases to amaze me as to how damned good the guy from Hoboken is. It is unbelievable, in the literal sense of the word.

Will and Brian are both so so right. Beautiful observations.