Trilogy: Past Present Future
A triple album of standards, pop covers and a Gordon Jenkins suite, home to New York, New York.
Frank Sinatra, 1980
- Released
- March 1980
- Label
- Reprise
- Producer
- Sonny Burke
His fifty-fifth studio album was a three-record set, each part arranged by a major collaborator. Billy May arranged The Past, Don Costa arranged The Present, with Nelson Riddle contributing Something, and Gordon Jenkins wrote, arranged and conducted The Future. The Past returns to standards he had not recorded since the early 1960s, such as The Song Is You, It Had to Be You and All of You. The Present covers pop songs including Love Me Tender, Something, Song Sung Blue, MacArthur Park and Just the Way You Are. It was his first studio album with his touring pianist Vinnie Falcone and was based on an idea by Sonny Burke.
It reached number 17 on the Billboard 200 and was nominated for the Grammy for Album of the Year, winning Best Album Notes. The Jenkins suite drew sharp criticism. The radio host Jonathan Schwartz called it narcissistic and a shocking embarrassment, and Sinatra rang to complain and had him suspended. Writing for Billboard in 2015, Bruce Handy called the album one of the most ambitious, strange, brilliant and bloated albums of his or any other artist's body of work.
Track listing
- The Song Is You2:39
- But Not for Me3:50
- I Had the Craziest Dream3:13
- It Had to Be You3:53
- Let's Face the Music and Dance2:50
- Street of Dreams3:32
- My Shining Hour3:21
- All of You1:42
- More Than You Know3:22
- They All Laughed2:49
- You and Me (We Wanted It All)4:07
- Just the Way You Are3:26
- Something4:42
- MacArthur Park2:45
- Theme from New York, New York3:26
- Summer Me, Winter Me4:02
- Song Sung Blue2:47
- For the Good Times4:41
- Love Me Tender3:34
- That's What God Looks Like to Me2:55
- What Time Does the Next Miracle Leave?10:44
- World War None!4:27
- The Future4:05
- I've Been There!3:33
- Song Without Words6:00
- Finale: Before the Music Ends9:46
Personnel
- Frank Sinatra vocals
- Billy May arranger, conductor on The Past
- Don Costa arranger, conductor on The Present
- Nelson Riddle arranger on Something
- Gordon Jenkins writer, arranger, conductor on The Future
- Eileen Farrell vocals on For the Good Times
- Sonny Burke producer
More from Frank Sinatra
Songs for Young Lovers (1954), In the Wee Small Hours (1955), Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956), Only the Lonely (1958), Come Fly with Me (1958), Nice 'n' Easy (1960), Sinatra-Basie: An Historic Musical First (1962), September of My Years (1965), Sinatra at the Sands (1966), Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967), Francis A. & Edward K. (1967), Watertown (1970), Duets (1993)
Sources
- Trilogy: Past Present Future, Wikipedia