Frank Sinatra was one of the most prolific and successful artists in America in the 20th century. Sinatra was a crooner, a hero, an icon; he was considered by some to be the voice of a generation. His music is still relevant today, and among his many iconic hits, there is one song that he despised more than any other. That song was “Strangers In The Night“. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the song and the reasons why Sinatra hated it.
The Origins of “Strangers in the Night” and the Race to Release It
“Strangers In The Night” originated as a song for the 1966 film “A Man Could Get Killed”. Lyrics were added by Eddie Snyder and Charles Singleton, and it was presented to Sinatra for several artists to sing, creating somewhat of a competitive race to release the song first. The artists recording the song and racing to release it first included Al Martino, Bobby Darin, and Jack Jones, who were all peers of Sinatra in the crooner, jazz swing genre.
According to Anthony Summers’ book, “Sinatra: The Life,” Sinatra himself hated the song from the first time he saw the sheet music for “Strangers In The Night.” According to accounts from the book, Sinatra told his longtime aide, Irving Weiss, “I don’t want to sing this. It’s a piece of shit.” But, sing it he did, and it was rush-released to great acclaim. As a result, the versions of the song by other artists failed to even chart; meanwhile, Sinatra had to watch as the song that he despised went straight to number one.
Why the Song Hit a Nerve During a Turbulent Period for Sinatra
Sinatra didn’t warm up to the song either, despite its success. He was once heard threatening an orchestra leader that he would “Stick the violin bow where the sun don’t shine” if he played the tune one more time. Sinatra’s outbursts partly had to do with the personal and professional turmoil in his life during the mid-1960s. His connections to the Mafia were becoming strained due to his kinship with John F. Kennedy, who was cracking down on organized crime. He was still reeling from his divorce and was addicted to drugs and alcohol, which affected him professionally and personally.
He would often change the song’s lyrics to keep himself amused by making fun of it. After performing the song on one occasion, an open microphone picked up him saying, “That’s the worst fucking song I ever heard. If you like that song…” he told the audience, “you must be crazy about pineapple yogurt.” He would often shake his head after performing it and say things like “You still like it?”
How Sinatra Spoke About the Song Later in Life
Even years later, at a concert in Jerusalem in 1975, Sinatra introduced the song saying, “Here’s a song that I cannot stand. I just cannot stand this song. But what the hell.” As to why he didn’t like the song, his wife Barbara Sinatra was quoted in “Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank” as saying, “the words were not subtle enough, too ‘on the nose.'” He expressed to her a homophobic comment about the song’s lyrics, claiming that it seemed to him to be “about two f*gs who meet in the bus station bathroom.” Giving an uncomfortable glimpse into some of Sinatra’s more controversial views – views that were unfortunately not all that uncommon during that era.
Still, the song’s success was unstoppable; it famously knocked The Beatles’ “Paperback Writer” off the top of the charts. The early 60s were not a great period in Sinatra’s career, nor his personal life. He was facing health issues due to some of the addictions we mentioned earlier in the article, and his career was in a major slump throughout the early 1960s. “Strangers In The Night” changed all of that and reestablished him as a premier musical icon in America.
How the Hit Shifted Sinatra’s Career in the Years That Followed
Despite the song’s massive success in reaching number one on multiple charts, winning several Grammys, including Record of the Year (of which “Stranger in the Night” was the title track), and reviving Sinatra’s career with a much-needed hit after many years, he was never able to reconcile his hatred of the song. He followed up the success of “Stranger In The Night” with “That’s Life” in 1966, “Somethin’ Stupid” in 1967, and, of course, his signature hit, “My Way” in 1969. Still, “Strangers In The Night” ranks fifth on the list of Sinatra’s most successful songs (by sales and streams), whether he liked it or not.
Sinatra would continue to have success well into the 1980s with “New York New York,” which would become a cultural anthem for the city. He released a couple of “Duets” albums in the early 1990s before passing away in 1998 at the age of 82.
Sinatra’s success is still the stuff of legend, and he remains an iconic figure in American culture. But I suppose even cultural icons are sometimes stuck performing hit songs that they never really liked in the first place. Perhaps this story teaches us that you can’t stop a great song that has proper support, even if the artist singing it loathes it to their core and refuses to support it themselves.
