Guest post by Nathan Arizona
I haven’t watched “Family Guy” since right after it went on the air in 1999. It looked to me like a juvenile and unfunny copy of “The Simpsons.” I might have been wrong, but If I wanted a clever animated show besides “The Simpsons” I looked to Mike Judge.
But I’ve been thinking about trying it again since I learned more about its creator, Seth MacFarlane. It turned out he’s an expert on sophisticated classic pop from the pre-rock era. — the Great American Songbook. He has performed it and written about it. Sounds like an interesting fellow, maybe somebody who could write a quality TV show
Now he’s gone further in music with an album of songs arranged for Frank Sinatra but never released. The charts were by top guys like Nelson Riddle and Billy May. Some had been destined for the 1958 album “Only the Lonely.”
But the arrangements faltered in the studio. They needed more work or didn’t fit with what Frank had in mind. So they went into storage and were forgotten. They wound up as part of the Sinatra library.
Frank’s daughter Tina was in possession of the library, but there was a lot she didn’t know about its vast contents. MacFarlane developed a relationship with her, discovered these arrangements and eventually bought them.
He spruced them up or filled them out, with help from an orchestra led by British conductor John Wilson. Then he put them on his new album “Lush Life: The Lost Arrangements.” MacFarlane does the singing. He’s good at it, though his vocals fall a bit short of Frank’s. But that’s true of pretty much every singer who takes on his songs.
Here’s MacFarlane with “I Never Felt This Way Before.”
Frank made it to the microphone for the song “Lush Life.” There’s a surviving video clip from that session. We can see why this version of “Lush Life” was rejected. It also offers a glimpse of its potential. Here’s part of that session. Yes, Frank is particular. but he’s fairly genial about it.
Here’s MacFarlane’s finished take.
