Oklahoma! Sinatra with bonus Shirley Jones and Gloria Grahame

Given it is the 60th Anniversary of the movie of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's first collaboration Oklahoma! why not some Sinatra covers...

Sinatra recorded this in 1943 when Oklahoma! first opened (just like the song above). Apparently this is one of Queen Elizabeth's favorite songs (at least according to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's own Kirstin Chenoweth)

Shirley Jones in the Surrey (1955)

If you have never seen Oklahoma! on the big screen, it has been released for a very limited run for its 60th Anniversary.

Here is a Vegas-Jersey version of Surrey with the Fringe On Top. This was a previously unreleased rehearsal. This fits with Sinatra's Somewhere My Love from Dr. Zhivago.

Mark Steyn has On Stage with Sinatra: A conversation with Vincent Falcone, Jr,  Mark has George Harrison's Something at #86. Mark's Song of the Century #85 is Sondheim's Send In The Clowns, Song #84 (and by coincidence given the attrocious recent events in France) is the originally French song My Way, and at #83 he has Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's Some Enchanted Evening. For Labor Day Mark had Kern and Hammerstein's Ol Man River (as part of a waterfront labor theme). Mark Steyn has Rodgers and Hammerstein's Soliloquy has Song of the Century #41.

Mark's Thanksgiving Sampler includes how he loves the song Oklahoma! (which Sinatra, to my knowledge, did not record).  Here is an Oklahoma! Thanksgiving. 

Pundette breaks her top 10 with You Go To My Head at #9 and One Of Those Things at #10. She has #11 Cole Porter's I Concentrate On You, at #12 Porter's You'd Be Nice To Come Home To, as her #13 Cole Porter's What Is This Thing Called Love. Pundette also has a Cole Porter favorite written by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green Just In Time at #16.

Shirley Jones and Gloria Grahame

Bob Belvedere is counting down Sinatra albums with Billy May arranged Come Dance With Me at #3, Gordon Jenkins arranged All Alone at #4, Swing Easy at #5 and an interview with Chuck Granata. Bob had Kern and Hammerstein's The Song Is You on his song list (tied at #20).

As far as I know, Sinatra did not cover this song...

I remembered Johnny Mercer's birthday (thanks to a tip from Pundette). And here is a sublime song from the forties Kern and Hammerstein's All The Things You Are. I had Frank Sinatra and the President's Marine Corps Band doing You Make Me Feel So Young (and also had a bonus Betty Comden Adolph Green number from On The Town), I had Angie Dickinson's favorite Lean Baby, VanHeusen and Burke's Here's That Rainy Day, Sinatra Lord's Prayer/Ave Maria post, Berlin's When I Lost You, Arlen and Capote's Don't Like Goodbyes, and Gaudio and Holmes' For A While. And here is Frank in 1945 singing from Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat (among other great songs) and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Soliloquy (Mark featured it at #41 on his list for Father's Day). I also had Cole Porter favorite Irène Bordoni who was the star of Porter's first big hit Paris. 

And Happy Thanksgiving.  

Don’t forget to also keep checking out

Pundette’s Sinatra 100 countdown,

Ms Evi’s Sinatra Celebration,

Dispatches from the Camp of the Saints Sinatra,

& Mark Steyn’s Sinatra Songs Of The Century.

It’s a swingin’ world.

As Hillary Clinton reminds us: Oklahoma! explored some disturbing subject matter...