I'm not sure why Frankie Randall wasn't better known. He had a pure, natural baritone that was strong and swinging, akin to Frank Sinatra, Steve Lawrence and Bobby Darin. Randall recorded a few albums for Roulette and a bunch for RCA in the 1960s with all-star West Coast musicians. I suspect had he come up in the late 1950s, he might have been caught the pop current rather than fighting it in the folk-rock era. [Photo above of Frank Sinatra and Frankie Randall]
Randall's best albums arguably were Sings & Swings and At It Again!, recorded for RCA in August 1964 and February 1965, respectively. Marty Paich arranged and conducted the sessions in Hollywood, and Art Pepper soloed on alto saxophone on eight tracks.
Randall could deftly surf any tempo and mood thrown at him with polish and grace. The song choices were smart and plenty hip. Included here are Once in a Lifetime, I Believe in You, One Morning in May, On the Other Side of the Tracks, As Long As She Needs Me, More, A Wonderful Day Like Today, The Rules of the Road and Impossible. The latter is the Steve Allen song ("If they had ever told me how sweet a kiss could be, I would have said impossible, impossible for me...")
Frankie Randall was gifted, sang with great taste and had a beautiful, intelligent voice. Unfortunately, times had changed just as he hit his stride, but he did well in Sinatra's shadow by echoing his master's voice. He died in 2014.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find the two Frankie Randall albums mentioned above on A Swingin' Touch (Fresh Sound) at the Blue Sounds site here. A few songs from At It Again! were dropped for space.
JazzWax clips: Here's I Believe in You...
Here's On the Other Side of the Tracks...
On the Other Side of the Tracks
And here's The Only One...
Bonus: Here's a single side Randall recorded of the Bewitched TV theme in 1964, with an obligato by Art Pepper...
A special thanks to Dennis Galloway.
