24th
His phrasing has a lot to do with it, too. You feel he understands and means every syllable of the lyrics. He seems to be recounting a personal experience each time. He sings as if he knows. His phrasing is final, absolute, definitive - so logically and inevitably do the phrases follow each other that, after hearing him sing a song, that song never sounds quite right sung by anyone else. He phrases more as if he is speaking to someone: the intervals, word stresses, note values and rhythms are changed to fit in more with the cadences of colloquial speech. Add the breath control, the slurs, chopped notes, grace notes and held notes that have been his trademarks for almost twenty years and you have the basic ingredients that give that natural, effortless credibility to every word he sings.
- SINATRA by Robin Douglas-Home 1962.
