Larry King's Hot Seat: Frank Sinatra

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Larry on Frank Sinatra:

"Frank was a guy that if he liked you, you were his friend forever, and if he didn’t like you, you were his enemy forever. He, Frank did not live in greys. He was the best performer I’ve ever seen on a stage…he learned his phrasing by being a band singer with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. He told me he’d sit behind Dorsey and watch how Dorsey would play the trombone, and while playing, his jacket wouldn’t move. All the phrasing came out through the front of his body and through the mouth. He tried that when he sang.

Everything he did he was meticulous about. Quick story, he recorded an album called L.A. is My Lady. One of the songs in it was called 'Mac the Knife,' and he completed the whole album and he flew to New York, to do something. They sent him a copy of the album he didn’t like the “Mac the Knife” cut, so he flew the whole band to New York, and re-did that one cut. At his own expense,  just because he was so particular about his music.

There has never been anyone like him. Tony Bennett said he was once flying and they hit a lot of turbulence and he looked up to the sky and said 'Why didn’t I call Frank? Frank would have prevented it.' As Anthony Quinn told me once, 'If Frank Sinatra is singing a sad song, he reminds you of every moment when you where ever sad. He puts you into that, if you lost your girl and he is singing about a lost love, you totally feel that loss through his voice, and on the other hand when he is singing a happy song, an up tempo song, that reminds you of…of the happiest times of your life.' There was just no one like him and he was so appealing sometimes. I interviewed him in New York and we were riding down an elevator and a man got on, you know on the fifth floor like and he goes, 'Frank do you remember my mother she met you in Houston? It was after a show and you took a picture with her—that picture is on her television set, you remember that little old lady with the grey hair?' Frank said 'Oh yeah how is she?' and he hugged him. He didn’t know who she was. He’s seen eighty million people but he was so kind to this guy—'Oh yeah give her my love.'”

Celebrated television host and Grandparents.com spokesperson Larry King has done more than 50,000 interviews in his career. See more Larry King Now! on Ora.tv and Hulu.com.