Frank Sinatra - September of My Years (1965) Vinyl LP • Gordon Jenkins

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Condition Details:

Still in ORIGINAL SHRINK-WRAP (opened). Vinyl plays with occasional crackles (play-graded). Cover has a few creases near edges; discoloration with darker discoloration spots (front/back). Inner-sleeve is original (Reprise ads). Spine is easy-to-read with mild wear and thatching. Minor shelf-wear along top/bottom-edge and corners. Top edge has text that is easy-to-read. Opening shows signs of use with divots. Light green/blue labels with a small image of Sinatra in upper left. (Not a cut-out.)

Tracks:

1. The September Of My Years
2. How Old Am I?
3. Don't Wait Too Long
4. It Gets Lonely Early
5. This Is All I Ask
6. Last Night When We Were Young
7. The Man In The Looking Glass
8. It Was A Very Good Year
9. When The Wind Was Green
10. Hello, Young Lovers
11. I See It Now
12. Once Upon A Time
13. September Song

About The Record:

September of My Years, by Frank Sinatra, peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. The orchestral arrangements are by Gordon Jenkins, their fifth album collaboration. In 2000 it was voted No. 190 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. Sinatra was to turn 50 years old in December 1965, and the release of this album along with A Man and His Music and Strangers in the Night marked a surge of popularity in his music. Both September of My Years and A Man and His Music won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. CBS television cameras were rolling the night (earlier in the spring) that Sinatra recorded It Was a Very Good Year for the album. The edited result was included in a Walter Cronkite CBS News special (1965 SPECIAL REPORT: FRANK SINATRA), broadcast on November 16, 1965. Sinatra's performance of It Was a Very Good Year won the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male, at the Grammy Awards of 1966. Arranger Gordon Jenkins was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for the same song. This was the first album Sinatra and Jenkins had recorded together since 1962's All Alone. Jenkins and Sinatra would next work together on the 1980 album Trilogy: Past Present Future. September of My Years is a concept album exploring the "who am I" questions and perspectives that someone, particularly a man, faces upon entering middle age. For instance, in It Was a Very Good Year, the narrator looks back upon his life at ages 17, 21, 35, and now, in his personal "September." The structure of the song, which lasts almost four and a half minutes, was highly unusual for a popular song of the time, as it exceeded most other songs of that era by over a minute. In the process, the narrator "takes his time" to review his past relationships with a bittersweet mixture of satisfaction and regret. Similarly, in Hello, Young Lovers, the narrator offers to young people the guidance and wisdom he has gleaned from experience. In other songs, like The Man in the Looking Glass and Last Night When We Were Young, the narrator conducts an internal dialogue that reviews both the accomplishments and disappointments of his life. In addition to the lyrical content, the musical background reflects a more mature Sinatra than the Capitol recordings of the 1950s and his Reprise albums of the early 1960s. Instead of the big-band, "swing" arrangements with horn sections of those earlier songs, this LP features an orchestra with nine violinists. These strings provide a delicate interplay with the vocals, allowing the listener to easily hear and take in the lyrics.