The 20th of February 1974
Official U.K. Albums Chart results from Sunday the 17th to Saturday the 23rd of February 1974
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 16th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 17th,
and published on Wednesday the 20th of February 1974.
Frank Sinatra
Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back
At No.14, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart”, the week of my 2nd Birthday, is Frank Sinatra with Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back.
An aptly named title…
…for an already established, and hugely respected artist.
Frank had, until recently, been enjoying a spell of retirement; a personal choice which he’d made around the summer of 1971. Thus officially calling a halt to a professional singing career which, up till then, had lasted 36 years. All the way back then, he’d joined the 3 Flashes (so thus forcing the group to collectively change their name to the Hoboken Four), which must have seemed more than a lifetime ago, back in 1935.
By the early 1970’s…
…he was becoming weary and frustrated of having to crowd-please with the same old hit songs which he’d been accumulating steadily over his career, never being able to dig deeper into his own recorded catalogue.
He’d also recently been diagnosed around that time, with an ailment which uncomfortably distorted some of his fingers, a condition called Dupuytren’s contracture, which had also hindered his chances of broadening his acting skills in his occasional movie career, denying him the opportunity to play the character of Harry Callahan in the film Dirty Harry, as couldn’t hold the .44 Magnum effectively.
However, the itch to step back into the recording studio became too much, maybe due to witnessing fellow established artists of the past generations such as Perry Como, getting a second wind, who knows; but a couple of years later, he was back in the recording studio recording another album.
This comeback album…
…had been released with much fanfare, over in the United States especially, with a television holiday special also being organised to help launch the album, and a new successful set of sold out shows planned for this new year of 1974 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, before a much more substantial world tour, which itself will eventually witness him revisiting the UK once again next year in 1975 for a successful run of shows; first in May at the Royal Albert Hall for a couple of dates, and then at the London Palladium in the November for a further eight dates.
It is safe to say, that at this point, with that relaxed and now matured voice which sang with the assuredness of all those years of experiences behind it, Ol’ Blue Eyes himself was most definitely back, with fresh material and a new lease of life ahead.
The album…
…had first entered the chart, in the last week of autumn last year in 1973 at No.33, before climbing into the Top 20 the following week to sit at No.18.
After a downward blip in its third week, the LP came back to settle at the No.18 spot once more, where it sat over the Christmas period, before rising to what would become its highest peak of No.12, as the world spins into this new year of 1974; thereafter it settled back a little further into mid-chart territory before beginning to slip further as we approach this week.
However, that little cherub with a bow and arrow is probably the reason why this week this album soars, all the way back from No.40, to this position this week.
From here,..
…after this week, it will fall out of the chart altogether after that second wave of attention, and so far, is yet to return.
Side 1
Side 2
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