Frank Sinatra is the finest male singer of the Great American Songbook. Ella Fitzgerald is the finest singer. Sinatra, a man not short of confidence, once said that Ella was the only performer he was nervous about appearing with because she was the best. This video shows why. This is Sinatra and Fitzgerald performing The Lady is a Tramp. Sinatra is fine. Ella is great. Sinatra's vocal peak was in the 1950s and by the time of this appearance his voice had lost some of its elasticity, but even peak Sinatra could not match Ella most of the time, though on ballads and saloon songs like Angel Eyes, Wee Small Hours Of The Morning, Only The Lonely, and One For My Baby And One More For The Road he is absolutely sublime, and there is no one better.
The video is from a Sinatra TV special in 1967, A Man and his Music. It was the third, and last, episode in an annual series that started in 1965, that featured Frank and his selected guests. Enjoy.
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