[8/23/05 early a.m.] When I was at Circuit City on Saturday, I was surprised to hear big band-type music being played over the sound system. I asked the girl stocking the shelves and she said it was Michael Buble.
It's now on my short list of music to buy (along with the Johnny Cash tribute albums -- while I wait for TNT to one day replay or otherwise make available their All-Star Tribute).
[8/27/05 early a.m.] More music I'm looking at. Steve mentioned Johnny Crawford (the kid from the Rifleman) has a band (looking at Amazon I don't see any new albums, but evidently he was a popular singer when he was younger). And that Paul Anka has an album where he puts an old beat on newer songs (Rock Swings). Linking on, I see Pat Boone has an odd album where he sings metal (No More Mr. Nice Guy). I'll pass. I might as well go get William Shatner's Has Been or even better Spaced Out.
A comment on Anka, took me to Peter Cincotti which also linked to Jane Monheit (a Tom Richards favorite -- and I hate to say it but I agree)
Instrumental music: Chris Botti, Clifford Brown (with strings).
I still like Sax by Moonlight (Greg Vail) that I bought at Costco.
Last but not least I see John Stevens has an album (Red). OK, this one goes on my want list.
Maybe I'll dig out Linda Ronstadt's 'Round Midnight and listen to that for free.
Hey I now see that Harry Connick Jr. caved and put out an album of the old songs (seems kind of slow). Now I see the Rod Stewart's Great American Songbook (series). Maybe this is the one that started it all (again). Sounds a little incongruent at first though. I see Johnny Mathis got into the act too (Isn't It Romantic)
How about Robbie Williams? (Swing When You're Winning) - linked from Buble. The last song here is Beyond the Sea, which also happens to be same as the last song from Finding Nemo.
[9/7/05] As a follow-up to the Michael Buble post, I found somebody auctioning a VHS tape of the All-Star Tribute to Johnny Cash. I also won the bid to Dressed In Black: a tribute to Johnny Cash. But I got outbid for Kindred Spirits. (Don't worry, I won't mention Miracle: Happy Summer.)
Then I started looking for tribute albums to Elvis. There's a bunch of them. But I think I may already have the best one: Honeymoon In Vegas. There's several interesting ones out there including ones by Ronnie McDowell (who voiced over Elvis in the movies), Conway Twitty, and others.
[9/9/05 - degrees of separation. Or Connections. I couldn't figure what my third DVD to buy (3 for 25 at Blockbusters on 8/29 - I bought Star Wars I and the Mummy Returns). I wound up buying Beyond The Sea which was the movie about Bobby Darin. Actually Bobby Darin might be another one to buy. Or the Beyond The Sea soundtrack. And now I hear Beyond The Sea on a Carnival Cruises commercial being played during the Agassi-Ginepri match at the U.S. Open.]
Or Tony Bennett singing Sinatra? (too mellow). Or just stick with Frank. Or the Rat Pack.
Or just listen to all the Amazon samplers 8)
[later that morning] No wait I found the album. William Hung's third album! (Happy Summer). Somehow some of the stuff I've been looking at is on this list
[12/14/05] Jamie Cullum is a jazz vocalist who was featured by the Costco Connection
[12/15/05] I was listening to Buble's Summer Wind and decided to compare it to Sinatra's version. The first version was a duet with Julio Iglesias. Then I found the song on a Reprise release, so apparently it wasn't done in the Capitol years. Then I see it was done by Steve Lawrence a couple of years ago in a Sinatra tribute (who still sounds pretty darn good considering his age) and also by Lou Rawls (the album was a little rough, but Lou likewise sounds great for his age.) Hey, now I see Barry Manilow did one in 1998 (yep, sounds like Manilow all right). $2.52 used. Hmm. Here's one by Keely Smith. Who's Keely Smith. (Hint: Keely is a woman.) Lemme see what else. Michael Andrew and Swingerhead (sounds sort of like Dean Martin). Craig Raymond & The Next Generation Big Band (sort of close, but not quite). Here's a jazz band tribute called Frankly A Tribute To Sinatra. Jimmy Amadie (no samples). Blue Dahlia (nightclub music). David Osborne (no samples, but he's a pianist based on his other albums). Roger Williams (I think he's a famous pianist). The Wright Touch Big Band (more nightclub music -- kind of reminds me of Larry on that Three's Company episode when he sang in the restaurant). Joe Martino (accompanied by accordian). The last one I see for now on Amazon is Rob Zappulla (this guy performed with Tommy Dorsey! but the album was actually released in January). Wait maybe he performed with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and not with Tommy himself. And actually there's only one song on this album.
I wonder if that Sinatra sound-a-like who used to go on Letterman, or that guy who sang in Waikiki, have albums? They probably sound better than some of these guys. Even John Stevens sounds better. Listening to him now singing It Had To Be You, he actually sounds like Harry Connick.
[2/28/06] I downloaded a bunch of Ring of Fire covers a month or two ago and started listening to them again (along with some American Idol downloads). One of them was sung by Joe Whiting whose albums are being sold at CDBaby.com which distributes independent music. They have a feature that lets you type in famous singer and they bring up artists that sounds like the original. A Frank Sinatra search brought up several including Charles Power, Gary Willner, and Ken Nelson. They come up disappointingly short but have a nice selection of songs that I might choose to compile from the Sinatra originals. Searching further, I like Frank Stallone (Sylvester's brother) the best so far. Steve Lippia is OK too (the band probably makes him sound better than he is).
Linking on, Bob Valentine is not too bad. Michael Civisca is somewhat reminiscent of Steve Lawrence. Tamer is a bit like Connick. For some reason, when I heard Gerard Carelli, I thought of Regis Philbin. I like TonyB's energy. And his voice is quite good too. OK I'll take him over Stallone, except his album is has several unfamiliar songs.
A search for Willie Nelson turned up Bill Cosner and Joe Whitehead.
I wonder if anybody sounds like Slim Whitman? The search turned up Blackstone Valley Singers. Ronnie Mason has a pleasant country voice, but can hit the high notes and sings Indian Love Song. Kind of a sedated Slim Whitman.
A search for Elvis brings Terry Buchwald (quite good), Doug Church, Jason Knight. Orange is not really a soundalike, but slightly modern interpretation.
I wasn't searching for him, but Rusty Evans sounds and even kind of looks like Johnny Cash. In fact full circle I come with his album with Ring of Fire. He's an oldtimer who recorded at the same time as Buddy Holly. Tom Lang is linked on Rusty's page, but he sound a little reminiscent of Willie. OK that's it for now.
(But wait, there's more...) I can't stop. I see some $5 specials at CDBaby.
Leon Cargil sounds good in traditional country.
Hey, Tamer is here in the Jazz Vocals category. As well as the Chris Klich Jazz Quintet
In the Easy Listening: Crooners/Vocals category, Denise Montana sounds like a Nora Ephron soundtrack. Mary Bentley has talent. Libbie Jo has potential. Frank Tarantino's instrumentals are better than his vocals. Kay Martin sounds Linda Ronstadt in Round Midnight then kind of switches to Sergio Mendez, but has only 5 songs on her CD. James Lee Stanley reminds me a bit of Kenny Rankin, but sleepier (if that's possible). Guest musician: Peter Tork! Wait, I heard a bit of CSN in there. Wow there's a lot of nice sounding stuff here. Jennifer Robin. Marilyn and George are two elderly people doing Sinatra and Bennett standards backed by MIDI arrangements, not too badly -- they'd probably be popular at retirement homes.
Locksley, a early-Beatles-esque band is in the Beatles-pop category. But I don't know if they sound any better than the Rutles.
In the 50s pop category is TopFlite, a doo wop a capella group who's claim to fame is singing the national anthem at Spokane Indians baseball games. Roger "Bass Man" Kurt "The Lowest Singing Voice in the Hawaiian Islands, possibly the World!"
I did a search for Josh Groban and came up with Moses. But his first song was more like Weird Al. Baritone Tom Baust sings show tunes very seriously. Ben Jordan is supposed to sound like a cross between Josh Groban and a Gregorian chanter. But he sounds like a very flat Josh Groban to me. I don't think Simon would pass him to the next round. Peter Arce is a piano soloist from the Phillipines who does dinner music. Darin Southam is more like it. Bradford Newquist does Cole Porter slowly. Rose Marie Rudolph sings songs to put babies to sleep. Dale North would pass to the next round. Marty Angiulli is described as Josh Groban on steroids. Sorry. Krassimir is one of Bulgaria's most popular celebrities. Szylvia is a classical stylist from Luxembourg. She sounds great until she hits The Way We Were with her accent. Mark Price does Bobby Darin stiffly. Here's a hint: Jarrod McNaughton's album is titled "You Raise Me Up". And does quite well. This Josh Young guy can sing too. John Trones, who tours with Jim Brickman, sings torch songs accompanied by piano. David Feygin reminds me of Johnny Mathis with romantic covers (probably Mathis did A Time For Us on a LP I have). The boy can sing too. Previn is often compared to Josh Groban, but unlike Josh, Previn writes all his own music and performs it as well, both vocals and instrumental parts. Eric Raftery sings jazzed up Christmas songs. Somehow I'm reminded of Home Alone. Broadway performer Craig Rubano does the hit parade. (What? No Copa Cabana.) Caroyn Sykes plays Christmas tunes on harp. Her credentials? She won Ms. Sykes the presitigious HARPO MARX SCHOLARSHIP! Beat Kaestli (is that his real name?) does big band standards with only a slight trace of his Swiss accent.
OK, that's it (again).
But wait, there's more... I decided to take a listen to Michael Feinstein on amazon.com. Rather plodding. Looking up Feinstein on wikipedia brought me to the American Songbook which brought me to John Pizzarelli. He has a high voice but now I'm getting used it. His interpretations are definitely more lively than Feinstein.
Pizzarelli's albums looks pretty cheap used. Now I see a link to Steve Tyrell singing Sinatra. I suppose he's about as good as the guys on cdbaby.
[5/18/08] I was listening to Sinatra via Windows Media Player and went to the Jazz radio link. Searching for Sinatra brought me to the Fabulous Strip station which mentioned Matt Dusk. Going to Matt Dusk brought me to a few more singers one of which of Steve Tyrell. He's not really a Sinatra sound-a-like but I like what I'm hearing from his albums. Evidently he gained some notoriety by appearing in the Father of the Bride movies.
Renee Olstead is another one that sounds quite good. And she was only 14 when she made the album in 2004.
[9/3/08] I got the new ESPN1420 magazine with a feature story on Leon Wright-Jackson. Leon Jackson was a youtube sensation in high school. I looked it up and came across another Leon Jackson who featured in XFactor (which is a clone of American Idol) who patterns himself on Michael Buble. He was good enough that Michael Buble invited him on stage to sing at one of his shows. I also see that Johnny Cash's performance on the TNT Special was on there too (see post above).
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