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Vinyl Album

Artist: Frank Sinatra Title: Trilogy: Past, Present & Future Label:   Reprise Country: USA Catalogue: 3FS 2300 Date: Mar 1980 Format: Triple LP Collection:   I Own It     I Want It  Community:  8 Own, 1 Wants Price Guide: Valuation Page » Search eBay #AD  » Search Amazon #AD This site contains affiliate links for which we may be compensated.

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Track	Artist	Title	Composer	Rating
The Past - Collectibles Of The Early Years
A1	Frank Sinatra	The Song Is You	Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern	Rate
A2	Frank Sinatra	But Not For Me	Ira Gershwin, George Gershwin	Rate
A3	Frank Sinatra	I Had The Craziest Dream	Mack Gordon, Harry Warren	Rate
A4	Frank Sinatra	It Had To Be You	Gus Kahn, Isham Jones	Rate
A5	Frank Sinatra	Let's Face The Music And Dance	Irving Berlin	Rate
B1	Frank Sinatra	Street Of Dreams	Sam M. Lewis, Victor Young	Rate
B2	Frank Sinatra	My Shining Hour	Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen	Rate
B3	Frank Sinatra	All Of You	Cole Porter	Rate
B4	Frank Sinatra	More Than You Know	Vincent Yeomans	Rate
B5	Frank Sinatra	They All Laughed	Ira Gershwin, George Gershwin	Rate
The Present - Some Very Good Years
C1	Frank Sinatra	You And Me (We Wanted It All)	Carol Bayer Sager, Peter Allen	Rate
C2	Frank Sinatra	Just The Way You Are	Billy Joel	Rate
C3	Frank Sinatra	Something	George Harrison	Rate
C4	Frank Sinatra	MacArthur Park	Jimmy Webb	Rate
C5	Frank Sinatra	Theme From New York, New York	Fred Ebb, John Kander	Rate
D1	Frank Sinatra	Summer Me, Winter Me	Marilyn Bergman, Alan Bergman, Michel Legrand	Rate
D2	Frank Sinatra	Song Sung Blue	Neil Diamond	Rate
D3	Frank Sinatra	For The Good Times	Kris Kristofferson	Rate
D4	Frank Sinatra	Love Me Tender	Elvis Presley, Vera Matson	Rate
D5	Frank Sinatra	That's What God Looks Like	Stan Irwin, Lan O'Kun	Rate
The Future - Reflections On The Future In Three Tenses
E1	Frank Sinatra	What Time Does The Next Miracle Leave?	Gordon Jenkins	Rate
E2	Frank Sinatra	World War None!	Gordon Jenkins	Rate
E3	Frank Sinatra	The Future	Gordon Jenkins	Rate
F1	Frank Sinatra	The Future (Continued) - "I've Been There!"	Gordon Jenkins	Rate
F2	Frank Sinatra	The Future (Conclusion) - "Song Without Words"	Gordon Jenkins	Rate
F3	Frank Sinatra	Finale: Before The Music Ends	Gordon Jenkins	Rate

Notes

Produced by Sonny Burke
Notes by David McClintick
Album cover concept by Saul Bass
Maufactured by Bristol Productions

Record one: The Past - Collectibles of the Early Years
- Orchestra and chorus arranged and conducted by Billy May
Record two: The Present - Some Very Good Years
- "For The Good Times": Duet by Frank Sinatra with Eileen Farrell
- Orchestra and chorus arranged and conducted by Don Costa, except:
-- "Theme From New York, New York" conducted by Vinnie Falcone
-- "Something" arranged by Nelson Riddle, conducted by Vinnie Falcone
Record three: The Future - Reflections on the Future in Three Tenses
- A Musical Fantasy in three tenses for Frank Sinatra, Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and Mixed Chorus composed, arranged and conducted by Gordon Jenkins
- Chorus director: Jerry Whitman
- "What Time Does The Next Miracle Leave?": Soprano solo by Diana Lee and narration by Jerry Whitman
- "The Future": Alto solo by Beverly Jenkins
- "Song Without Words": Soprano solo by Loulie Jean Norman. Alto solo by Beverly Jenkins

BB: charted on Apr 12, 1980
ARSA May 13, 1980

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Comments and Reviews

Phantom Gtowner 12th Oct 2018		They cut off the last word in my review. It was "...that.".
Phantom Gtowner 12th Oct 2018		Review One thing that becomes clear about this record is that Sinatra ignores all modern pop music trappings. It is totally out of time. There is not one nod to rock’n’roll, soul, disco or punk. Upon hearing this, a person who went into a coma in 1955 and woke up 25 years later might think that nothing had changed. He still has that confident and familiar swagger and he was never afraid to take a chance but “Trilogy” is a tell-tale period for him. Face it, Frank didn’t need to do “Trilogy”, arguably the most ambitious record of his career. At age 64, his place in pop music history was assured. Recording at all by then had its risks. This recording is a concept record of 3 discs, each representing The Past, The Present and The Future. “The Past” is conducted and arranged by Billy May, “The Present” features Don Costa and “The Future” is handled by Gordon Jenkins. All three volumes are produced by Sonny Burke. Record One, The Past is where Sinatra really shines. With bandleader Billy May, he effortlessly sails through tracks of varying tempo like “The Song Is You” and “Let’s Face The Music And Dance” with that familiar yet somewhat annoying Sinatra panache. If he had stopped at Record One we would have a very good LP, but there was more. The Present, record two, is an uneven set but the highlights are well worth a listen. “Theme From New York, New York”, the high point of the entire album is probably Frank's final masterpiece. Until this recording, the best known version of this tune was by Liza Minnelli. Today it would be hard to find someone who can even remember Minnelli doing it. Another track “You And Me (We Wanted It All)” is an emotional tune with a late 1970's flare. These are good songs but my problem with “The Present” is simply that, of the ten songs, six are tunes that I could have done without. In trying to represent the present, Frank performs songs that are far better known by other singers. Some examples are Kristofferson’s “For The Good Times”, an abbreviated “MacArthur Park”, The Beatles’ “Something” and Elvis' “Love Me Tender”. Sinatra’s ongoing problem since the 1960’s has been a lack of decent songs for him to sing. This is not a knock on contemporary songwriters. There will always be good quality songs written but many modern composers don’t suit Sinatra’s style. Most popular music of any certain era has an inherent sameness to it, a lot like automobile designs. Frank was at his best doing Cole Porter, James Van Heusen or Gershwin. These writers were from a different era and wrote in a style that suited Ol’ Blue Eyes. To me he compromised himself artistically by doing contemporary material like Jim Croce’s “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” or his version of Cher’s hit “Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”. This dilemma is far from over on Trilogy. He attempts Billy Joel’s “Just The Way You Are” and Neil Diamond’s “Song Sung Blue” with disastrous results. To hear Frank croon these tunes awkwardly was something I didn’t need to hear. Why would he even think about recording these songs? I’m guessing it’s because these tunes really did represent the present in 1980 to Frank and Sonny Burke, which speaks volumes about their take on the times and what they thought Sinatra’s fans wanted to hear. This brings us to the third record, “The Future”. This is where it gets just a little pretentious and a whole lot wiggy. Frank’s entire career consisted almost exclusively of singing short pop songs and when he gets into more elongated musical structures he sounds like The Sex Pistols trying to do Swan Lake. He performs six tracks all written specifically for this project by conductor Gordon Jenkins. I don’t make claims to have heard all of Sinatra’s work but this must surely rank as the strangest thing he has ever done. The first track “What Time Does The Next Miracle Happen”, a ten minute epic, is a futuristic musical trek around the solar system, much as you might fly an airplane, complete with airport like PA announcements. “World War None” sounds like it’s from some long lost musical and there’s “Song Without Words” which is okay but strangely, it actually has words. All this is followed by another epic length piece called “Before The Music Ends” which is all about returning to Hoboken to see his old neighborhood. It’s sobering to hear Frank off the rails but it has a certain charm. Maybe he meant this to be his last record. The Future has it’s credibility problems but it is ambitious. Most singers today don’t want to take any chances, or more likely, their record companies won’t let them. Sinatra solved that problem by starting his own record company, Reprise Records. Before his death he did two more LP’s,“She Shot Me Down” (1981) and “L.A. Is My Lady” (1984). “Trilogy” is not the ultimate Frank Sinatra LP but it’s far from insignificant. Despite my gentle slagging, this record is an enjoyable listen and it’s good to know that, in his mid 60’s, Frank was still feisty. There’s a certain ironic comfort in 10 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
BigBadBluesMan 29th Mar 2015

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