Saturday, December 31, 2011

A Look Back At the Rat Pack's Frank, Sammy & Dino In 'Robin And The 7 Hoods'



Over at Detectives Beyond Borders, an always interesting crime blog, Peter Rozovsky made a remark about Frank Sinatra not needing his fellow "Rat Pack" "nuchscleppers."

I thought that Peter Rozovsky, a copy editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, where I've been a contributor since 1999, was a bit unfair to Sinatra's pals Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin.

The late great crooners were much more than Sinatra's sidekicks.

Sammy and Dino were great singers and entertainers who more than held their own with Sinatra - and Sinatra himself would have the first to say so.

In defense of the Rat Pack I offered a link to a Youtube.com clip of Frank, Dino and Bing Crosby singing in Robin and the 7 Hoods, the 1964 musical comedy film that best showcased the Rat Pack, in my view.

You can watch the great crooners via the below link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwCYBJe0o2M

You can also listen to Dino sing I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face with Chris Botti from his wonderful CD, Italia, via the below link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiSMSKYsWU4

And you can read the discussion at Detectives Beyond Borders via the below link:

http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/2011/12/rat-without-pack.html

If you're interested in international crime fiction, check out http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the plug, I guess.

    I mentioned this in the discussion at my place, but it's worth repeating here. My defense for calling the Rat Pack Sinatra's finger-snapping nuchschleppers is that by the time I became aware of popular entertainment, they were content to be known as such.

    I think even in Sinatra's case, his reputation and his celebrity may have overtaken his talent, at least until the Sinatra revival of the last fifteen or twenty years.
    =======================================
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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