by S. Victor Aaron I remember once or twice seeing the seventies folk-rock band America on one or two lists of most despised bands, and that always puzzled me. So what if the music is soft, my way of thinking goes, if the vocals are rich, the melodies robust and the production is clean? The Beauty Room is not quite [...]

NICK DERISO: Frank Sinatra’s first popular peak is found not at the table of some ring-a-ding casino lounge but inside a transistor radio, as the young crooner swept to girl-crazy acclaim in the late 1940s. Appearing on a variety of showcase programs, including the too-commercial “Your Hit Parade” (1943-44, and 1947-49) then his more personal “Songs By Sinatra” (1945-47) and [...]

NICK DERISO: Sam Cooke, for all his power and grace as a singer, established this strikingly brief legacy during the time of the Hit Single. Which meant Cooke’s most well-known albums of the early 1960s were often dotted with dated filler, tunes in the Broadway style of the day or so-called standards that didn’t properly showcase his direct, emotional range. [...]

NICK DERISO: Funny thing about that modern-day romantic Harry Connick Jr.: Before this decade-old release, he hadn’t ever explored a song cycle about, and only about, love. Oh, Connick would take his shots, now and then. But always with a dash of popcraft crooning, light New Orleans funk or swash-buckling swing music following hard on its heels. “To See You,” [...]

NICK DERISO: Jobim’s bossa nova orchestrations — marked by feather-like rhythms and a freer song structure — provide the platform for Frank Sinatra’s most interesting late-period release. “I haven’t sung so soft,” the belter once joked, “since I had the laryngitis.” Stories of the way conductor Claus Ogerman struggled to get the sensual tempo just right for both men are [...]

NICK DERISO: Produced by an actual working-class hero, touching listeners across every genre and making its case well away from the witheringly bright lights of the Sun Records myth, I’d argue that this record was when rock and roll finally came into its own. Written by legendary Frank Sinatra producer Lee Hazelwood, Sanford Clark’s rockabilly ballad “The Fool” would hit [...]

NICK DERISO: As pleasant as this compilation of songs from an October 2000 concert by Elton John may be, yeah, there are problems. The truth is, early 1970s records like “Tumbleweed Connection” (a studio release with no – no! – hit singles) and the rollicking “11-17-70″ (a live trio album with cover – cover! – songs) are so much better [...]