FRIDAYS ARE FOR FRANK: “From Promise to Promise” (Frank Sinatra & Rod McKuen)

I sometimes wonder why people make promises they never intend to keep.
Not in big things, like love or elections, but in the things that count –
The newspaper boy who says he will save an extra paper, and doesn’t.
The laundry that tells you your suit will be ready on Thursday and it isn’t.
Love, well yes, but like everything else, we go from day to day,
We move from promise to promise.

“From Promise To Promise” is a spoken-word track from Sinatra’s troubadour era—a Frank phase that admittedly seems out of context with the man, but still shows his demonstrated willingness to get out of his comfort zone. The album, A Man Alone, features songs written by American poet Rod McKuen, a man who once ran with the beat-est of the Beat, including Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassidy and Allen Ginsberg.

Frank Sinatra would stick out like a sore thumb in that crowd, but 1969 was a turbulent time for pop culture, and Frank wanted to try to stay ahead of the curve. After his marriage to Mia Farrow ended in trainwreck fashion, Frank was lost for a while—grabbing onto whatever he thought would keep him in the spotlight.

In the spirit of “To thine own self be true,” Frank eventually returned to form and felt comfortable again in his own skin. But not before spending a bit of time as A Man Alone…

I’ve had a good many promises now, so I can wait for the harvest.
And some of them, they come about.

***