Rare Jimmy Van Heusen Sinatra Demo

[Teasing the Korean]

Songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen sings the would-be title track of this scrapped Sinatra concept album idea. This acetate, rumored to have existed for decades but believed to be lost, has finally surfaced.

Edited April 18, 2015 by Teasing the Korean

[fasstrack]

Songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen sings the would-be title track of this scrapped Sinatra concept album idea. This acetate, rumored to have existed for decades but believed to be lost, has finally surfaced.

[gmonahan]

The proposed album cover was definitely a winner!

gregmo

[fasstrack]

Songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen sings the would-be title track of this scrapped Sinatra concept album idea. This acetate, rumored to have existed for decades but believed to be lost, has finally surfaced.

I think I'm the only one who liked this. I emailed it to friends whose silence spoke volumes. It's tasteless and obvious and I don't think it was a real demo but someone pulling someone's chain. That cover (priceless). Come on...I love it, though. It reminded me so much of Mad Magazine's old song parodies.

I have often walked down your street before

But there once was pavement underneath my feet before

Now when I walk by---I see H-bombs fly

........Yucca Flats----is no street----where to live!

(from a parody called something like Songs for the Atomic Age)

[Teasing the Korean]

I think I'm the only one who liked this. I emailed it to friends whose silence spoke volumes. It's tasteless and obvious and I don't think it was a real demo but someone pulling someone's chain. That cover (priceless). Come on...I love it, though. It reminded me so much of Mad Magazine's old song parodies.

Maybe Cahn/Van Heusen wrote it for fun and gave it to Sinatra as a prank? Who knows? I love some of those lines, though: "i don't think it drastic/To seek the monastic life/Having known love's lure..." I can just imagine Frank singing that!