Emma Zayer

First entry of the new year...one of many more to come, I promise.

I thought long and hard about what stories to share here, and then, very suddenly, I was inspired to write while listening to Pandora.com a few minutes ago. For those who don't know, Pandora is a site that allows you to create free, personalized radio stations over the Internet based on genres, songs or artists you like. You pop in a band name or a song title and Pandora creates a streaming radio station based on the musical characteristics of your input. You can't choose the exact songs to play, but you can give songs that they select a thumbs up or thumbs down, further shaping the selection that your station will feature and influencing which songs will remain in rotation.

One of my stations -- "Michael Buble Radio" -- plays Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Harry Connick Jr., other standards and the like. Usually the selection is very good, as was the case tonight...until it came to a selection off of Frank Sinatra's "Duets" album.

Cole Porter's "I've got you under my skin" starts playing. So far so good. Frank starts singing. Age has taken some toll on his voice but it still sounds excellent. Now I'm expecting Liza Minelli or someone like that to chime in -- but instead there's this strange smoky male voice I can't place. Okay. It gets weirder when the male duet partner is singing in falsetto an octave above Frank, then scat/wailing in this high-pitched voice.

It's Bono from U2. What the heck?? I like Bono, and I like Sinatra, but this pairing is just horrible to me. I'm even more horrified to learn that this song supposedly helped launch 1993's "Duets" to the top of the charts. Really? Because their vibes don't match at all to me. Sinatra is singing the song it originally was done and Bono is doing a genre-blending, sometimes-rock, sometimes-swing sort of thing.

Perhaps part of the problem is that the duets on the album were actually not recorded together; the collaborators, who also include Minelli, Tony Bennett, Gloria Estefan and Aretha Franklin, performed their halves to Sinatra's pre-recorded vocal tracks. I imagine that this could stifle the organic creative energy that comes from performing in the other singer's presence.

I can like new takes on old songs. Michael Buble and Harry Connick are among the younger artists who bring their own unique flavor to traditional pop songs. And Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole's 1991 "Unforgettable" duet is a wonderful recording that couldn't have been done without technology, since it was created using Nat's 1951 original recording of the song.



I think genres can mesh too -- just not here. Find it if you want, though. And if you want something enjoyable, check out Pandora.