“Drinking Again,” was written by Johnny Mercer and Doris Tauber. Sinatra recorded it, with a Claus Ogerman arrangement, in Hollywood  on February 1, 1967.   This is my favorite of the “saloon songs,” but it  wouldn’t have been on this album if not for Toby Keith’s son-in-law.    OK, I’ll explain.

A liquor importer, who uses celebrities to endorse all his products, brought me to The Paris Hotel in Las Vegas to perform at the 2006 liquor convention.  Johnny Bench was there endorsing a five year old scotch,  Wendy Williams was there to endorse a line of champagnes, and Toby Keith was supposed to be there to endorse a product, I can’t remember what it was, but he had a scheduling conflict, so he sent his daughter, Krystal, and her future husband, Drew, to represent him.   One evening, after all our convention obligations were met, we all got together in one of the suites for an evening of relaxation (aka boozin’).  The suite had a piano and a microphone, and we all took turns singing.

Drew asked if I knew “Drinking Again.”  He said it was one of his  favorites by Sinatra.  Of course I knew it, and after singing it, Drew  paid me some terrific compliments and said he wished he could have  a recording of it.  As luck would have it, I was going to start recording ”Songs For Sinatra Lovers” the following week, so I told Drew I’d add ”Drinking Again” to the album, and it turned out to be one of the most popular tracks on the disc.  I gave a copy of the CD to the importer and asked him to pass it along to Drew.  I’ve since lost touch with the importer, so I don’t know if Drew ever received it, or for that matter,  if he and Krystal had ever gotten married.  If anyone knows how to  reach him, please let me know.

I wanted to put an ending that would be different from the way Sinatra ended the song, so I added a reference to my very favorite bartender, ”Nick The Vest” Zaloumis from Rao’s Restaurant in East Harlem, New York.  When I first started singing, Nick would always let all the Rao’s customers know when, and where I was appearing.  He’s a great friend.  Next week, we’ll talk about track eight, “You Make Me Feel So Young.”

- “I’ll Be Seeing You,” Steven

Steven Maglio Singing Sinatra

A late starter, Steven Maglio‘s professional career began in his Forties as lead vocalist for Joe Battaglia’s New York Big Band, playing numerous dates at New York City’s “Tavern On The Green” and “Rainbow Room.” Steven is not an impersonator, but rather a singer who recreates the classic repertoire of Frank Sinatra in his own voice and style. I’ve been a fan for quite a few years, and enjoy hearing Steven perform live delivering a bit of the swagger of the Chairman of the Board coupled with the swingin’ sounds of the Great American Songbook. Obviously Sinatra is not only a legendary icon regarded as history’s greatest vocalist, but perhaps he also performed more covers during his career than any other artist — many of which became regarded as the definitive versions of those compositions. We’ve asked Steven to share his thoughts on these classic covers over the course of a few weekly columns called Frank Friday.

One last note, if you find yourself in NYC on a Saturday night, Steven has a standing gig at the Carnegie Club in midtown. One of the last smoky bastions to the decades of the past, the Carnegie Club features Steven with the Stan Rubin Orchestra performing actual charts used back in the heyday. Order a martini and swing-a-ding-ding… And now, on to Steven’s latest guest post. — Michael K.

THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA from the CD, “Songs For Sinatra Lovers”

by Steven Maglio

“The Girl From Ipanema” was included on a 1967 Sinatra album titled, “Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim.” Jobim was a Brazilian singer/songwriter/arranger/guitarist who is considered the father of the bossa nova beat. The album was arranged by Claus Ogerman, and this track was recorded by Sinatra and Jobim in Hollywood on January 31, 1967. The music was composed by Jobim, with the original Portugese lyrics written by Vinicius de Morales. The English lyrics were written by Norman Gimbel.

There actually is a “Girl From Ipanema.” Her name is Helo Pinheiro. When she was about 15 years old (circa 1962) her name was Heloisa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto. The story is that she lived in Ipanema, a beachfront section of Rio de Janiero, Brazil, and would go into the local bar everyday to buy cigarettes for her mother. The bar patrons would actually schedule their daily plans around her stops at the bar, just so they could look at her, and whistle at her.  In the USA, by today’s standards, men would be arrested for treating a 15 year old girl in such a way, but in Brazil in the 1960s, it was considered an honor.

Is it possible that Frank liked this song because, while he was 50 years old at the time of the recording, it reminded him of his 21 year old wife, Mia Farrow? Rumors, rumors, rumors… but your guess is as good as mine.
There are many types of Sinatra. The big band singer, the rat packer, the saloon singer, but the bossa nova Sinatra is often forgotten, and I think some of his best work was the latin style songs he did with Antonio Carlos Jobim. So, when it came time to choose one song of that style for “Songs For Sinatra Lovers,” it had to be “The Girl From Ipanama,” if for no other reason than for the songs great success, not only for Sinatra , but for Astrud Gilberto & Stan Getz, and a slew of other musicians. Worldwide, it’s one of the most recorded songs of all time.

I recorded it with a small group of fine musicians in New Jersey. It’s a terrific dance number, and it was easy to get into the groove while making the record.

As far as I know, the real “Girl” is still residing in Brazil, and should be close to senior citizenship by now. But, though she may no longer be young, I’d like to think that she’s still “tall, tan, and lovely”.

Next week, we’ll talk about track seven, “Drinking Again.”

“I’ll Be Seeing You,”

Steven

Be sure to follow Steven Maglio on Facebook and check out his website! In case you missed them, you can also check out previous blog entries from Steven’s “Frank Friday” series on the Limelight blog.

Entertainment professional Rick Goetz has very deep roots in the music industry. Throughout his music career, he’s been a major label A&R rep, music supervisor, artist manager, reality show producer, bass player and head of a digital record label. Because of this varied experience, he understands the complexities of making music and making a living making music from both the artist and executive perspectives. He shares in-depth interviews and resources on his website MusicianCoaching.com providing strategy and business planning for musicians.

Every Monday at lunchtime, we’re going to share a tip, suggestion or recommendation to help you, as a musician, continue to refine your craft or to build, connect, and engage more effectively with your audience. These posts will take just a minute to read, but will hopefully provide some long-lasting value for you. We’ve asked Rick to share excerpts and highlights from his own articles and the interviews that he’s done with industry executives, thought leaders and visionaries. This week’s tip involves some valuable advice about how artists can build a compelling, personal story about themselves and their music. A while back, he published the article “Building the Story Behind Your Music,” which can be found in its entirety HERE. An excerpt from this piece is this week’s #MusicMonday Minute:

For whatever reason the story of “Stone Soup” has come up in my coaching sessions with a few different clients over the last several weeks. And I’ve discovered that many are not familiar with the story, though I always  thought it was pretty popular. The story goes as follows.

Once upon a time there was a great famine in which people hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day a wandering soldier came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.  There is no food anywhere in the village,” he was told. “You had better keep moving on.”

“I have everything I need,” the soldier said. “In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you.” He pulled an iron cauldron from his belongings, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the soldier sniffed the “broth” and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticism.

“Mmmmm,” the soldier said to himself rather loudly, “I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with carrots — that’s hard to beat.”

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding some carrots he’d retrieved from a hiding place, and added them to the pot. “Great!” said the soldier. “You know, I once had stone soup with carrots and a bit of beef as well, and it was close to perfection.”

The village butcher managed to find some beef  and so it went, through potatoes, onions, cabbage, mushrooms, and so on, until there was a delicious meal for everyone.

I am always talking about the importance of community building for a musician or even just the importance of just being a part of a community. Clearly, the idea of building a community is the moral of the story here. People working together accomplished what one person clearly could not.

But I always come up with another moral more than the obvious from “Stone Soup” that applies to a life in the arts:  In the Digital Age, “dude releases record” is far from headline news. There has to be much more going on to move the needle for the jaded and over saturated modern audience. Whenever I am doing marketing for a new client, I always cross my fingers that some member of the group has been silently doing something amazing to tap into a built-in niche (Jack Johnson and his amazing surf documentaries) or has great coattails to ride on (like what Dr. Dre did for Eminem). This sadly isn’t going to be the story for a majority of the artists out there. Most will have to rely on the smallest of victory and parlay that into the next tiny victory until such time as the cumulative effect is meaningful. Most will have to be pioneers and do their best to continue their journey and hang on to their faith while trying to ignore the omnipresent fact that pioneers sometimes get arrows in their back.

And that’s just faith.

A guy drops a stone into a pot of water and hopes beyond reason that such an action will feed him. Crazy?

For simplicity’s sake let’s apply “Stone Soup” to a an upcoming gig rather than an entire music career. You get booked at a local bar and invite what friends and family and people you have met along life’s highway. Congrats! You are now boiling a rock surrounded by indifferent villagers! More often than not though, people stop here and it’s not always enough. Who do you know?  What makes this story more compelling?  Chances are you know other musicians and musicians who are a bit further along than you are. Can you invite another band to do a cover song with you or even just a vocalist or guitarist to sit in with you on a tune? If so, you just added your second ingredient.

The show should now be an easier sell. It is now your band featuring members of another band who is bigger than you are. And you can suggest that both bands promote this to their mailing list because, let’s face it – everyone needs something other than “show up and see us again” to talk about to their mailing list. The other wonderful part about this is that no matter how small of an investment of time or energy from another person or group – you have someone else who is invested in the success of your show.  While the story never talks about it, the dude who threw the first ingredient into the stone soup – “Mr. Carrots” – probably helped knock on some doors to help the cause after he had skin in the game.

Now what? Does anyone have an “in” at the local college? Can you get the promoter to knock off a few bucks from the ticket price for students with a valid college ID?  If so, you’ve got a really good excuse to wander down to the local college radio station and tell them that your band is playing a show featuring members of a bigger band, and college students get a discount. If the radio station bites, you have a show for your band featuring members of a bigger band and students get a discount … and the local college station supporting the show.

Your “ingredients” can be anything. But every show should be an “event,” and no band should just be a bunch of people on stage; they should be musicians who have accomplished X, Y & Z and have played with A, B & C. And their stories should grow one small victory – one resume bullet point – at a time.

Check out the article in full here. And be sure to check out more information at MusicianCoaching.com!

Be sure to check out Limelight, the simplest way to clear cover songs!

Steven Maglio Singing Sinatra

A late starter, Steven Maglio‘s professional career began in his Forties as lead vocalist for Joe Battaglia’s New York Big Band, playing numerous dates at New York City’s “Tavern On The Green” and “Rainbow Room.” Steven is not an impersonator, but rather a singer who recreates the classic repertoire of Frank Sinatra in his own voice and style. I’ve been a fan for quite a few years, and enjoy hearing Steven perform live delivering a bit of the swagger of the Chairman of the Board coupled with the swingin’ sounds of the Great American Songbook. Obviously Sinatra is not only a legendary icon regarded as history’s greatest vocalist, but perhaps he also performed more covers during his career than any other artist — many of which became regarded as the definitive versions of those compositions. We’ve asked Steven to share his thoughts on these classic covers over the course of a few weekly columns called Frank Friday.

One last note, if you find yourself in NYC on a Saturday night, Steven has a standing gig at the Carnegie Club in midtown. One of the last smoky bastions to the decades of the past, the Carnegie Club features Steven with the Stan Rubin Orchestra performing actual charts used back in the heyday. Order a martini and swing-a-ding-ding… And now, on to Steven’s latest guest post. — Michael K.

NANCY (WITH THE LAUGHING FACE) from the CD, “Songs For Sinatra Lovers” by Steven Maglio

“Nancy” was composed by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by actor/comedian Phil Silvers in 1942, and Frank Sinatra did six studio covers between July 8, 1944 and March 9, 1977.

There are varied stories about the song’s original intent. The public was told it was written for Sinatra’s daughter, Nancy Jr., but actress Ava Gardner, Frank’s second wife, would get jealous when he sang it, thinking that he was secretly singing it for his first wife, Nancy Sr.. Van Heusen is said to have admitted that the song was actually written as “Bessie” for the wife of lyricist Johnny Burke, and later adopted by Sinatra, who would update the final verse over the years. (You’ll notice I did some updating myself.)

I wanted my version to be simple, just voice and guitar, and I was blessed to have guitar legend Bucky Pizzarelli record with me.  No music was written. Bucky played what he felt.  We ran through it only once, then took a break while the engineer adjusted levels …and that’s when the phone call came.

My wife, Debi, told me that the doctors were concerned about our daughter’s pregnancy. We were thrilled to find out our grandchild was a girl, as that’s what we were hoping for, but additional tests were being ordered to determine the extent of her health. It’s this kind of news that makes you realize what’s really important in your life. I told Debi, “Let’s not worry until we’re sure we have something to worry about,” and hung up the phone. At that moment, I was informed the engineer was ready, and with this scary news still very fresh in my brain, I stepped up to the microphone to record.

We knew the baby’s name would be Grace, so I remember staring at the microphone, preparing my mindset to record, and telling myself, “Don’t say ‘Grace with the laughing face’, or ‘Nancy with the laughing Grace.’” I heard Bucky’s guitar, and everything fell into place. I sang it once, we listened to the playback, and when asked if I wanted to do another take, I said, “No. I don’t think I’ll be able to do it any better than this.” “Nancy (With The Laughing Face)” is not only my favorite track on the CD, but of all the recordings I’ve ever made, this is the one I’m most proud of.

Grace recently turned five years old. She’s beautiful, she’s smart, and most important, she was born perfectly healthy.

Next week, we’ll talk about track six, “The Girl from Ipanema”.

“I’ll Be Seeing You,” Steven

Be sure to follow Steven Maglio on Facebook and check out his website!  In case you missed them, you can also check out the previous entries of Steven’s “Frank Friday” series here.

Steven’s version of “Nancy” was also just recently added to the rotation at WHLI (1100 AM “Playing the Hits of a Lifetime”) on Long Island, NY. Congrats Steven!

Entertainment professional Rick Goetz has very deep roots in the music industry. Throughout his music career, he’s been a major label A&R rep, music supervisor, artist manager, reality show producer, bass player and head of a digital record label. Because of this varied experience, he understands the complexities of making music and making a living making music from both the artist and executive perspectives. He shares in-depth interviews and resources on his website MusicianCoaching.com providing strategy and business planning for musicians.

Every Monday at lunchtime, we’re going to share a tip, suggestion or recommendation to help you, as a musician, continue to refine your craft or to build, connect, and engage more effectively with your audience. These posts will take just a minute to read, but will hopefully provide some long-lasting value for you. We’ve asked Rick to share excerpts and highlights from his own articles and the interviews that he’s done with industry executives, thought leaders and visionaries. This week’s tip involves some advice for artists that want to have compelling conversations with gatekeepers and other people who can help them move their careers forward. He wrote a piece entitled “Conversation Currency,” which can be found in its entirety HERE. An excerpt from this article is this week’s guest post.

This week’s #MusicMonday Minute by Rick Goetz:

“It occurred to me recently as I got a call from a musician with a great deal of heart and hope but very little in the way of compelling reasons to get people to listen that it was time to discuss the notion of “conversation currency.”  Below is my experience with working with figuring out what to say and do to build a business and meet the people I wanted to meet. I built my first business the same way I built the bands I played in or worked with throughout my career.

I started out with a tremendous advantage over most people since my first real job was as an intern and then assistant for Lava / Atlantic Records working under people who were very established and competent. The phone rang a lot. The people they really wanted to talk to were busy so that left me on the line trying to figure out if I could help them with whatever information they needed and just generally being polite or mimicking things I heard my superiors say and trying to sound less young, inexperienced or blatantly unqualified.

It was not hard to be well connected in musician circles as even a minor gatekeeper for multi-platinum artists and for what were at the time million dollar record deals. It was however hard to be taken seriously within the music business community. What I learned was, I had to find something of concrete and renewable value to offer people. I didn’t know what else to call it, so I’ve always referred to it internally as “conversation currency.” If that doesn’t ring any bells for you, you can also call it “a reason that people will take your phone call and take your seriously.” I was in my early 20s, out six nights a week and I knew more bands and artists than a majority of people. Trading on that information and being helpful was what helped me gain favor within that community.

Let’s fast forward several years. I was fairly fresh out of the label system and I’d had it with mid-management shenanigans. I declared there was no going back to corporate America. I spent money on an LLC and deemed myself a consultant.

On a particular day, I was staring at my phone and it wasn’t ringing. It occurred to me that there was absolutely no reason for my phone to ring unless I hustled and started making things happen. I really thought that my phone would just start ringing the way it did at an almost fifty-year-old company like Atlantic Records just because I incorporated. I didn’t have a reason to call anyone who wasn’t already a contact or a friend. I had no excuse to meet new people, because I didn’t have anything to say except that I was a consultant … without any clients.

And what the hell was I going to consult on if I didn’t even have any desire to work with artists?  (MusicianCoaching.com came several years later after a change of heart. The first company I founded only handles corporate clients.)

I spent the first several weeks just trying to figure out what I had that I could use and what I liked to do. Luckily for me, both things were related:  I had a big Rolodex, and I liked introducing people to other people in the hopes that these new relationships would be mutually beneficial.

I spent the next few months calling up everyone I knew, asking them what they were working on and trying to determine which kind of person or opportunity they needed. Wherever I could I went out of my way to make an introduction. It turns out that this is the underpinning of business development. Knowing where to get information is almost as good as knowing it yourself.

Pretty soon I got my first clients, thanks to some pro bono work. When some friends offered me a chance to see if I couldn’t hustle up some business for various friends and contacts of theirs, I jumped at the chance even when I didn’t fully believe in the project. Why? Because it gave me an excuse to talk to people. Being on the phone and being helpful meant I was top of mind for an opportunity. I had provided value to my friends and contacts in the past by introducing them to people. Eventually one of my contacts would give me a client that would lend context to my business and give me an excuse to talk to people.

Several pro bono clients later I scored my first monthly retainer introducing a music start-up to the industry people who could help them with their talent needs. After that I closed a tech client who needed help licensing millions of hours worth of music. Several clients of all different shapes and sizes would soon follow suit. Every experience and every client added to the story I could tell the next client. This is not to say that my business doesn’t hit its lulls but it has gotten easier with time.

How does this apply to you?

Are you a musician without a band? Are you a band without a gig? What do you have in trade to get someone to take your seriously? Are you good at production? Are you great at playing leads or arranging in exchange for some other services? Can you make great beats? Or, further outside the box, do you know how to fix a tour bus? Do you know every beautiful guy or gal in your hometown and can you bring them out to live performances? Maybe you just know people and like talking to them about what they do.

Have you asked people in a position to help you who or what they need today and can you figure out where to get it? Figure out what is interesting about your current story so that you can tell the next gatekeeper you encounter why he needs to know you. Figure out what you have of value and what you like to do and start picking up the phone. Just being a dude in a band or a guy with beats alone isn’t enough.”

Check out the article in full here.  And be sure to check out more information at MusicianCoaching.com!