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Trilogy: Past Present Future (1980)

Where the lyrics of Trilogy: Past Present Future take you, and where it was really made.

The album's Future side was called a mess by one critic and a shocking embarrassment by a radio host, yet the set went on to win a Grammy.

Key places

Recording studio for The Past and The Present (1980)

Recording site EastWest Studios — United Western Recorders in Los Angeles is listed as a recording location for this album. The point marks the studio at building-level coordinates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Columbia studio in New York City (1980)

Recording site Columbia — Columbia in New York City is listed as a recording location for this album. The point marks the studio at building-level coordinates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles (1980)

Recording site Shrine Auditorium — Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles is listed as a recording location for this album. The point marks the venue at building-level coordinates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Trilogy: Past Present Future (or simply Trilogy) is the 55th studio album by American singer Frank Sinatra
• Released in March 1980 through Reprise
• A triple album in three records
• Each record was conceived as an individual work portraying a different time epoch
• The Past: arranged by Billy May, with standards
• The Present: arranged by Don Costa, with pop hits; "Something" arranged by Nelson Riddle
• The Future: all songs written, arranged and conducted by Gordon Jenkins
• The album includes Sinatra's last top 40 hit, "Theme from New York, New York"

Background

• The Past marks the first time Sinatra recorded standards since the early 1960s
• The Present concentrates on pop hits such as "Love Me Tender", "Something", "Song Sung Blue", "MacArthur Park" and "Just the Way You Are"
• Sonny Burke is credited as producer
• Vocals by Frank Sinatra throughout the three records

Recording

• Studios linked to the recordings: United Western Recorders (Los Angeles), Columbia (New York City), and Shrine Auditorium (Los Angeles)

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Disc 3

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey, to Italian immigrants.
• Began singing professionally as a teenager with the Hoboken Four, winning Major Bowes Amateur Hour.
• Joined Harry James's band in 1939, then Tommy Dorsey's band, before going solo in 1942.

Career

• Signed with Columbia Records in 1943 and became a major star of the bobby-soxer era.
• Signed with Capitol Records in 1953; collaborated with arranger Nelson Riddle on albums such as In the Wee Small Hours and Songs for Swingin' Lovers!.
• Founded Reprise Records in 1960, releasing albums including September of My Years and the hit single "My Way".
• Won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for From Here to Eternity (1953).
• Estimated to have sold around 150 million records worldwide.
• Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997.
• Died May 14, 1998 in Los Angeles.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Stephen Thomas Erlewine's review described The Future as a mess, while also calling it ambitious, experimental, and self-referential, more of a freeform suite than a set of songs

Reappraisal

• Bruce Handy, writing for Billboard in 2015, said the album remains one of the most ambitious, strange, brilliant and bloated albums of Sinatra's or any other artist's body of work, 35 years after its March 1980 release

Records

• Billboard 200: peaked at No. 17
• 1981 Grammy Awards: nominated for Album of the Year
• "Theme from New York, New York" nominated for Record of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Song of the Year
• Won the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The WNEW-AM host Jonathan Schwartz called the Future suite narcissistic and a shocking embarrassment on his show
• Sinatra phoned to complain, and Schwartz was suspended from his job
• Stephen Thomas Erlewine's critique of The Future is a key point in the album's reception
• "Something" is a George Harrison song, arranged for this album by Nelson Riddle
• The album was released in March 1980, the same year Sinatra's standards return on The Past

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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