Ix-nay on the My Way
A year before Frank Sinatra died, Sarah Vowell read an essay from her most recent book on NPR's This American Life. Aware that the end was nigh, her reading was a preemptive plea with American television broadcasters not to incorporate Sinatra's song My Way over the news reports when the legendary singer passed from the Earth. The song, she said, was "the most obvious, unsettled, disconcertingly dictatorial chestnut in the old man's vast and dazzling backlog." Later in the piece, she could also be heard saying that the lyrics of the tune could double as the last words spoken to Eva Braun.
Instead, Vowell, a certified Sinatraphile, suggested finally What is This Thing Called Love as an appropriate alternative to the "simplistic selfishness" of My Way upon the king's passing. The night after Sinatra's death on May 14, 1998, ABC's Nightline served as the only network television news program that skipped the ubiquitous Sinatra anthem. The producers of that show played the audio of Vowell's essay instead. That was the first time I heard it.
I think of Sarah Vowell's essay often, but distinctly today when Gatorade unveiled its (final?) commercial tribute to the Yankees' retiring shortstop Derek Jeter, coupling Sinatra again with Vowell's least favorite Sinatra tune. The Yankees, who blare FS's version of New York, New York at their stadium after every home win, are doubling up on their Sinatra love. You go, Frank. Still bigger than big. But again, where's the originality?
Well, good news. Deadspin has got it in long-lasting supply. The editing wizards behind America's greatest website took the Gatorade video and added some game footage highlighting Jeter's stark physical decline, and switched out tunes. Their choice for the commercial soundtrack: the Chairman's version of the Stephen Sondheim classic Send in the Clowns.
The Gatorade spot is the hit of the Big Apple today, but watch the Deadspin version and tell me you don't prefer it. To paraphrase another Sinatra classic, the difference is "night and day."
Also, FYI, Sinatra hated the Yankees. He was a Dodgers fan, from Brooklyn to L.A.
posted by CM @ 7:06 PM
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