Angela Thor: You've gone from rock all the way to big band. How did you make this whole transition?

Frank Stallone: Well, you know, the tide of music was changing so much that I really thought, and my biggest fear was, that I wouldn't be able, just because of what's going in music, to be in it anymore. You know, just like put to pasture. And I said "I can't do that. I've dedicated my whole life to this thing, I can't do that." I said "Well, what can I do that I think I can do that I've always liked." and I started going to the American Song Book. At that point, the business started changing. When urban music came in I said, it's not that I have anything against it, it's not my kind of music but I don't know how to do this. I know how to write country, I know how to write folk, I've done all that stuff, rock and roll, but I just don't have a handle on this or a passion for it. Was I at a point where no one wants to listen to my stuff anymore, even my old things? And I just said do something that's tried and true, so that's what I did. So it keeps me in the game. I enjoy doing it, and sometimes in the show, I put my own things in as well. So it keeps me in there instead of being like an oldies act which, Spinal Tap, which I don't want to do.

AT: You dedicated the CD to Sammy Cahn. Could you talk a bit about your relationship with him?

FS: Sammy was just a wonderful person and he was just very approachable. I was telling him what I was doing, and I had done some other stuff before, like, some records before that weren't released, and he loved it. And I had a few of the things done when he was alive, not the whole album, and he just told me what he thought about it. He was real supportive. I did do a song of his on my Billy May album, "Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week." He was just a really cool guy. He used to have great Christmas parties. All the old stars would be there. That's who I cared about. I didn't care about the new up-and-coming. Gene Kelly, all these people like that. So that was just a gag for me. But he was one of the great writers. Four Academy Awards. You don't see that anymore, do you?

AT: Did you sit and watch all these old musicals when you were younger?

FS: Yeah. They were just really well-crafted good movies. I haven't seen it yet, I just don't know how Matthew Broderick is going to do on The Music Man. I just don't know what more you can do with it. Robert Preston was Professor Hill. He did it for so long on Broadway, I just think it was his. But that's good though. Look with Chicago what's going on. And Chicago too was a good movie. It's not what they're making it out to be. I think it's good. I don't think it warrents 13 Academy Awards. But it just shows you that there is a market, which is good. But to me, it's not like, I wouldn't put that on the level of Funny Girl or Sound of Music, but this is what, where it is. But listen, that's good for me, hopefully.

AT: The first time I put your CD on, my 11 year old started bopping around the house, snapping her fingers, so even the young ones are getting into it.

FS: That's what I'm trying to do. I'm really not going after the WWII people, which are great. I mean we have that. I'm trying to get it to the young kids, so they understand it. I think it's real important to realize that this music is born and bred in this country. I mean, it's not an import. It's as American as R&B, blues, and country. I think it's real important for everyone to be open to all kinds of music. It just makes you a better listener, a better musical well-rounded person.

AT: Was it the lyrics from these songs that pulled you in first or the music?

FS: It's really strange. Each song is different. Some it's like musically, some it's the lyrics. Like lyrically and musically together would have been "Spring Is Here," "In Love In Vain." I would say "Day In Day Out" was kind of the beat, just the words, how they played. "One For My Baby" would be lyrics and music because they're almost like stories. Where some songs are stories, but these are very visual.

AT: I've heard Sinatra and Bette Midler do "One For My Baby," but I like your version best.

FS: Thank you. That's really great company. It's really funny. People will say things to me like "God, it sounds like Sinatra!", but if you really dissect it, I really don't sound like him, because he's a much deeper voice then I do. He has a different range. If anything, I probably sound more like Darin or Frankie Laine than Sinatra. I think what people get hoodwinked with is Sinatra did all these. He did all those songs. So it's kind of immediately you go to that. My favorite singer, I love Sinatra, I really, really love him, but I really like as much or more, Nat Cole. I can listen to Nat Cole all the time. And I'll tell you who also I like. I love Johnny Mathis. The old Johnny Mathis, I thought was great. Didn't you?

AT: That was our wedding song, "Chances Are."

FS: There you go. He's a great, I said listen, not to like Johnny Mathis is like un-American. I mean most guys had their first kiss listening to Johnny Mathis. So to me, old Johnny can't go wrong.

AT: How do you make these songs your own without sounding like an impersonator or a bad lounge singer?

FS: It's not that easy. I think what I did that might have really helped me would have been that, I think how I did it that made it work for me was I was very fortunate to have really good conductors. I think the arrangers, I think that's what helped me.

AT: Do you interpret a song the way you think the composer meant when he wrote it or do you really get into what the song makes you feel?

FS: I think I kind of do it the way I'd make myself feel. I think it's somewhat important, well, very important to make it your own. But not make it, I mean I've seen some people do what I'm doing and I just think the arrangements are horrible because I think, now when you hear kids do the National Anthem I think "Can one person just do it like it's written?."

AT: You mean why use one note when you can use 20?

FS: Yeah, I say "What are you getting paid by the note?" I don't understand that. It's just horrible. All you do is just watch American Idol and every child there sounds exactly the same. They all sound either like Christine Aquilera or Britney Spears. Everyone of them. And it's not their fault. And you know what it comes down to? They're not exposed to anything else. They're just not exposed to a lot of music. If you look at Whitney Houston, to me is probably the best singer of all of them, if she gets back to normal, but look at her influences. Everything! Ella, all the great singers. And that's what bothers me a little bit about what's going on. And so, what I tried to do, there's only one Frank Sinatra and there's only one Nat Cole. Do we all take something from them? Absolutely! But you've got to, it's not easy, it's not easy to make it your own. You know what's really funny? Some people are great singers, but their voices don't lend themselves to certain styles. No matter how great, I think Linda Ronstadt is a marvelous singer. Her Nelson Riddle stuff didn't kill me. I mean it's great, it's in tune, it's all there, but I didn't believe it. Her Spanish CD is excellent. Toni Tennile, I just don't buy it. Then you get somebody like Jimmy Durante who can hardly sing. I bought everything he sang. I believed it. I wasn't really, I'm not impressed with the perfection, it's the feel. And that's what I did when I picked the songs. I just wanted to do something, you know people ask me "Why didn't you do 'New York, New York'?". Because of that, you just asked me to do it. It's been done to death. "My Way," are you kidding? I said "Suicide.! To do 'My Way,' suicide." I wouldn't do it because I don't really care for the song anymore. It's been done to death. It's like "Proud Mary." You know what I mean, songs that have been done so, when they're done at weddings, you know, then you know it's time to hang it up.

AT: Weddings or funerals.

FS: When it's a funeral, you know it's not a good omen, is it? So that's my feel of it. You notice on that album, there's not a lot of songs that have been done all the time. You don't hear these done that much, but they're cool songs.

AT: You mention "Witchcraft" as being a simple tune. Do you find the simple tunes are harder to do well?

FS: I have sometimes had problems. I'm able to do a lot with my voice, and sometimes if it's too simple, I kind of fall between the cracks a little bit. If you listen to "Like Someone In Love," that's a very hard song to sing because I'm singing it out of rhythm, there's no rhythm. It gives me a lot of wiggle room, to move around a lot. And so that's a little easier for me, although that song is very, very hard to do. But like simple songs like "Witchcraft," it's just really cool musically. It's simple, but it bounces. It just all of a sudden bounces along, not much is happening and then bam, little sparkles pop in there, which makes it fun to sing. The song "All Of You." That's pretty simple. But again you can, with songs like that you can really fall in the cracks, because if you don't, cause it's right on top of it, you have to be right there. If you're a singer like, Bing Crosby could have never sang that song. He would never get out of the starting block because it's so fast. I'm almost staying right on top of it. If you hear Bing Crosby trying to swing, it doesn't work. He swings like a rusty gate. On the other hand, Frankie Laine could really swing. Perry Como could not swing. Darin could swing, because Darin was like me, or I'm like him, in certain ways. I'm a musician. Nat Cole had great pitch, great timing, but he was a musician. Maybe we have a different sensibility.

AT: You recorded this live in the studio. Could it have worked the way they do things now..

FS: You mean piecemeal? Not for me it wouldn't. What we did is, I was singing it, I was watching Sammy conduct it. I was in the booth singing it. So I would sing the songs through while the orchestra was going. Afterwards, then you sit there and you dissect a little bit. If I had to fix a word here or there, then I'd go in and fix it. But the feel was mostly there. Singing live in the studio, that's the way to do it. For me it is, singing live in the studio. But sometimes, recording an album and doing it live are like two different animals. There are some people that are great singers live, horrible in the studio.

AT: Usually it's the other way around.

FS: Oh boy. Some people are great in the studio and bad live. Yeah, you know it's funny. When you look at a lot of these acts, they're not even singing. They're not really, they're so processed. I mean you look at those old shows of Judy Garland. All she had was a mic. To me she was a great singer. Judy Garland to me, and I'm a straight male, because they think every guy that likes Judy Garland is gay or something, but I think she is just a marvelous singer. Great feel. I think Ella Fitzgerald is just perfect. A perfect singing machine. While I can't say the same about Streisand, although I do love a lot of her things. Her older stuff, I thought was great. These were real work horses, These are pros. I mean these are people that really stayed in the game. I'm just a lover, I'm a fan. I'm not ego-driven. I mean everybody has an ego, but I'm a fan. I love to hear a great singer. I'm not impressed all the time because I've seen everybody. I mean I've seen them all. So when I see a lot of these people doing impersonations, it doesn't do anything for me, cause I saw the original. I've never tried to do that. I've said maybe I'll try to be the torch-bearer of The American Song Book because there's not that many people doing what I do, do you think?

AT: The only one you really hear about is Tony Bennett.

FS: But in the big scheme of things, there's maybe five people. And Tony is just wonderful. He's always nice to me, used to come see me play. And he's just been really nice to me. But if you really look out there, myself, Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, that really do it. I mean Barry Manilow did an album of it but he doesn't really do it.

AT: Even Rod Stewart did an album of it, but that's not saying much.

FS: I don't put him in the same, but you know, if you figure there's probably thousands and thousands of rap and metal band. There's maybe in the whole, people that are serious and record, maybe six. That's not much. We're more alternative band than the alternative bands, aren't we? And Rod Stewart, the funny thing was, if my album had gone up for a GRAMMY for Best Traditional, because there's not much competition, I would have been up against Rod Stewart now. I would have lost without a doubt. Because, not maybe because of the record, I haven't heard the record, I don't know anything about it, but it's business. He's Rod Stewart. But the thing is, it's kind of tough. You get people out there for a long time who are doing it. Then you get someone who's just a top singer rock star and he says "Well I think I just want to do one of these albums." and you get blown out of the water. Now Ray Charles could do Big Band easy, because he's one of the great singers. Ray Charles, to me, can do anything. Look what he did to that silly song, "Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma." He can make anything work, Beatles songs down. He's up there with all of them, with Sinatra and Elvis, he's there. He can do no wrong. Don't you remember, when we were kids, the radio was very diversified. And that's the sad thing that I'm hearing now that really bothers me. That's why I'm not even listening to pop radio, I listen to oldies. I remember, all of a sudden you're listening to "Everybody Loves Somebody, Sometime" then the next song would be like "Penny Lane" and the next song would be "Hello, Dolly" then the next song would be the Stones singing "Get Off My Cloud." Then you'd have something goofy like Walter Brennan. All goofy stuff and rock and everything mixed in between. Who was that, the great singer, Petula Clarke. Radio was really fun then.

AT: You didn't have to keep switching stations like you do now.

FS: You could just stay on and enjoy everything that's going on there. And I just think it's so important, with your kids, with everyone else's kids, to just give them a nice balanced diet of it.

AT: How do you go about writing a song. Are you a lyrics first or...

FS: I do both, and the funny thing is, I almost do both at one time. I'm not quite the person that can just sit down and write prose and then put music to it. But I do, I kind of get a melody in my head, or something. Usually with me I'm sitting around playing the guitar, or I'm with someone playing the piano, and it's just like a flow. I haven't been doing that much. I'm not really doing it now, per se, as much as I used to, because it's become, for some people, a real business. They're real business guys, and I really don't like that, and, I'm the kind of guy that would sit, go over to someone's house or to my house, start writing and it might all of a sudden start getting dark out, but you're on to something really good, and maybe take a break, grab something to eat, and come back. These people work in like blocks: "Well, I've got Thursday, next week, between 3 and 6..." and I said "I can't work like that, man." So there's like these young guys coming up, they're kind of spoiled and pampered, and "Well, we really don't have anything to write for." and I'm like "What do you need something to write for? Just write!." So that's the thing. Beethoven didn't have anything to write for. There weren't like, you know, VHSs out or anything. He just did it. That's what they did. But you do have some people who still like to write, so I hook up with them once in a while. But like my biggest hit, "Far From Over" from Staying Alive, that was probably the shortest song I ever wrote. It was just a stream of consciousness. When I did the a cappella song for Rocky, "Take You Back," that was just a simple nothing song, but it's become a little culty thing. But I do like writing, I do like the process. But it's very, very hard to find somebody that you have real synchronicity with. The writers I did write with have, some of them have become bitter, jaded, and some of them don't want to write anymore. The guy I wrote the stuff in Staying Alive with, can't get him to write with me anymore. I said "What is the problem?" "Well, you know, I want to do more, musically." "OK, you can do that, but let's write. We got a good chemistry." But you can't force someone to do it. That's the sadness for me. I would have done so much better if some of these writers hung in there, but some get very depressed. They don't want to do it anymore. If there's nothing to write for they just don't want to do it anymore. I said "What else better to do?" I mean it's not like people are knocking their door down. So I miss that, I really miss that. And the thing is, with all those great songs in The American Song Book, sometimes you forget. Like "I think today I'll do Gershwin. Tomorrow I'll do Sigmund Romberg." You have thousands of incredible songs to pick from, which is just marvelous as far as I'm concerned. So it's like a kid in the candy store.

AT: Plus the movies have pretty much dried up as far as writing for; except for Disney.

FS: Yes it has. And the funny thing is, when I wrote for the movies, whatever movies I did write for, I was actually writing for the movie. Now, they just take a song.

AT: This is a top ten hit, let's throw that in there.

FS: Yeah, let's throw that in there. Like David Gray's, exactly. We actually wrote the songs. But that's not happening. I got to tell you one thing. I'm just happy to be performing. I'm happy to be doing what I'm doing at this point in my life, still doing it. And that, that I can't kick for. Could I sell more records? Yeah. Could I do a lot more? Yeah. But I'm pretty happy, considering.