“I can’t do it”: When Chicago flat-out rejected Frank Sinatra in 1970
Within the musical realm, there are few artists who would dare to defy the wishes of Frank Sinatra; not just because of the singer’s not-so-secret ties to the Mafia, but also because ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’ is among the most legendary performers in American history. Still, Chicago had no qualms about telling Sinatra where to go back in 1970.
By the time the 1970s rolled around, Sinatra’s notoriety, so far as the mainstream airwaves were concerned, had taken a hit. With the emergence of counterculture rock and the cultural rebellion of the 1960s, bringing with it a new generation of musical icons, the old-school crooner was increasingly looking like a has-been legacy act, despite the unavoidable fact that his records were still selling in eye-watering numbers, thanks largely to the older generation of music listeners.
Before his first retirement in 1971, though, Sinatra attempted to reinvigorate his discography by recording a song penned by the up-and-coming soft rock outfit Chicago, in an attempt to hark back to his golden years.
Still in relatively early stages of their enduring career, Chicago’s unique brand of jazz-fusion, soft rock, and mainstream pop had yet to truly grab the attention of the musical mainstream, but that would all change with their self-titled sophomore album in 1970.
Entering the coveted top five in the US album charts, the LP was a smash success for the Illinois outfit, and the arguable stand-out from the record was ‘Colour My World’, which went on to a top-ten hit the following year. A small section of a wider suite by James Pankow named ‘Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon’, the song was a rather unexpected hit, but its success was spurred on by the fact that it became a go-to track for slow dances during the early 1970s.
“I had been listening to Bach – the Brandenburg Concertos, and they had all those arpeggiated melodies,” Pankow recalled on The Chris Isaak Hour.
“I sat at a piano and started messing around with these arpeggios. That cycle of arpeggios became the foundation of the song.”
James Pankow
Seemingly, its ambitious nature, coupled with its roaring chart success, did enough to earn the attention of Frank Sinatra, who wanted to record his own version of the song, on one small condition. “Frank Sinatra called our publicist and said, ‘Ask that kid to write another verse for that song,’” the songwriter shared. “I thought about it, I called him back and said I can’t do it – it’s like sewing another arm on your kid, I can’t do it.”
Sinatra, at that point in his career, had not been knocked back in such a fashion for quite a while. Particularly for a young band like Chicago, the idea that Sinatra would record one of your songs was meant to be an insurmountable honour. For Pankow and the rest of the group, though, that honour was not worth sacrificing artistic integrity.
Exactly why Sinatra demanded another verse to the three-minute track remains largely unknown, but either way, the legendary vocalist didn’t end up recording ‘Colour My World’, and even if he had, it is difficult to imagine his recording overshadowing Chicago’s original in any fashion.
