Read enough articles about The Beatles and you'll repeatedly hit the claim that Frank Sinatra frequently introduced his cover of George Harrison's "Something" as his "favourite Lennon & McCartney number."
Much like the misquote about Ringo not being the best drummer in The Beatles, I think this might be one of those semi-apocryphal lines which has taken on a life of its own.
Here's what Paul McCartney has to say in The Beatles Anthology, Episode 4.
That was broadcast in 1995 - so we need to look for sources from before that.
There's not much Internet before the mid-1990s. Google's mismanagement of the USENET archives is a cultural obscenity. Nevertheless, we can find a few references which predate McCartney's broadcast.
1994-12-26
Frankie used to introduce "Something" as his "tribute to Mr. Lennon and Mr. McCartney" ;^)
1990-03-05
So it was certainly a proto-meme back then.
Of the thousands of Beatles books, I can't find any from before the mid-1990s which mention Sinatra's misattribution.
For example, 1994's The Complete Guide to the Music of the Beatles simply says:
Similarly, there are plenty of books and articles about Sinatra - lots of them talk about Something, but never this supposed misrepresentation. In 1980's New York Magazine, Sinatra is interviewed and says:
There are many videos of Sinatra singing Something on YouTube - none of them have him introducing the song as a Lennon/McCartney number.
Indeed, here's one where he introduces it as being by George Harrison.
I think that's 1982's The Concert for the Americas - in the Dominican Republic.
Here's a 1985 concert where he introduces it as being by George Harrison of The Beatles.
Way back in 1978 at Sinatra's Caesar’s Palace Concert, he introduces it with "George Harrison wrote it" and finishes with "by George Harrison".
Even back in 1975, during a concert in Jerusalem he was crediting Harrison, saying:
Every one of The Beatles was a very talented young man individually. And here's an example of George Harrison with a great love song."
I've now listened to dozens of recordings of Sinatra singing Something live and in none of them does he so much as mention John Lennon or Paul McCartney.
So is the quote apocryphal? Possibly not!
Less than a year after John Lennon was murdered, Sinatra treated Carnegie Hall0 to a series of 11 concerts.
On 10th September 1981, John Rockwell published Pop: Sinatra at Carnegie - a review of the opening night of Sinatra's concert series at New York City's Carnegie Hall:
Also on the 10th, a clutch of US papers reproduced a story by the inimitable Mary Campbell of the Associated Press.
Most of the syndicated versions leave out the parenthetical remarks.
On the 11th, Patricia O'Haire published a somewhat snide review of the September 9th concert in The New York Daily News
On 14th September 1981, a British newspaper re-reported the comment:
That's the Daily Express by Rob Benson, their Los Angeles correspondent1.
By the 29th of September 1981, the story had made it to Australian Financial Times' The Bulletin.
It's unclear how many of those journalists were actually at the concert. I assume John Rockwell, Mary Campbell, and Patricia O'Haire were as they published fairly detailed reviews.
Tracking down a set-list for that long-gone concert is tricky. Carnegie Hall themselves get the dates wrong in their archive and say the first performance was on the 8th, and their set-list is sourced from Setlist.fm rather than their own records. The Sinatraphiles mailing list has a set-list for the 9th which does include "Something".
There's a purported recording of the September 10th concert with a set-list on the reverse:
There's no "Lennon" song - the only Beatles number is "Something". Let's take a listen to the introduction from that bootleg recording.
🎤 Frank Sinatra
"A beautiful song by George Harrison. Maybe one of the best love songs ever written."2
So, that's a handful of contemporary sources who mention that Frank Sinatra once introduced "Something" as being composed by someone other than Harrison.
The only recording is of the concert the next day - and it doesn't includes that "blooper".
There's no other mentions I can find which directly cite a specific concert or performance.
Did Sinatra ever say it was his "favourite Lennon and McCartney song"? He sang in thousands of shows3, not all of which were recorded4, so it is entirely possible he mentioned it. But you'd expect more than a few reporters would write about it, wouldn't you?
The origin of the "quote", as far as I can tell, is from an interview Paul McCartney gave to David Hinckley in the New York Daily News on 21st October 1984.
That's the first time that I can see "Something" mentioned as Sinatra's "favorite Lennon-McCartney song".
I went rummaging through some reviews of Frank's concert performance which included "Something" in the set list.
His concert at the Palladium:
And Frank sings 'Something'. It's OK. The Vanilla Fudge were more adept at Beatle rewrites however.
Chris Salewicz. "Frank Sinatra: Palladium, London". New Musical Express (1975).
His concert at the Royal Albert Hall:
Superb renditions of Jim Webb's 'Didn't We?' and Harrison's 'Something' were recreated with a totally unique empathy. "Real Songs, beautiful songs", he said fervently, no trace of show-biz cant.
Max Bell. "Frank Sinatra: Royal Albert Hall, London". New Musical Express (1975).
And another report of the same gig:
Jimmy Webb's 'Didn't We' and the classic 'Nice And Easy', were exceptionally good, standing out easily among lacklustre renditions of 'Something', 'Strangers In The Night' and a David Gates song. In between, Sinatra delivered various controversial raps designed to instigate audience loyalties but proved that Sinatra should open his mouth only when singing.
Barbara Charone. "Frank Sinatra: Royal Albert Hall, London". Sounds (1975).
I've read dozens of gig reviews of old Sinatra concerts and they all contain various levels of snark about his performance, song choice, and politics - so you'd expect British reporters would have picked up on the misattribution, wouldn't you?
Instead, there's two slightly contradictory reports of one single concert and no suggestion that Sinatra himself said it was his "favorite Lennon-McCartney song". Given that he repeatedly credited George Harrison in the decade leading up to that concert, I think it is fair to say the "quote" has taken on a significance far beyond its actual importance.
If you have a recording of Sinatra introducing "Something" as a Lennon/McCartney number - or any other contemporary reports of that - please drop a comment in the box.
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After all, Sinatra had a lot of practice! ↩︎
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It is odd that the reporter describes Sinatra as "now" singing Something when it had been in his repertoire for over a decade. About the right level of journalistic rigour expected of the Express. ↩︎
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Later on, in the introduction to "Luck Be A Lady Tonight", he sarcastically describes Marlon Brando as "America's great baritone!". There are quite a few jokey moments in the performance - so it is entirely possible his Lennon & McCartney remark was a quip. ↩︎
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Incidentally, as far as I can tell, Sinatra first sang "Something" in December 1970 on The Dean Martin Show - about a year after its release on Abbey Road. Sinatra's performance doesn't contain him saying anything about the song. ↩︎
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I spoke to one collector who said:
I also checked all of the other collectors lists I have, and they do not have it either, I do however have reference to its existence via a notecard that represents a massive collection. What this means is that the concert could exist, but more than likely has never been digitized. Many Sinatra concerts are still stuck on reel to reels from the 70s and 80s and have never been transferred to the digital realm and shared on the internet.
