Holiday blues: dig out the understated vocals of Sinatra's Watertown. Photograph: AP
I find myself in the perfect frame of mind to return to the occasional Catch of the Day series of great lost albums. And this time it has to be Frank Sinatra's Watertown.
By ol' blue eyes' standards, this 1970 concept album was a bomb. He alienated his audience by heading into previously uncharted rock/pop waters with the writing partnership of Bob Gaudio and Jake Holmes, plus producer/conductor Charles Calello. It sold a paltry 100,000 copies or so - and don't forget this was the year after he released My Way, which holds the record for the longest stay in the UK chart by any single, re-entering the Top 40 on six occasions between April 1969 and September 1971. The critics weren't too bothered about the album either, and a planned TV special was cancelled in the face of overwhelming apathy.
Personally, I think it's one of his greatest masterpieces. A study in claustrophobic isolation, it tells the story of a washed-up man (pun surely intended) in a small town as he faces up to being abandoned by his wife. The lyrics leave a gloriously haunting ambiguity to the story (is he a cuckold or a widower?) and Sinatra's vocals are at their resigned, understated best.
Thankfully, someone out there agrees with me. I suggest you procure a copy - I got mine for £2 in a secondhand record shop.
Oh - and if you need this to have some relevance in the wider world, you'll be interested to know his famiily has just signed a new deal.
