An Evening with Frankie

I love Frank Sinatra. His voice is so soft and relaxed and...true.

All of his songs are wonderful but my favorite is "The Way You Look Tonight". The finger snaps and easy rhymes. The innocent flirting with the lilts in his eyes. Even if you didn't already know he had beautiful baby blues, you would be able to tell from the way he sang.

The lyrics to that song are so great.


Some day, when I'm awfully low
When the world is cold
I will feel a glow just thinking of you
And the way you look tonight

Yes, you're lovely, with your smile so warm
And your cheek so soft
There is nothing for me but to love you
And the way you look tonight

With each word your tenderness grows
Tearin' my fear apart
And that laugh..wrinkles your nose
Touches my foolish heart

Lovely ... Never, never change
Keep that breathless charm
Won't you please arrange it ? 'cause I love you
Just the way you look tonight


I mean, seriously. How can you not get all swoon-y when that song is playing? It conjures all kinds of things for me. It reminds me of my friend-it's the only song I'd dance to in the bar. He always asked me and we'd do the silly dip and twirl dance on alcohol stained carpets but it meant the world to me. Especially when I had a crush on him. 

(Ok, I copy/pasted the lyrics and now there's a weird gap in my paragraphs and it's driving me nuts but I can't figure out how to fix it so I'm just going to keep going and pretend it's fine)

I think about Guys and Dolls (Frankie's in it) and how adorable that movie is. It's so simple-almost Tarzan grunt simple-because it's a musical so everyone falls in love within the time it takes to sing about it. Simple.  I grew up watching musicals so maybe that's why I'm so stuck on the idea that love shouldn't be so damn hard.

Figured out that the whole knight on a horse thing didn't happen a long time ago but (Wait. Are my paragraphs normal again? Sweet.) I never really stopped hoping that I'd have romance. My parents were very affectionate with one another. Dad would come in from doing Dad things and kiss the back of my mom's neck as she washed dishes. They rarely called each other by their actual names. It was always, Love, Dear, Sweetheart, Honey...and those endearments have trickled into my own vocabulary. I was lucky to have both of my parents for as long as I did. I never doubted that they loved each other and that they were happy with each other-even if they weren't. Watching them made me hope for something similar.

Listening to Frankie brings that romance out of me. It makes me want to wear bobby socks and poodle skirts a little too but mostly it makes my heart all full and mushy. It makes me wish for sweet kisses on the back of the neck, for someone to beg me to never change. For someone to admit there is nothing for them, but to love me.