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Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy \/ William P. Gottlieb<\/p>\n
Sun 31 May 2026 23:00, UK <\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody had to live forever,\u201d Mel Brooks<\/a> quips in Unwrapped, \u201cI\u2019d vote for Sinatra\u201d.<\/p>\n The comedian\u2019s love for Frank Sinatra was profound. The feeling was mutual. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you who liked a laugh,\u201d Michael Caine once attested<\/a>, \u201cFrank Sinatra. He was very nice, he became my friend, and he loved to laugh.\u201d If you\u2019re of that disposition, then Brooks is a handy fellow to know.<\/p>\n The man behind such classics as The Producers and High Anxiety once said, \u201cTragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die<\/a>.\u201d Brooks had good reason to be of that enlightened outlook. His parents were jews who immigrated from Europe amid a climate of growing antisemitism and poverty. When they arrived in the US, they were greeted with something money can\u2019t buy: further poverty. <\/p>\n Shortly after they arrived in Brooklyn, when Mel Brooks was only two, his father passed away at the age of 34. \u201cThere\u2019s an outrage there,\u201d he later reflected. \u201cI may be angry at God, or at the world, for that. And I\u2019m sure a lot of my comedy is based on anger and hostility.\u201d But if there was any lingering pain or trauma, it wasn\u2019t just comedy that helped to keep it at bay.<\/p>\n The refined tones of Sinatra were a constant in Brooks\u2019 life. Viewed as the height of elegant sophistication, as soon as Sinatra burst onto the scene with his debut album back in 1946, Brooks was all ears. Thereafter, he would unwind from the hectic life of filmmaking and comedy with the classic record, In The Wee Small Hours.<\/p>\n The title track from that 1955 album is a song that Brooks couldn\u2019t live without. \u201cI love music, I\u2019ve always loved music, and I would be seriously bereft and at a great loss if music were taken away from my life,\u201d he told Roy Plomley when he appeared on Desert Island Discs. <\/p>\n Adding, \u201cI love, from the bottom of my left ventricle, all sorts [of music]\u201d. But he held none dearer than \u2018In The Wee Small Hours\u2019 by his crooning chum. \u201cAh, perhaps the best living singer and one of [the] great crooners,\u201d he reflected, \u201ca legend, in his own life\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n In a manner akin to the way in which Brooks elevated comedy into something truly contemporary and profound without losing any of the laughs, Sinatra\u2019s record was a major leap forward for swing jazz. With his purring tales of streetlight serenades, the crooner provided the world with its first mainstream concept album.<\/p>\n This mix of refined, comforting craft and cutting-edge artistry led Brooks to call the titular single the \u201cpeak of [Sinatra\u2019s] career\u201d. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a peak that Brooks always kept close to hand. So close, in fact, that he knew it word for word. So, if they say imitation is the height of flattery, then there\u2019s no higher compliment than the note-perfect impression Brooks was able to muster after years of listening to his dearly beloved \u2018Ol Blue Eyes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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