That's Life (song)

"That's Life" is a popular song written by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon and first recorded by Marion Montgomery. The most famous version is by Frank Sinatra, released on his 1966 album of the same name. Sinatra recorded the song after hearing an earlier cover of it by O.C. Smith; the song proved successful and reached the fourth spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Following the success of Sinatra's version, it was subsequently recorded by a number of artists including Aretha Franklin, James Booker, Shirley Bassey, James Brown, Van Morrison, David Lee Roth, Michael Bolton, Michael Bublé and Russell Watson. Sinatra's version appeared in the 1993 film A Bronx Tale and the 2004 video game Tony Hawk's Underground 2, while a cover by Bono was on the soundtrack of the The Good Thief (2002).

Background

Marion Montgomery was signed to Capitol Records after being discovered by singer Peggy Lee. Montgomery recorded "That's Life", written by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon, in 1963. It was released the same year, but failed to chart.^[1]

Cover versions and in popular culture

Frank Sinatra version

"That's Life" came to the attention of Frank Sinatra after it was recorded by blues singer O.C. Smith.^[2] The lyrics of "That's Life" were changed for Sinatra's version with the line "I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a queen" changed to end with "a king" instead.^[1] Sinatra first performed the song on his television special A Man and His Music – Part II in 1966, where it was played in the fashion of a blues song with the backing music played on an electronic organ.^[2]

This arrangement was changed on the recorded version,^[2] with it instead conducted by Ernie Freeman and produced by Jimmy Bowen; the trio has previously worked together earlier in 1966 on "Strangers in the Night",^[3] which would go on to win Sinatra the Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal.^[4] For "That's Life", an artificial gospel choir was created & sung by girl group The Blossoms as a backing track. A number of backup instrumentalists were also assembled for Sinatra's recording. After several attempts to record the track, Freeman & Bowen thought that they had it finished and Sinatra was pleased with it. However Bowen asked him to perform it again, which annoyed Sinatra – resulting in the performance that Bowen was looking for.^[2] LA session player Michael Melvoin performed the memorable organ solo on the recording.

Bowen's vision for the rest of the album was to mirror "That's Life" onto the other songs so they all sounded similar, rather than fill it with what he viewed as typical Sinatra-style songs. This was as a result of his work on the Strangers in the Night album, where Bowen felt that the titular single didn't match the rest of the album, which was more of a classic Sinatra sound. So for the That's Life album, the other album tracks had similar brass accompaniments.^[5]

Both the album and the song proved major successes for Sinatra. The song was a number-four hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and reached number one on the Easy Listening chart for three weeks in December 1966/January 1967.^[6] Sinatra's cover of "That's Life" was later used in the 1993 film A Bronx Tale alongside his recording of Same Old Song and Dance.^[7] It was also featured in the 2004 video game Tony Hawk's Underground 2.^[8]

Other versions

Although the Smith version had proved successful in areas such Detroit and Los Angeles, it wasn't until Sinatra's cover of it went high in the charts that the earlier version was released nationally.^[9] As well as the Smith release, "That's Life" was covered on several albums following Sinatra's success with it, including the Aretha Franklin album Aretha Arrives,^[10] in addition to recordings by The Temptations, Shirley Bassey, and James Brown.^[11][12] Brown recorded the song for his 1968 album Gettin' Down to It, and it subsequently appeared on his 1985 album Live at the Apollo, Volume II. Brown's studio-recorded version also appeared on the soundtrack for the 1999 film EDtv.^[12]

This was not the only occasion when a cover of the song appeared on a film's soundtrack. In 2002, a recording by Bono and composed by Elliot Goldenthal appeared on the soundtrack for The Good Thief.^[13] The song was also covered in "Opening Night", a second-season episode of the American television series Smash, by Katherine McPhee and Megan Hilty.^[14] David Lee Roth also recorded a version in 1986 for his Eat 'Em and Smile album which was released as a single and video.^[15]

List of covers