Trilogy: Past Present Future

Trilogy: Past Present Future
Studio album by Frank Sinatra
Released	March 26, 1980
Recorded	July 17 - December 18, 1979 New York City, Los Angeles, Hollywood
Genre	Classic pop, jazz
Length	106:11
Label	Reprise 3 FS 2330
Producer	Sonny Burke
Frank Sinatra chronology
The Main Event - Live (1974) Trilogy: Past Present Future (1980) She Shot Me Down (1981)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Trilogy: Past Present Future (or simply Trilogy) is a 1980 album by the American singer Frank Sinatra. It was his first album in six years. This album produced the last of Sinatra's many signature numbers, "Theme from New York, New York."

Artistic scheme

Each of the album's three records was conceived as an individual work portraying a different time epoch, and each was arranged by one of Sinatra's major collaborators: Billy May (The Past), Don Costa (The Present), and Gordon Jenkins (The Future).

For "The Past," Sinatra made a record of standards ("The Song Is You," "It Had to Be You," "All of You") for the first time since the early 1960s. "The Present" concentrates on pop hits like "Love Me Tender", "Something", "Song Sung Blue", "MacArthur Park", and "Just the Way You Are". Stephen Thomas Erlewine's review described "The Future" as "ambitious, experimental, and self-referential — more of a freeform suite than a set of songs".^[1]

Track listing

The Past: Collectibles of the Early Years

Side One

1. "The Song Is You" (Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II) – 2:39
2. "But Not for Me" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) – 3:50
3. "I Had the Craziest Dream" (Mack Gordon, Harry Warren) – 3:13
4. "It Had to Be You" (Isham Jones, Gus Kahn) – 3:53
5. "Let's Face the Music and Dance" (Irving Berlin) – 2:50

Side Two

1. "Street of Dreams" (Sam M. Lewis, Victor Young) – 3:32
2. "My Shining Hour" (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer) – 3:21
3. "All of You" (Cole Porter) – 1:42
4. "More Than You Know" (Billy Rose, Edward Eliscu, Vincent Youmans) – 3:22
5. "They All Laughed" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) – 2:49

The Present: Some Very Good Years

Side Three

1. "You and Me (We Wanted It All)" (Carole Bayer Sager, Peter Allen) – 4:07
2. "Just the Way You Are" (Billy Joel) – 3:26
3. "Something" (George Harrison) – 4:42
4. "MacArthur Park" (Jimmy Webb) – 2:45
5. "Theme from New York, New York" (Fred Ebb, John Kander) – 3:26

Side Four

1. "Summer Me, Winter Me" (Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Michel Legrand) – 4:02
2. "Song Sung Blue" (Neil Diamond) – 2:47
3. "For the Good Times" (Kris Kristofferson) – 4:41
4. "Love Me Tender" (Vera Matson, Elvis Presley) – 3:34
5. "That's What God Looks Like to Me" (Lois Irwin, Lan O’Kun) – 2:55

The Future: Reflections on the Future in Three Tenses

Side Five

1. "What Time Does the Next Miracle Leave?" – 10:44
   • Soprano solo by Diana Lee
   • Narration by Jerry Whitman
2. "World War None!" – 4:27
3. "The Future" – 4:05
   • Alto solo by Beverly Jenkins

Side Six

1. "The Future" (Continued): "I've Been There!" – 3:33
2. "The Future" (Conclusion): "Song Without Words" – 6:00
   • Soprano solo by Loulie Jean Norman
   • Alto solo by Beverly Jenkins
3. "Finale: Before the Music Ends" – 9:46

All songs on "The Future" section written by Gordon Jenkins.

• Note: CD pressings combine the triple vinyl set onto 2CDs, with Past and Present taking up the first disc.

Personnel

• Frank Sinatra - Vocals
• Sonny Burke - Producer
• Billy May - Arranger, Conductor (Disc one, Past)
• Don Costa - Arranger, Conductor (Disc one, Present)
• Gordon Jenkins - Arranger, Conductor (Disc two, Future)

Reception

Trilogy: Past Present Future peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard 200.

At the Grammy Awards of 1981, Trilogy: Past Present Future was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and Sinatra's recording of "Theme from New York, New York" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and the Grammy Award for Song of the Year.

On his WNEW-AM show, Jonathan Schwartz described the "Future" suite that forms the final part of this album as "narcissistic" and "a shocking embarrassment".^[2] Sinatra rang to complain, and had Schwartz suspended from his job.^[2]

Writing for Billboard in 2015, Bruce Handy said, "35 years after its March 1980 release, in this, the year of Sinatra’s 100th birthday, it remains one of the most ambitious, strange, brilliant and bloated albums of his or any other artist’s body of work."^[3]

References