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Watertown (album)

Watertown
Watertown(1970album).jpg
Studio album by Frank Sinatra
Released March 1970
Recorded July 14, 17, 1969; voice overdubs August 25–27, 1969
Genre Traditional pop
Length 36:18
Label Reprise
FS 1031
Producer Bob Gaudio
Frank Sinatra chronology
A Man Alone
(1969)A Man Alone1969
Watertown
(1970)
Sinatra & Company
(1971)Sinatra & Company1971

Watertown is a studio album by American singer Frank Sinatra. It was released in March 1970 through Reprise Records. Watertown is a concept album centered on a man from Watertown, New York. In a series of soliloquies, the nameless narrator tells his heartbreaking story of personal loss: his wife has left him and their two boys for the lure of the big city. Watertown was produced and co-written by Bob Gaudio, one of four members of the rock band the Four Seasons. The songs were co-written by Jake Holmes. It is the only album Sinatra ever voiced over pre-recorded orchestral tracks. The album was released to mixed critical reviews and poor sales, Sinatra's only major album release not to crack the Billboard Top 100; the packaging was uncharacteristic of typical Sinatra album designs.

Nina Simone recorded "For A While" on her 1985 album, "Nina's Back." In 2011, the band Cake covered "What's Now Is Now" on its album Showroom of Compassion.

In 1969, Sinatra's sales were low. To try to combat this, he agreed to record a concept album with Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons and singer-songwriter Jake Holmes. Sinatra was no stranger to concept albums, having done them in the past, such as In the Wee Small Hours in 1955. Gaudio and Valli brought Sinatra a fully written album that told the story of a man whose wife has left him to raise his two young sons in Watertown.

The album's orchestral tracks were recorded in New York at Columbia 30th Street Studio, also referred to as "The Church." Unlike previous work, Sinatra did not record with the orchestra, but he did attend the recording sessions for the music. He recorded his vocals over the prerecorded tracks at United/Western Studios on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. He would never again record his vocals without a live orchestra.


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