Longtime pal Robert Davi not only lives and breathes Frank Sinatra professionally — he recently released an album of tunes made famous by the original “New York, New York” singer — but he’s also passing on the words of wisdom he gleaned from “Ol’ Blue Eyes.”
“Frank would be pretty outspoken about things,” Davi remembered. “He was the first to come out against racial injustice, he fought against those things. [He was] going to the club one night, and this is in the ’50s, and the maitre d’ saw that he we was with a black woman and he said, ‘I’m sorry, we don’t have that reservation.’ [Sinatra] said, ‘Try Lincoln.’ He wouldn’t stay at a hotel or play in a bar if they wouldn’t let black people in. And the same thing with the anti-semitic.”
And what about those that are carrying on Sinatra’s legacy on the stage? Robert loves Tony Bennett and Michael Buble but has mixed feelings toward Rod Stewart’s take on the “Great American Songbook.”
So would Sinatra be proud of Davi’s new album, “Davi Sings Sinatra: On The Road To Romance”? “I have that edge to me and Sinatra had that edge to him,” Davi told me.
We’ll take that as a yes.
To see my entire interview tune into “Naughty But Nice With Rob” Thursdays at 8:00 PM on HDNet.
