Frank Sinatra (Miss Kittin & The Hacker song)
Encyclopedia
"Frank Sinatra" is a song by French recording duo Miss Kittin
Miss Kittin
Miss Kittin is an electronic music DJ, vocalist, and songwriter. Since rising to prominence in 1998 for her singles "1982" and "Frank Sinatra" with The Hacker, she has worked with other musicians such as Chicks on Speed, Felix da Housecat and Golden Boy...

 & The Hacker
The Hacker
Michel Amato, better known by the stage name The Hacker, is a French electroclash and techno producer who has worked extensively with Miss Kittin. His work has been influenced by Electro artists like Kraftwerk, New Wave artists such as The Cure and Depeche Mode, as well as the French rave scene of...

. It is the second single from their debut album as a duo First Album
First Album (Miss Kittin & The Hacker album)
-Personnel:*Michel Amato - programming*F. Holzer - photography*Miss Kittin - vocals, vibraphone...

(2001). The song was originally included on the duo's 1998 EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 Champagne
Champagne (EP)
-External links:* at Yahoo! Music...

and became an anthem of the electroclash
Electroclash
Electroclash is a style of music that fuses New Wave and electronic dance music. It emerged in New York and Detroit in the later 1990s, pioneered by acts including I-F and those associated with Gerald Donald, and is associated with acts including Peaches, Adult, and Fischerspooner...

 scene. Miss Kittin included the song on her DJ mix album On the Road
On the Road (Miss Kittin album)
-Critical reception:Jason Birchmeier of Allmusic described the album "as awholehearted appeal to the more respectable and long-standing techno establishment," that proves her status "as a DJ rather than an electroclash diva," having "both the technical skills as well as the creativity to complement...

.

Writing and inspiration

Miss Kittin explained in an interview that the song was inspired by her love of Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

 and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 music.

"I love Frank Sinatra and the American crooners and romantic jazz in general. I was looking for a rhyme to "area" and here it came. What you don't know, is when I said "He's dead", I really thought he was... A friend told me it was funny because he's still alive... I couldn't believe it and felt guilty, especially when he died three months later..."

Composition

"Frank Sinatra" is credited as an electroclash
Electroclash
Electroclash is a style of music that fuses New Wave and electronic dance music. It emerged in New York and Detroit in the later 1990s, pioneered by acts including I-F and those associated with Gerald Donald, and is associated with acts including Peaches, Adult, and Fischerspooner...

 and techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...

 song, and is noted for its use of deadpan
Deadpan
Deadpan is a form of comic delivery in which humor is presented without a change in emotion or body language, usually speaking in a casual, monotone, solemn, blunt, disgusted or matter-of-fact voice and expressing an unflappably calm, archly insincere or artificially grave demeanor...

. According to Terry Sawyer of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...

, "In a deadpan cadence done in the accent of Ilsa the She-Wolf of The SS, Miss Kittin [...], created decadent club music for people too arch and smart for typical white label
White label
White label records are vinyl records with adhesive plain white labels affixed. Test pressings, usually with Test Pressing written on the label, with catalogue number, artist and recording time or date, are produced in small quantities to evaluate the quality of the disc production...

 fare. It was a deader and more desolate take on tired convention of the house beat
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...

 and unknown diva
Diva house
Diva house or Handbag house is an anthemic sub-genre of house music that became most popular in gay clubs during the nineties decade. It is known for booming female vocals, sometimes sampled from other recordings. Such samples come from 1970s soul, disco, gospel recordings and even show tunes sung...

 repeating a pithy chorus ad nauseum [sic], an alleged elevation of cliché through the detachment of kitsch.

Critical reception

Adam Bregman of Allmusic described the song as "undoubtedly the standout cut on the album." Ed Gonzalez, writing for Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...

, said, "Backed by The Hacker's happy-to-be-cheap retro production, Miss Kittin provides the ultimate electroclash
Electroclash
Electroclash is a style of music that fuses New Wave and electronic dance music. It emerged in New York and Detroit in the later 1990s, pioneered by acts including I-F and those associated with Gerald Donald, and is associated with acts including Peaches, Adult, and Fischerspooner...

 statement: she makes social climbing sound so stupid and empty, while reveling in it."

Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...

 placed "Frank Sinatra" at number eighty-six on its 100 Greatest Dance Songs list. Rock De Lux placed the song at number thirteen on the Songs of the Year list for 2001. The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

included the song on its Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...

 Singles list for 2002.

Chart performance

The song fared well on the Mexican iTunes Top 100 Dance Songs, where peaked at number eighty-eight.

Cultural impact

"Frank Sinatra" was included on compilation albums Global Underground 010: Athens by Danny Tenaglia
Danny Tenaglia
Danny Tenaglia is a New York-based DJ and Grammy nominated record producer.-Early life:At the age of ten, Tenaglia first started to collect records. In 1979 he began going to nightclub Paradise Garage, where DJ Larry Levan's genre-less blend of music appealed to him...

, American Gigolo by Tiga
Tiga (musician)
Tiga is the stage name of Montreal-born DJ/producer Tiga James Sontag . His album Sexor won the 2007 Juno Award for Dance Recording of the Year.-Career:He graduated from Selwyn House School, a prestigious school in Westmount...

, Dirty Dirty House Vol. 1 by Junior Sanchez
Junior Sanchez
Junior Sanchez is a record producer, DJ, artist, and remixer. His remixing and production skills are in demand by artists, including Madonna, Gorrilaz, Daft Punk, Placebo, Shakira, Les Rythmes Digitales, and Róisín Murphy. Junior Sanchez has produced albums and tracks for Katy Perry, Ima Robot,...

, Lektroluv by Dr Lektroluv
Dr Lektroluv
Dr. Lektroluv is a Belgium born Electro DJ.He is known for his green mask and mixing using a telephone instead of headphones...

, and GU10.

In 2003, "Frank Sinatra" was featured in the American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 biographical
Biographical film
A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...

 comedy-drama film Party Monster and its soundtrack. The soundtrack peaked at number twenty-one on the US Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Dance/Electronic Albums.

Track listings

  • Belgian Vinyl, 12-inch single
  1. "Frank Sinatra (Promo)" -
  2. "Frank Sinatra (Vocal Out)" -

  • U.S. Vinyl, 12-inch single
  1. "Frank Sinatra" -
  2. "Frank Sinatra 2001" -
  3. "DJ Song" -
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