Seth MacFarlane is best known for creating and starring in American Dad! and Family Guy, as well as co-creating and starring in the Ted film and TV franchise. But off screen, he has another passion: singing. In fact, he's a five-time Grammy nominee.
MacFarlane has interpreted tunes from the Great American Songbook, big-band style with a classic, baritone voice. He's long been an admirer of Frank Sinatra. So he was overjoyed when the late crooner's daughter Tina approached him about purchasing a trove of long-lost musical arrangements written for her father.
In a conversation at NPR's Culver City, Calif. Studios, MacFarlane told NPR's A Martínez about how his new album, Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements, came together. MacFarlane sings 12 of these songs now recorded for the first time in full with an orchestra led by British conductor John Wilson.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
A Martínez: So let's start with how this journey began. It kind of started, from what I understand, when Frank Sinatra Jr. guest starred on Family Guy.
Seth MacFarlane: He was just a joy to have around and just game for anything on Family Guy. But he was also the steward of all of Sinatra's arrangements, all of his orchestrations and really had just an encyclopedic knowledge of orchestras of that era. When he passed away, Tina Sinatra, who has become a close friend, came into possession of these charts… She called and said, "Would you want to buy these things?" And I said, "Hell, yeah." When I got a hold of them, I and and the curator, Charlie Pinion, and Joel McNeely, my conductor, went through these boxes. What we found was about 1,200 songs that he had never recorded. Some were arrangements of existing songs. So we hired an orchestra over on the Fox Lot, and we just went through these boxes and we played as many as we could.
Martínez: Now, what's next? What would you try to pull off next?
MacFarlane: This is just one album. There are probably enough unused charts in those boxes for at least two more albums.
Martínez: Whenever I hear someone try Frank Sinatra songs in karaoke, it's like they're trying the vocal mannerisms of Frank. So, how do you try to be you, but also give the essence and sense of Frank?
MacFarlane: I had the luxury of training with Lee and Sally Sweetland, who were two contemporaries of Sinatra who worked with him, worked with Dean Martin, worked with Streisand. They just taught you how to sing the way these songs are supposed to be sung. The best of Sinatra to me are his ballad albums. He's singing like he's at a concert hall; he's singing like he's singing an opera. There's nothing about it that evokes any of those kinds of gimmicky mannerisms that people sometimes do.
Martínez: Yeah, I think with Frank Sinatra, there's an association with Las Vegas casinos, for people that don't listen to his music, that makes him a lounge act, much like an Elvis song would be a tiki bar kind of song.
MacFarlane: Right. If you listen to a Sinatra album like Only the Lonely, that's one of those albums where you go, "Oh, I've been thinking about this guy all wrong." That's him doing what he does best. And there's not a swing tune anywhere to be found. In the same way that every animated show since The Simpsons kind of owes their existence to The Simpsons post-1990, anyone who does this kind of music certainly owes their existence to Frank Sinatra. Whether you're Harry Connick Jr. or Michael Bublé, it's like Sinatra was Jesus Christ.
Martínez: Do you ever remember the first time you heard Frank sing?
MacFarlane: I didn't really listen to Sinatra until I was in college. I remember hearing and thinking, my God, it's not just his singing that's great. His backing arrangements are fantastic. It's like nothing I've ever heard. Like, it just blows everything out of the water. When you listen to his recording of "Laura," there's like a minute-long intro where it's just the orchestra, and you realize, yeah, this guy had a collection of classical records. Like, he was a lover of orchestras, and he really understood that that was just as important as the vocal part.
Martínez: In your day job, you push boundaries all the time. It makes me think about the discussions I have with my uncle. He's a big supporter of President Trump, a big supporter of the Republican Party. And one of the things he tells me about Democrats is that he thinks they need showmanship — that President Trump is a showman. He knows how to work a crowd, he knows how to work a screen. You're a big supporter of the Democratic Party. Do you think the Democratic Party needs a showman or showwoman?
MacFarlane: I think that's very, very true. It's so cliché to say it, but each medium that comes along, you have to be in step with it. I think we are living in a time when showmanship, a specific type of showmanship, needs you to get loud. You have to make noise. You have to surprise people. Is that my cup of tea? Not necessarily. But it is the reality, I think.
The broadcast version of this story was produced by Iman Maani and edited by Olivia Hampton, who also edited the digital version.
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