Rick Michel's Blog

We hear a lot about Millennials in current pop culture. They are the generation born in the years up to the 21st century, generally from the ‘80’s to the early 2000’s. We hear so much because they are the current Baby Boomers, that demographic that has enormous influence over culture and economics and one of the things they’ve embraced is vinyl records. Read More

Friday February 26th Jackie Gleason would have turned 100. He was an artist with many similarities to Sinatra; he excelled in movie, television and music, had a larger than life personality, and had an affinity for a certain drink. It may not be the yearlong celebration attributed to Frank Sinatra, but his was a life certainly worthy of praise and a toast or two with a bottle of Jack Daniels. Read More

When Frank Sinatra was topping the charts in the ‘40s and ‘50s it was common – normal actually – for parents and kids both to favor his music. Putting one of his LPs on the phonograph was appreciated by the entire family and could even be described today as a bonding experience. The Voice was the last pop artist to cross this generation gap. Read More

When it’s time to set a musical romantic mood, you can’t go wrong with Ol’ Blue Eyes. His music still crosses barriers insurmountable for most musicians, including generations – teens and parents both knew the value of a Frank Sinatra song when it came to setting the mood. What’s most amazing is that you’re still just as likely to find his vinyl on a dorm room turntable as in your grandma’s CD player today. Here are three of The Voice’s most romantic tunes for your Valentine’s Day listening pleasure. Read More

When you’re making a movie, you need to capture something that will draw an audience – have them lined up to see your film – or you’re not likely going to have the opportunity to make another. Some have tried to harness a “cool” factor in their productions because strong, smart characters with attitude and confidence project those qualities to the viewers: if you’re watching a cool, smart film, you’re cool and smart by association. Capturing “cool” is a lot more difficult to do than it sounds though. Many will attempt this via emulation and the Rat Pack is the obvious choice. Read More

The comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis was a formidable duo that is still admired today for their work. Martin was a decent club singer when he teamed up with the inexperienced Lewis to start their act in the mid ‘40s and they would develop into the top comedic show of their time. When the pair had their much-publicized falling out, many expected Martin’s career to tank. Boy, were they wrong. Read More

Cruising the Internet doesn’t always result in a return to faith in humanity, but I was recently pleasantly surprised when checking ranking sites for the top films of Frank, Dean, and Sammy. While I was expecting to see fun, but not necessarily culturally significant films such as The Cannonball Run, Robin and the 7 Hoods, or even Ocean’s 11, I discovered the choices had a little more substance. Here are the top ranked movies for each of these Rat Packers. Read More

George Washington was the first to receive one; Ulysses S. Grant, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Wright brothers, Thomas Edison, Bob Hope, Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa, and Jackie Robinson are also on the list of recipients; and in 1997 Frank Sinatra became one of just a relative handful of people – something like 154 in total – who have been awarded a Congressional Gold Medal since the birth of our nation. Read More

With the holiday season behind me, which included Chanukah, Leslie’s birthday, Christmas, New Year’s, and lots of performances thanks to Ol’ Blue Eyes’ birthday, I got to breathe a nice sigh of relief and relax for a brief moment, during which I thought, “If you think buying gifts for your family is hard – Leslie hates it when I buy her a vacuum – imagine having to get something for Frank Sinatra.” What would you do if he was on your gift list? Read More

The lights have just gone out on Frank Sinatra’s 100th birthday year and I’m excited because the party is still going strong. 2015 created a renewed interest of sorts in the mainstream media, bringing the career of The Voice to the forefront of pop culture once again, but the most impressive part of all this is that people are realizing he never really left the scene. Since the days of Bobby Soxers he’s been America’s pop icon and has never relinquished that title. Read More