1988 Oakland Coliseum, California
The "TOGETHER AGAIN" Tour (opening)
Orchestra Conducted By: Bill Miller
Other Performers: Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, jr.
Dean:
1. When You're Drinking / Bourbon From Heaven
2. Everybody Loves Somebody
3. Where Or When
4. Welcome To My World
5. Here Comes My Baby Back Again
6.. Little Ol' Winemaker Me
7. That's Amore
Sammy:
8. Here I'll Stay
9. monologue
10. Another Spring
11. I've Gotta Be Me
12. Medley: Sam & Drums
13. The Candy Man
14. What Kind Of Fool Am I
15. Mr. Bojangles
Frank:
16. I've Got The World On A String
17. What Now My Love
18. Maybe This Time
19. For Once In My Life
20. This Is All I Ask
21. Mack The Knife
22. medley: The Gal That Got Away / It Never Entered My Mind
23. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life
24. New York, Now York
Frank, Dean & Sammy:
25. comedy
26. medley: Side By Side / I've Heard That Song Before / All Or Nothing
At All / Memories Are Made Of This / Something's Gotta Give / Love
And Marriage / Volare / That Old Black Magic / Witchcraft / Bye Bye
Blackbird / I Got Plenty O'Nuttin' / Come Fly With Me / Gonna Build
A Mountain / Oh, Marie / Hava Negilah / All Of Me / You'r Nobody
Till Somebody Love You
27. The Oldest Established
Notes: Sinatra portion 54mins.
MUSICReunited Rat Pack--They’ve Got the World on a StringBY DENNIS
MCDOUGALMARCH 15, 1988 12 AM PT
LOS ANGELES TIMES STAFF WRITEROAKLAND — Frank Sinatra had just finished
belting “What Now My Love” to the 14,500 paying customers packing the Oakland
Coliseum Arena on Sunday night when a middle-aged fan approached the stage with
a bouquet of purple flowers.
“Thank you,” said the 72-year-old legend, kneeling down to offer the woman his
yellow pocket kerchief in exchange for the bouquet. She clutched it to her
bosom and moaned audibly.
And while the woman was still swooning, two more fans planted two fifths of
bourbon at the singer’s feet.
“Jack Daniel’s, I hope,” Sinatra muttered appreciatively before launching into
an upbeat rendition of “Mack the Knife.”
And so it went throughout much of the opening concert of the 29-city,
40-concert tour of Sinatra and his two compadres, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean
Martin: Romance and booze. Booze and romance.
The collective libido of the three original Rat Packers has mellowed with age.
This “Together Again” tour, which will touch down July 7-10 at the Universal
Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, is already being touted as their last. But they
demonstrated resoundingly for 2 hours and 10 minutes Sunday night that their
defiant lust for life has not totally faded with the years.
Three months after having a hip replaced, Davis was dancing to “The Girl From
Ipanema” and offering up a Michael Jackson impression during his “Mister
Bojangles” solo.
Less than a year after intestinal surgery, Sinatra brought the crowd to its
feet repeatedly with such standards as “The Gal That Got Away,” “I’ve Got the
World on a String” and “Maybe This Time.”
When he introduced “New York, New York” as “the national anthem,” graying women
and their balding spouses were flailing their arms as though it were 1940 all
over again, shouting “Frankie! Frankie!”
Of the trio, only Martin showed any detectable loss of vitality. During his
opening half-hour solo turn, a surly segment of the crowd near the top of the
stands shouted, “We can’t hear you!” as Martin limped through “Everybody Loves
Somebody.” His venerable “happy drunk” persona fell flat with the audience when
he actually did seem to forget the words to “Where or When” and “Welcome to My
World.”
“Every time you drink it rains bourbon from heaven,” he warbled to the strains
of “Pennies From Heaven.” Then, tossing a lit cigarette butt into the crowd
that had paid $40 apiece to see the show, he fell back into a makeshift refrain
from “Everybody Loves Somebody”:
“If I had you in my shower. . . .”
The stiff, 70-year-old crooner did take the opportunity to win back the
audience with “That’s Amore.”
For his half-hour solo turn, Davis departed from the de rigeur tuxedo and bow
tie worn by everyone from the ushers to the 35-piece Billy May Orchestra. The
singer-dancer appeared in a black silk shirt with a white hibiscus print and
later draped himself with chains and jewelry sitting atop the upright Baldwin
at stage left.
“I had this shirt made from one of Tom Selleck’s sleeves,” quipped the
62-year-old Davis.
Like Martin, Davis sipped repeatedly from a plastic cocktail glass that he
carried on stage with him, but carefully pointed out after a gutsy rendering of
“I’m Not Going” that the glass contained nothing more potent than strawberry
soda pop.
“I’ve had three years of sobriety,” he boasted to the cheering crowd.
Sinatra is heavier and slower than he was 50 years ago when he debuted in
Oakland with the Harry James Orchestra, but he left no doubt that he is still
very much a ladies’ man. With 10 violins carrying him through the chorus, the
head of the clan pleaded the loving lyrics to “This Is All I Ask”:
“Beautiful girls walk a little slower when you walk by me, sunsets stay a
little longer. . . .”
Martin and Davis joined Sinatra on stage for the final 20 minutes, offering
their buddy a woolen shawl for his shoulders and a “golden age” cocktail to
drink.
“It’s made out of Geritol and prune juice,” said Martin. “It gets you going and
keeps you going.”
The medley of hits the three stumbled through gave the arena the air of a true
Vegas lounge act.
Martin continuously checked his watch to see how much longer they had to remain
on stage while Davis boogied around singing “Hava Nagila.” Sinatra, showing the
immense patience of an older brother, pulled the final moments together by
coaxing his pals into a lusty tribute to “the oldest established permanent
floating crap game in New York.
