Frank Sinatra

Paul Anka, Ladies' Man and Sinatra Worshipper, Tells It His Way

My Way: An Autobiography By Paul Anka with David Dalton St. Martin's Press, 384 pp., $29.99 Currently celebrating his 55th year in show business with this autobiography and the new CD Duets -- which finds him singing with artists like Celine Dion, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and (through the magic ... More >>

Christmas Past: The Lost Sinatra Group Christmas Episode

While we celebrate the holidays, Rocks Off is resurrecting a few of our best Christmas-themed blogs from the past few years. (Wait... resurrecting is Easter. Never mind.) This blog originally appeared December 22, 2010. Through the magic of Christmas, Rocks Off has received a copy of the transcript ... More >>

Terminal Confusion: Why Are These the UK's Most Popular Funeral Songs?

Recently, a survey conducted in the UK revealed the most popular songs played at funerals. The big news everyone seems to be talking about is that Adele's "Someone Like You -- a song all about how replaceable a person is -- made it to No. 22. But we here at Rocks Off find the Top 5 equally confoundi ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Fiskadoro's Richard Kimball

Who: Richard Kimball plays guitar and sings in one of Houston's finest noise bands, Fiskadoro. Over the years they've released a series of free EPs that have only gotten better and better, including the very dance-worthy Dubai earlier this year. The album dealt with a dystopian future where oil comp ... More >>

The Rat Pack Is Back

10 Things Musicians Have Been Buried With

Everyone dies eventually, even rock stars, and when they go it's not uncommon for them to take beloved personal items with them, or to have such things placed there by grieving friends and family. That is of course unless they're cremated and have their ashes snorted or smoked. For those who went th ... More >>

Double Duds: The 10 Worst Duets Since "Ebony and Ivory"

Thirty years ago this week, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder hit No. 1 on the charts with their duet, "Ebony and Ivory." The song spent seven weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and the past three decades as a joke. Perhaps history's most hackneyed call for racial harmony (which, admittedly, ... More >>

Ask A Rapper: Big Boss E's Favorite Boss Songs

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -- lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good -- so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. T ... More >>

Your 33 Black Angels Pick 10 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

​Sunday night, Notsuoh plays host to Your 33 Black Angels, a manic garage-psych group from Brooklyn, N. Y. The band sometimes boasts eight members, and reminds us of a less-pretentious Brian Jonestown Massacre or trance-driven Black Lips. And there's the "96 Tears" organ that chimes in here a ... More >>

Nice 'n' Easy

Downtown supper club The Capitol at St. Germain has arrived.

Classic Christmas: Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas

Over the holidays, we're looking back at some classic Christmas albums taking some track by track and just digging on others. ​Let me just get this out of the way right off the bat: I don't care for Mannheim Steamroller. I think their music is odd and a little creepy. But, that doesn't mean 1 ... More >>

Classic Christmas: Ella Fitzgerald's Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas

Over the holidays, we're looking back at some classic Christmas albums taking some track by track and just digging on others. ​There is an admission that I have to make having written all these Classic Christmas posts this year. When I think of Christmas, I don't think of carols or choirs or ... More >>

Classic Christmas: The Perry Como Christmas Album

Over the holidays, we're looking back at some classic Christmas albums taking some track by track and just digging on others. ​When we think back now about the 1950's, we tend to idealize them as the birth of rock and roll, when kids were wearing leather jackets and rebelling against their pa ... More >>

Classic Christmas: Bing Crosby's White Christmas

Over the holidays, we're looking back at some classic Christmas albums taking some track by track and just digging on others. ​Bing Crobsy was the first crossover pop star. He made movies, music, appeared in both radio and television programs and did all of it successfully and, more important ... More >>

Classic Christmas: A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra

​There are many arguments to be made about music, but one that I doubt anyone could actually win is the one that goes, "There was someone in music at some point cooler than Frank Sinatra." Trying to make that argument is like trying to say Kobe was better than Michael. Sure, you can say it, bu ... More >>

Top 5 Songs About Coffee To Celebrate National Coffee Day!

National Coffee Day is September 29. Most of us can't function without our morning cup, whether it's black, loaded with sugar and cream, or one of those $10 fancy-pants 20-ouncejobs. It's part of our morning routine, it's a ritual, it warms our souls and gets us moving. It's a social custom and a h ... More >>

Houston Symphony: Poperazzi

Saturday Night: Luis Miguel At Toyota Center

Photos by Groovehouse​Luis Miguel Toyota Center June 12, 2011 It's 9:10 p.m. and Luis Miguel struts onstage, all smiles and ego. He's 40 minutes late but nobody, including him, seems to notice. He launches into "Te Propongo Esta Noche" backed by a band that's got a full horn section of three ... More >>

Jonathan Barnes: Friend of Houston Socialite Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering

Ol' Blue Eyes weeps at what became of his Cadillac​Jonathan Barnes, the Bellaire oil trader whose ill-gotten gains include Frank Sinatra's 1957 Caddy, pleaded guilty today to fraud and money-laundering charges, the U.S. Attorney's office announced. Now very worried: The two other defendants w ... More >>

Jonathan Barnes & Pals: How to Spend Those Ill-Gotten Gains? Buy Frank Sinatra's 1957 Caddy

The first time Frank Sinatra's name has been associated with criminal activity​The U.S. Attorney's office today announced the indictment of three oil traders accused of running an $80 million scam against LyondellBasell, and the most entertaining part was what the trio spent their alleged ill- ... More >>

The Lost Sinatra Group Christmas Episode

​Through the magic of Christmas, Rocks Off has received a copy of the transcript of the "Sinatra Group" sketch that was filmed in an alternate reality last weekend, one in which Phil Hartman never died, and Saturday Night Live is currently in one of its funniest seasons to date. What else cou ... More >>

When Frank Sinatra Played Juarez... And Galveston

​Already a poet laureate of Americana before he moved to El Paso about ten years ago, Tom Russell's border tenure has seen him produce some great hardscrabble portraits of sketchy characters and haunting, even deadly landscapes. One of Russell's truly great pieces is the border memoir "When S ... More >>

Rock Stars' Troublesome Family and Friends

​Wednesday, the NAACP released an extensive, in-depth study of the main six groups which provide the lion's share of support for the infamous Tea Party movement, and the results of their study are not encouraging. It chronicles a great deal of cross-pollination between Tea Party and white supr ... More >>

The Top Five Saturday Night Live Musician Impressions

​In the wake of the recent news that feted comedian/actor/YouTube sensation Jay Pharoah - above, known for his spoofs of A-list bait like Drake, Chris Tucker, 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Eddie Murphy, and President Obama - will join the cast of Saturday Night Live when its 36th season premieres September ... More >>

Ten Iconic Musical Nicknames, And 25 You May Never Guess

​You know what sucks? Getting saddled with a really awkward family nickname when you are younger and it following you until it takes a frenzied freak-out to stop it. We were once called "Pooter" by our mother until an eight-year-old Rocks Off gave her a terse look right before third grade star ... More >>

Idol Beat: Adios, Aaron

What does this have to do with crooning, Frank Sinatra and Harry Connick Jr.? Absolutely nothing.​I was amazed, if not exactly surprised, at how much time Idol can kill in a one-hour results show. Now that we're down to just a handful of singers, the producers are really reaching for padding, ... More >>

American Idol: Adios, Aaron

What does this have to do with crooning, Frank Sinatra and Harry Connick Jr.? Absolutely nothing.​I was amazed, if not exactly surprised, at how much time Idol can kill in a one-hour results show. Now that we're down to just a handful of singers, the producers are really reaching for padding, ... More >>

BODEGAS TACO SHOP'S HIBISCUS MARGARITA ON THE ROCKS

Bodega's Taco Shop's Hibiscus Margarita on the Rocks

​A contractor I knew as Cowboy once told me the margarita was named after singer Peggy Lee in the late '40s at Galveston's storied Balinese Room. (He also told me that Frank Sinatra, a fixture at the former waterfront hotspot, refused to touch his own penis; he had hired hands do the job for h ... More >>

Traves Hedemann: "Young at Heart Art"

Lonesome Onry and Mean: We Are Not Ready for Christmas Music in October... or Ever, Really

​Let the Madness begin. No, not March Madness, nincompoop - it's October. Christmas Madness. Lonesome Onry and Mean doesn't know who officially decides these things, all we know is that it's the first week of October, Halloween hasn't even come and gone yet, but in the past 24 hours we've received ... More >>

Birthday Bash, Alt-Weekly Style

Epic Press bash will celebrate Best of Houston¨ 2009 issue and the paper's 21st birthday

Follow Along As Houstonians Hunt WW2 Ghosts...If You Dare!!!

Photo courtesy ghostshow.usJennifer Parker of SPIHouston will have some local representation when the largest paranormal investigation in the history of paranormal investigations goes down Saturday night in Tampa Bay, Florida.Members of Southern Paranormal Investigators will join a 25-person investi ... More >>

Frank Sinatra: Seduction: Sinatra Sings of Love

Album of the Day: Frank Sinatra's Seduction: Sinatra Sings of Love

"Witchcraft," live in Genoa, Italy, 1987 Frank Sinatra Seduction: Sinatra Sings of Love www.sinatra.com Ten years after his death, Frank Sinatra's cocksure shadow looms as large as ever over affairs of the heart. Francis Albert was the "world's preeminent Chief Tilted-Hat Attitudinalist, Swi ... More >>

The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands

It’s Frank, Sammy and Dino — again

Bobby "Blue" Bland

Miss Pop Rocks: Dumbledore Is Gay…and Ron Weasley’s Into Leather

Sinatra Sings Sinatra

Jr. sings the songs that made Dad famous

Valient Thorr, Riverboat Gamblers

Valient Thorr and Riverboat Gamblers perform Monday, August 6, at Red Room inside Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717. ASG and Totimoshi are also on the bill.

Ocean's Thirteen

Ocean's Thirteen is a washed-up threequel. How much you wanna bet Hollywood makes a bundle?

The Dean Is Risen

Some Dean Martin albums we wish existed

Scooby-Dooby-Done

The Sinatra magic fails, and baffles, in rural Texas

Forgiving Fertitta

Is Tilman's awesome new restaurant reason enough?

Best Vintage Sounds

KBME/790 AM

Rotation

The Voice, The Spark, The Image

Sinatra's genius looms lively and large over multiple media

Press Picks

Heavy, Man

An endless drum solo for... the ten worst concept albums of all time

Twilight of the God

One final round (maybe) for the last romantic, Frank Sinatra