My Kind of Town

Live from Chicago.

And I figured that being here, it would be nice to have a song about the place, and "My Kind of Town" came to mind.  What I also figured is that it would be best to post the original version of the song -- yes, the Frank Sinatra recording, but not the basic album version that most people know.  Rather, I suspect that most people don't know (or have forgotten) that the song actually comes from a 1964 movie, Robin and the 7 Hoods.  The score of the musical is by Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen.  

("My Kind of Town" got an Oscar nomination as Best Original Song, but it didn't win.  In fact, Messrs. Cahn and Van Heusen lost twice that year, since they had the admirable accomplishment of having two nominations in the category.  The other being, "Where Love Has Gone," which I've never heard.  I tracked it down, and it's perfectly fine and utterly unmemorable.  "My Kind of Town" is so wonderful, you wonder how it couldn't have won.  Well, you wonder until you see that the winner that year was "Chim-Chim-Chiree.")

Back back to the point at hand.  Here's the scene.  The character that Sinatra plays is a gangster, Robbo, who at one point in the story is given money by someone trying to buy his favor, which he doesn't want, so he turns it over to an orphanage, which makes him a popular celebrity.  Later, after being found "not guilty" in a court trial, he leaves the courthouse, and is swarmed by his multitude of new admirers.  Which leads to him breaking into a darn, fine song.