What’s Worth Watching: ‘Sinatra 100—An All-Star Grammy Concert’ on CBS for Sunday, December 6

Frank SINATRA
GAB Archive/Redferns
UNSPECIFIED - JANUARY 01: (AUSTRALIA OUT) Photo of Frank SINATRA; posed, in recording studio (Photo by GAB Archive/Redferns)

Sinatra 100—An All-Star Grammy Concert (Sunday, Dec. 6, 9/8c, CBS)

It was a very good century. That’s presumably the theme behind this musical salute to crooner extraordinaire Frank Sinatra, who would have turned 100 on Dec. 12. From Las Vegas, the glittery town where he ruled with his Rat Pack from the Swinging ’60s onward, this concert special (taped earlier this week at Wynn Las Vegas’ Encore Theatre) gathers an eclectic lineup of performers giving their doo-be-doo-be-doo all to pay homage to one of the most influential and popular recording artists of the 20th century.

Sinatra’s contemporary, Tony Bennett (still going strong at 89), leads a lineup that includes Bennett’s sometimes singing partner Lady Gaga, plus Garth Brooks, Harry Connick, Jr., Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood, Usher, John Legend, Adam Levine, Alicia Keys, Zac Brown, Trisha Yearwood, Juanes and late-blooming song-and-dance man Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy). Though their styles are very different, the performers will be singing standards from Sinatra’s songbook using arrangements from his renowned collaborators, including Nelson Riddle, Quincy Jones, Don Costa and Gordon Jenkins. Archival footage narrated by the so-called “Chairman of the Board” himself will be interspersed throughout, because there’s nothing like the genuine article. Long may he groove.