Ken Ehrlich has world on a string with all-star lineup in ‘Sinatra 100’ telecast

By John Katsilometes

Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015 | 7:30 a.m.

In amassing a wish list for those who would pay tribute to Frank Sinatra in a nationally televised spectacular, seeking Tony Bennett makes perfect sense. Few living individuals are in Sinatra’s class as an artist and icon, and Bennett is one.

A place on that list is reserved, too, for Celine Dion, for her hold on Strip superstardom at Caesars Palace, a favorite Sinatra haunt.

And Harry Connick Jr., who so readily reminds of Sinatra’s grace, style and confidence. He should be on the master list.

But Zac Brown? Adam Levine? Juanes? Seth MacFarlane?

Yes, yes, yes and yes, says Ken Ehrlich, charged with producing “Sinatra 100: An All-Star Grammy Concert.” The show airs Sunday on CBS. It is to be recorded live at Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Brown is a country rocker, by trade. Levine’s artistic roots are in straight rock with the long-running band Maroon 5. Juanes is a major star who happens to hail from Colombia and is a big draw among Latin music fans.

And MacFarlane is creator of the animated TV series “Family Guy.” For a thread of a connection to Sinatra, the night’s music director, Dave Loeb, performs on the score of that series. Loeb also is music director of “Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers,” and, of course, Wynn knew Sinatra for decades.

Certainly, there is room in this room for all of these artists. Also scheduled to perform are Lady Gaga; Garth Brooks (who knows the Encore Theater stage as well as anyone); his wife, Trisha Yearwood; Alicia Keys; Carrie Underwood; John Legend; and Usher. And expect video clips from superstars who could not be present for the taping at Encore Theater.

Steve Wynn is not part of the formal production team, though the show is being staged at his resort. He helped link the producers to many of the stars.

“CBS came and asked me to do this, and I said OK because of my relationship with (Sinatra),” said Wynn, who booked Sinatra at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City and Las Vegas in the 1980s. “I loved doing it. Ken asked me to make some phone calls and line up some artists, so I went to my Rolodex and made overtures to Garth, Trisha, Celine, about half of the names on the list.”

Wynn said he mostly “piqued their interest and told them to expect a call from CBS. To call it an endorsement by me would be right.”

As you wade through the diverse list of top-tier artists, it’s easy to lose sight of exactly who is the subject of this tribute. But it will be Sinatra, front and center and even in spirit, on the Strip that night.

Ehrlich outlined his strategy of aligning these stars in a recent phone interview.

“Well, at the end of the day, we’re a TV show. We’re trying to maximize our audience,” said Ehrlich, whose company has produced similar specials on behalf of the Recording Academy honoring The Beatles and Stevie Wonder. “But we want to be true to whoever it is we’re working with. If there’s one given in this show, what I wanted to make sure of was that every artist who we asked to do the show had a real feeling for Frank.

“It might not be an artist you would normally associate with him, although plenty of them are, but more importantly was the fact that when I contacted them, they spoke to it and had an admiration for Frank and really wanted to do it.”

And Zac Brown, for instance, showed this sort of passion?

“Zac Brown is not the first name that you think of when you think about Frank Sinatra,” Ehrlich said with a laugh. “But Zac is a huge Sinatra fan. Somewhere, I think on YouTube, I found him doing a version of a song — I believe it was ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ — and he wanted to be a crooner. At least, in that moment of his life, he wanted to be a crooner like Sinatra …

“Some of these people are just friends of ours, they are good Grammy friends of ours, and have done other shows that we do. Alicia has done shows we have done. Frankly, in the bookings for a lot of these shows, I just rely on my experience with the artists, in most cases.

“I’ve been doing this for 40 years now, so I have these relationships, and I know these people and what sparks them.”

Ehrlich said the show will unspool through the 50 years of Sinatra’s music career spanning the 1940s through the '90s. But don’t expect a formal setlist to be issued in advance of the broadcast.

“There are few enough surprises in this world, let alone on television,” Ehrlich said. “We are a couple of really interesting medleys, a Capitol Records medley that he always did, and songs that will speak to the 50 years he covered back to, ‘She’s Funny That Way,’ through the ’50s and ’60s with ‘My Kind of Town’ and ‘You and Me (We Wanted it All).’ These were classic songs of his.”

Also in play, naturally, are “World on a String,” “All the Way,” “That’s Life,” “Luck Be a Lady,” “Young at Heart,” “It Was a Very Good Year,” “I’ve Got a Crush On You,” all name-checked by Ehrlich.

“That’s a pretty good sampling, right there, of Frank Sinatra,” Ehrlich said.

The medley approach is familiar to fans who recall Sinatra’s many TV appearances through the peak of his career.

“When you were watching these great TV specials, whether it was Frank or Sammy (Davis Jr.) or Ella Fitzgerald or whoever, and there would always be one act that would do nine songs in seven minutes,” Ehrlich said. “They were great because as musical as they were, it was about how much fun the artists were having. I wanted to re-create those moments, so we have about three or four of those in the show, that are meant to bring back that era.”

Ehrlich chuckles again as he hearkens to “that era.”

“It’s an era, by the way, that I’ve been copying all my life, with my Grammy moments, putting people together,” said the revered producer. “But that’s where it all came from, those songs and Frank Sinatra.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.