When a Love Affair is Over: The most heart-wrenching emotion in life may come at the end of a once-in-a-lifetime, love affair. Not from a mere passing fling but due to the real thing. Edward Redding wrote a song called End of a Love Affair. Two male singers offer a totally different version of the same song, each with arangements by two of the greatest arrangers for vocalists. For Frank Sinatra, Nelson Riddle wrote a somewhat pensive and restrained version in which Sinatra sounds quite rueful. He laments " So I go at a maddening pace, And pretend that it's taking her place, But what else can you do , At the end of a love affair ?"

Tony Bennett, on the other hand, has been backed by a rousing, live concert arranged and conducted by the great Robert Farnon. I venture one reason might be the constant joyful persona of Bennett who always seems to look on the sunny side of life. Depression, something that Sinatra has  admitted is a periodic condition while Bennett remains the cock-eyed optimist.

Listen to both versions and decide which version appeals to you and why. This is a musical Rorshach Test.

* Frank Sinatra: End of a Love Affair   Album " Close toYou"

* Tony Bennett:  End of a love Affair: Live with Robert Farnon