The legendary Marilyn Maye is returning to 54 Below for a salute to Frank Sinatra. A thirteen day residency at the Manhattan supper club will give fans the opportunity to delight themselves with Ms. Maye’s astonishing voice and should give neophytes the chance to acquaint themselves with one of the greatest performers of the past century. With a recording career that dates all the way back to the 1960s, Ms. Maye has recorded some of the most beautiful songs of the twentieth century and earned the honor of becoming the singer with the most appearances in The Tonight Show.

Not one to rest on her laurels, Ms. Maye has continued performing all over the country, each time bringing a taste of classic glamour to the venues she visits. We had the pleasure of talking to her from her home in Kansas, and she told us why she likes performing Sinatra songs, shared anecdotes about her career and was overall a delight to talk to, making us wish the interview could go on forever...

Can you tell me a bit about the Frank Sinatra tribute you’ll be doing at 54 Below?

It’s a production that I’ve done in various theatres years ago when he first passed away, so now I’m shortening it somewhat in order to make it compatible for 54 Below, so that’s fun. I’m thrilled because it’s my fifth engagement at 54 Below since they opened. The reason with Sinatra for me is that he has so many great songs and he’s of an era that I’m very familiar with. He was a great singer, but mainly it’s the material, it’s songs that I love and present, and many I didn’t because they are his signature songs and I would never touch them, but now that he’s gone I can do them. Several of these songs were done during the autumn of his life, and this is the autumn of my years (laughs) so I think it’s fitting that I can do these songs now.

It’s also Sinatra’s centennial!

Exactly, and also I’m not a Sinatra sound-alike so that can be appropriate too, because there will never be another Sinatra.

I love that the show is called Her Way because what your fans like about you is how you turn songs they think they know, into your very own.

That is exactly right, I couldn’t have said it better, so tell your readers I said it! (Laughs)

Your interactions with your audience have become your trademark because it always seems like you’re having so much fun!

I am a firm believer in that the audience is there to be entertained, I’m not there to self-serve, I’m there to serve the audience and that’s my job and pleasure. With Sinatra, I turn every song into a story, into a special vignette, Sinatra was such a great storyteller, so my motive of presentation is to tell these stories. I’m very complimented when people tell me they’d never understood a song before, until they heard me do it.

And you’ve even said that you want them to cry when you sing your ballads...

(Laughs) Well, when they tell me I made them cry I ask them “oh dear, was it that bad?” It’s a little retort I give them.

Are you usually thinking of specific people or moments when you sing the ballads yourself?

I’ve been asked that many times before and I never know how quite to answer that because I’m just thinking about the lyrics and their meaning, not necessarily applying them to myself. Although I did cry an awful lot in my early life, I had a lot of happiness and unhappiness, but now I tell people I don’t cry anymore, I don’t cry easily, because I cried so much in my early life. I was married three times, some of it was very happy, some of it was not, so I don’t cry as easily anymore.

I’m really sorry to hear that...

I’m not a downer kind of person, so each day I feel fortunate and blessed in that my voice is hanging on in there and that I have friends and people who are loyal. Just now I heard some of my friends from Houston and Florida were coming to see my show, I was just with Bob Mackie and we did a wonderful fundraiser for an AIDS project in Palm Springs, the event was one night, and then we spent three days together just laughing.

I like that you brought up Bob, because in 1965 both you and Cher, were nominated for the Grammy for Best New Artist.

Oh how interesting! Cher was nominated for a Grammy?

Yeah, as part of Sonny & Cher.

I’ll never forget my category because it was so weird. It was Horst Jankowski, Tom Jones, The Byrds and Herman’s Hermits. I mean, how weird is that combination of people? I never thought it was fair, we were all apples and oranges. I was thrilled to be nominated because those RCA recordings brought so many good things to me,.

You recorded many of your albums at Webster Hall, your second album was recorded live at The Living Room. Considering how much the recording industry has changed and how different instruments and voices are recorded separately now, would you rather go back to recording with a live orchestra?

Everybody back then was live, we were all together, I sang, they played, there was no overdubbing. If you didn’t nail it in two or three...well, you just had two, you needed to nail it in the first or second take, and we did!

Was everyone nervous all the time?

We didn’t know anything different, it was the job.

You’ve been singing your entire life, do you still think of it as work, or is it who you are?

It’s who I am, sweetheart. It’s what I do, I am very fortunate to be making a living doing what I love and have a passion for doing.

You recorded many showtunes before they actually made their appearance on Broadway, including “Cabaret”...

The idea was that they would get airplay, because I was getting wonderful airplay, so composers would bring me the songs. Whenever I run into Tommy Tune he’ll say “I remember when you recorded ‘Step to the Rear [from How Now, Dow Jones]’” (laughs) because he was doing the show and they would hear my recording on the radio. I recorded “Cabaret” and many other songs that I won’t even mention, because the shows didn’t make it, and neither did the songs. One that I thought “ugh, I don’t know if I’ll ever make it through this tune” was called “Mr. Clown” (laughs) and I was not thrilled about him, there was not much of a story to tell with that one. I’m sure the writer had a story to tell, but in my mind I couldn’t identify with it.

Were you ever tempted to star in the corresponding shows or was being in New York never part of what you wanted?

I love Broadway but I never lived in New York, so my connection with Broadway was never prevalent. When the clubs started closing in the 90s, I wound up doing several Broadway shows, not on Broadway. I did several productions of Hello, Dolly!, one in particular was in Texas which I did four summers in a row and I even recorded an album with all of the music from the show, called Marilyn Maye Sings All the Songs of ‘Hello, Dolly!’, I don’t even know how we got that title in the cover! I also did Mame and Sondheim’s Follies, I played Sally in Houston, and Carlotta a couple of years later in San Francisco. I had the privilege of singing “I’m Still Here” for Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday at Carnegie Hall, I was the eleven o’clock number, so it was thrilling, and a little intimidating, to sing it for him. That song is very fitting for me now, and it’s requested from me all the time.

People in New York always beg you to do more shows whenever you’re here.

I’m so lucky in that sense, this year I already did the Metropolitan Room, then in February I was at Birdland, last November I did The Iridium, and now 54 Below. I’m very honored that I can spread myself around and I am so grateful for those loyal people that come to hear me. I wouldn’t be able to make it without them.

You also have a big birthday this year on April 10.

I do, I’m sorry I’m not in New York because I have more friends there than I do in Kansas City, but I’m told we’ll celebrate it when I’m in town.

What’s in your wishlist this year?

More health, more energy, more songs!

Actually my birthday is the day after yours, perhaps we should throw a joint birthday bash when you’re in town.

Absolutely! How old are you?

I’ll be turning 29.

I’m also turning 29 again, and again, and again! (Laughs)

Don't miss Marilyn Maye Her Way, A Salute to Frank Sinatra at 54 Below from April 17-30. Click here for tickets.