Frank Sinatra: The Complete Guide

REVIEW: On The Air, the label that has put out so many old-time radio shows of Frank Sinatra's, now puts out a soundtrack from one of Judy Garland's infamous television shows, this one from February 26, 1962 and featuring Rat Pack buddies Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. The show is of passing interest to Sinatra fans, but make no mistake, this is Judy's time to shine, and Frank & Dean are just passing by. Judy kicks off the show by singing three songs: the hit from Broadway's Bells Are Ringing: "Just In Time", followed by "When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You)", and then the theme for the Rat Pack reunion: "You Do Something To Me" which Frank joins at the end. Judy gives Frank the spotlight for a run-through of Johnny Mercer's "Too Marvellous For Words", which he gives a very off-the-cuff reading; this is Frank who's now in charge of his own destiny, and here he's backed by a full orchestra with brass, strings, and the works. Because this is a live venue, the sound fluctuates as Frank moves the microphone around, but the performance is still uncanny, with Frank giving a "Pow!" at the end of a long held out note at the end. Judy and Frank are very chummy, with Judy telling Frank "You're so good, you're so good!" Then Judy launches into a reprise of "You Do Something To Me" which serves as Dino's introduction. Dean then sings Johnny Mercer's "You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby" and then the three of them segue into a final reprise of "You Do Something...". Frank and Dean then team up for a brassy, brash arrangement of "The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else" Frank all authoritative, Dean swoozy and boozy - it's a fun duet, with Dean and Frank occasionally throwing off asides to the audience (Dean: "She didn't even leave a note!" Frank: "You can't read anyway"). The rest of the disc is pure Judy, and if you enjoy her later years, when she developed a larger vibrato, and sang everything as if it was her last song, you'll love this. The sound is passible on this release, but it's nice to have a document of this rare collaboration.

Frank Sinatra: Duets With The Dames (August 25, 2003) Castle Pulse PLSCD 633 [CD]

REVIEW: This semi-legit release gathers tracks from radio, television and studio sources, many of which are not found anywhere else and puts them all together on this interesting package. Strictly real-live duets with female stars, the songs and arrangements are mostly pretty routine, from the languid "Tea For Two" with a flutey Dinah Shore, to the almost too-sweet sentiments of "Let's Take An Old-Fashioned Walk", sung with Dorothy Kirsten. The mood occasionally gets hot, like the jazzy be-bop of "This Can't Be Love" taken from Frank's "Lite-Up Time" show with perfect partner Margaret Whiting. The times these tracks were recorded veers all over the place, from the late 50's "The Girl Next Door" to the mid-40's: "Lover Come Back To Me". The sound is also variable, since the sources vary, but overall, it's a very listenable disc, with such rarities as "No Can Do" with Lena Romay, or "The Anniversary Song" with Barbara Britton. There are a couple of duetting partners who show up more than once: Doris Day links up with Frank on "Take Me Out To the Ball Game" and "There's No Business Like Show Business" and the creamy-voiced June Hutton joins Frank on the Meet Me In St. Louis standard "The Boy Next Door" and also shows up for "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To"; Dorothy Kirsten shows up again for the Rodgers & Hammerstein standard "Some Enchanted Evening" (where Frank sounds out of his element on the earnest lyric) and Pearl Bailey has her two cracks at bat with "A Little Learnin' Is A Dang'rous Thing, Pts 1 & 2". The oldest track here, from Sinatra's stay with the Dorsey orchestra, is a live transcription of "Let's Get Away From It All" with Connie Haines, Jo Stafford and The Pied Pipers; you can hear the audience chatting and dancing during the song, while Frank only gets a short phrase during the song, and wouldn't this count more as a "trio" than a duet? Oh, well - I'm not expecting perfection on a release like this, just a few more rarities that you won't hear anywhere else. Favorite tracks include a mega-rare Sinatra/Judy Garland stomper "Gotta Be This Or That" (which has tons of in-jokes), and a silly, but engaging "No Can Do" with Lena Romay. A fine, occasionally illuminating package for collectors, but not essential for anyone else.

REVIEW: A slap-dash collection of radio transcriptions mostly taken from the 1940's, this collection has pretty poor sound, despite the tapes being doctored by studio wiz Bob Norberg at Capitol Studios, and Mark Ormann at MCA Music. Still, you're going to find lots of rare stuff here, from the swinging "Little White Lies" which opens the set with a fast and loose Sinatra sounding hotter than he ever did in the studio during this same period. Follows is the romantic slush of "Don't Forget Tonight, Tomorrow" with thick backup singers; the Irving Berlin chestnut "It Only Happens When I Dance With You"; the novelty swinger "Hair Of Gold, Eyes Of Blue" which Frank tries his hardest with, but the tape has serious flutter issues, which hampers the performance. The melodrama of "Haunted Heart" is next, with Frank at his most earnest singing the gushy lyric; next comes an anomaly, with a harder-swinging, 1950s-era performance of Cole Porter's "Night And Day" blares out of the speakers. The obvious change in Frank's command of lyric and brash self-confidence seems out of place with what came before, although the sound is improved for this track, and Frank's performance is a marvel. The album veers back into romantic territory with "Tenderly" which has Sinatra performing with piano accompianment - this performance again seems to be from the Capitol years, but the next song "Speak Low" is again from his Columbia era, with swirling harp and urgent strings. Frank's 1950's television performance of "You're The Top" with Broadway diva Ethel Merman is included in all it's over-the-top bluster; and the title track is next, a very poor recording of the Arlen/Mercer tune, which is almost unlistenable due to the quality of the source. "One Hundred Years From Today" is a nice track, again with Frank and solo piano, joined on the second verse by a subtle saxophone, again, not with great fidelity, but listenable. "The Right Kind Of Love" is a fine recording, with a nuanced reading by Frank showing his growth as an interpreter during the 1940s. An interesting arrangement of "I'm In The Mood For Love" is next with piano, guitar and flutes giving the song an unusual flavor. The final track "Now Is The Hour" is hampered by shifting tape speeds, sending the pitch hither and yon. The booklet which is included is no help in placing these performances, instead giving a cliche-ridden essay on Frank's success. A missable disc for all but the most ardent Sinatra collectors.

Live at the Meadowlands
Concord Records 31331 [CD];
Released May 5, 2009

Live at the Meadowlands

1. Overture
2. Without A Song
3. Where Or When
4. For Once In My Life
5. Nice N' Easy
6. My Heart Stood Still
7. Change Partners
8. It Was A Very Good Year
9. You Make Me Feel So Young
10. The Gal That Got Away
11. New York, New York
12. Monologue
13. Come Rain Or Come Shine
14. Bewitched
15. Moonlight In Vermont
16. L.A. Is My Lady
17. I've Got You Under My Skin
18. Someone To Watch Over Me
19. One More For My Baby (And One More For The Road)
20. Mack The Knife
21. NY Bows

REVIEW: When I was a younger man in the mid-1990s, I recall very clearly mocking Frank Sinatra's singing style to an acquaintance, who was appalled that I could treat Frank "the icon" so lightly. This was before I actually listened to Sinatra's catalog - my parody was based solely on Frank's then-recent appearances - the only Frank that I had ever known, when he was seventy and eighty years old, making guest appearances on various television shows. His voice had deteriorated, his music seemed hopelessly old-fashioned and out of touch, and I couldn't understand what the appeal was. (Obviously, I've learned better since then.) But listening now to Live at the Meadowlands, the latest "rare" concert to be released by the Sinatra family on Concord Records, I was taken right back to that night that I shocked my friend with my irreverent interpretation. This is the seventy-year old Frank, in a concert recorded the same year as The Main Event, and by this time in Frank's career, he was coasting on the accomplishments of his long, varied life. His voice, which had been slowly deepening and gaining character throughout his fifties and sixties, had now begun to deteriorate, and it shows at moments during the concert. Not that this is a horrible show - Frank was the consummate showman, and injects passion, humor, and at times, even a savage bite into these songs. "Mack The Knife" is hot and brutal, while "Moonlight In Vermont" is bathed in warmth. And for all the hoarseness and lost elasticity in Frank's voice, there are equal moments of beauty, and pureness. For fans, to have yet another "lost" document of Frank's tremendous output is a blessing, but this isn't going to be the first concert you listen to, and it's certainly not the one that you should give friends who've never listened to Frank before. It's a good concert, albeit one with no surprises. Instead, it's all slick and packaged with Quincy Jones' band tracking the charts with metronome precision. There are moments of greatness, but with equal moments when I squirm in my seat and wonder if Frank is going to be able to hit the next note. Here's hoping that there are more concerts in the wings that better represent Frank's appeal.

Frank Sinatra: The Greatest Concerts
Entertain Me Ltd. 74697 [5-CD Box Set]
Released November 10, 2008

Products contents:

Contains five rare, live concerts by Frank Sinatra, spanning the years 1955-1981, including shows from Australia, Japan, The White House, and Lake Tahoe. Rare bonus tracks from "Our Town" and other concerts included.

For complete track listing, click here.

REVIEW: This box set has been bouncing around for awhile, but only recently made its debut here in the States. The Greatest Concerts put out by Entertain Me Ltd. is a skimpy, quasi-legitimate collection of five concerts: Melbourne 1955, Tokyo 1962, Washington, D.C. 1973 (for Richard Nixon), Westchester Premier Theatre, 1976, and Caesars, Lake Tahoe, Nevada 1981. The Melbourne and Tokyo concerts have seen previous release on the similarly obscure Acrobat label, but the other three concerts are receiving their CD debut here. Unfortunately, as with most releases of this sort, there's a lot to be desired, both from sound and the presentation. The packaging is unforgivably shoddy, from the non-existent notes, to the legion of mislabeled track listings (both on the outer sleeve, which duplicates the Tokyo AND the Caesars tracklistings twice) to the inner sleeves, (which shows identical tracklistings for both the Westchester and Caesars shows). There are also some bonus tracks scattered about, with excepts from the rare television adaption of Our Town and two live tracks taken from October, 1987. The sound, taken mostly from FM Radio Broadcasts, is necessarily compressed and tinny, with none of the warmth or depth that you'll find on professionally recorded discs, and there's occasional crackling and hiss, but collectors won't mind much. Previously unheard banter, including funny riffs on "Teaching (Marlon) Brando to Sing" and a "Brief Singing Lesson" show Frank at his loosest, while hearing the difference between his loose, jazzy '62 and '55 sets, and the reverential '73 set for President Richard Nixon is a testament to Frank's chameleon-like ability to reshape himself, while the faintly desperate 1976 concert shows Frank trying to stay relevant with a set list riddled with banal pop songs, before settling into the comfortable "Chairman of the Board" role of 1981's concert. I'd recommend this box set for collector's only - those who haven't been able to find these concerts elsewhere.