VERY lightly used. I probably never listened to most of them, after I determined that the sound sucked on the first few volumes. I now realize that may have been a premature judgement, but at best, these were just remastered copies of existing Warner/Reprise CDs. The attraction for me was the books. I actually learned a bit of Portuguese trying to read them.
Thanks Bob. I didn't realize there were 2 sets....Portugese and Spanish. The only ones I've seen have been on Ebay and they've all said El Pais on the front covers, not Frank Sinatra Enterprises, so I assume those are Spanish ones.
The Portuguese books say "The Frank Sinatra Collection" on the front covers. These were an early licensed product of Frank Sinatra Enterprises. The copyright is shared with the Spanish company, Prisa Innova S.L. Logos on the back covers and disc labels include Reprise Records, Warner Music Portugal, and Público (the newspaper).
I found one of those Spanish versions on —> eBay, and the pictured book page image does not appear in my Portuguese version. So, in addition to the cover and label markings, it appears there may be more of a difference in the actual book contents than just the language.
As I recall, there were some "new to me" photos when I received these. But that was eight years ago, so I'll have to take another look. (And count the coffee cups. )
Can someone explain the difference between R9/FS and R/F? From what I've read, it has to do with when Warner bought Reprise. Are there any (major) sonic differences between the first and second pressing. I read somewhere that F is a fold down mono whereas R is a dedicated mix. The Reprise label variations seem a whole lot more complicated than the Capital material, or maybe I'm just used to those more…
Can anyone tell me the Reprise CD catalog # for Sinatra-Jobim 1021 with the original mix. minus all the ching-chings.
In a nutshell, the R- and R9- (mono and stereo, respectively) were mastered by whoever was handling Reprise's mastering at the time. This was often Ami Hadini Mastering, at least for the earliest albums, but perhaps not always. Once Reprise became part of the Warner family, catalog numbers changed to the F- and FS- series, and mastering moved to Columbia Records, which handled mastering and manufacturing for WB, which did not have its own facility in the US. Some of the Columbia masterings are wildly different than the Hadami (etc.) masterings, but not always. Some are indistinguishable. To further cloud the waters, at some point (very late '70s??), WB started cutting their own lacquers, and manufacturing moved from Columbia to Capitol, and from what I can tell, there can be pretty marked differences between, say, WW-1, LW-1 (etc.) WB-sourced cuts that were pressed at assorted Capitol facilities. For instance, on Sinatra and Swingin' Brass, my 1980s WW cut has the bass all blended into the center, while the LW cut from the same era is full-range w-i-d-e stereo.
I assume you're referring to the extended fade on the 2010 Concord remix (and later UMe issues) of "The Girl from Ipanema." The "ching-chings" by Sinatra are still present on the two earlier CDs, just not as loud or noticeable: 1988: Reprise 1021-2 (UPC 07599-27041-20) 1998: Reprise 9 46948-2 (UPC 09362-46948-23) ["Entertainer of the Century" edition]
Yesterday I spent the day listening to entire Reprise albums, something I have not done in a while. First I listened to Sinatra & Strings, one of my favorite 60's LP's thru my JBL headphones next, I listened to Moonlight Sinatra, and finally A Man Alone. Sunday, here in Peekskill, it was cold and snowing. A perfect day for staying home and listening to some Frank I haven't played in a while.
I could listen to September of my Years and Ol' Blue Eyes is Back straight through all the time. We know the former gets it's rightful praise but I always felt the latter was highly underrated.
This is the uncropped photo: There are many other photos from this session of July 29, 1963, for "Fugue for Tinhorns" and "The Oldest Established", which were used on a Reprise single and the Reprise Musical Repertory Theatre 'Guys and Dolls' album:
You can find anything you want at Alice's Restaurant YouTube. I should have checked there before posting the preceding image... That's a mono needledrop from (both sides of) the 45 single. If you prefer Frank left, Bing center, and Dean right, as pictured, these are stereo versions from the Guys and Dolls album; much better quality... Frank, Dean and Bing - The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game 1963 (Stereo) » Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Dean Martin - Fugue For Tinhorns (Stereo) »
It's not just the cover image that's backwards. That 1983 Argentine compilation LP has a much different track list than the 1974 Some Nice Things I've Missed (including some live versions of songs Sinatra never recorded for Reprise): Tu modo de ser = Just the Way You Are Algo = Something Dame otra oportunidad = Let Me Try Again Estas sola esta noche = Are You Lonesome Tonight? Llevame volando a la luna = Fly Me to the Moon Insensatez = How Insensitive Uno para mi nena = One for My Baby Tu me has desilusionado = I Get a Kick Out of You Ayer = Yesterday El mundo que conocimos = The World We Knew Te llevo bajo mi piel = I've Got You Under My Skin Me estoy poniendo sentimental = I'm Getting Sentimental over You Mi clase de ciudad = My Kind of Town La sombra de tu sonrisa = The Shadow of Your Smile
Just acquired a NM white label promo copy of Sinatra @ the Sands ("Why Paul, why???"). I am pretty impressed with the mono mix. You're certainly not "there" listening to it, but it is a very good mix IMHO.
If you want to be "there" for the "Sinatra @ The Sands" album, one must listen to the DVD-A surround mix! Hence, why I have so badly also wanted the "Sinatra/Jobim" and "September Of My Years" DVD-A's, which were mixed and were originally scheduled to follow it, but are still sadly collecting dust on some shelf somewhere!
It's not Audio Fidelity that needs convinced, it's the people that control Frank's Reprise catalog. Now that Frank Jr. has passed, the others might be more willing to get back to the "audiophile" releases? I'm not necessarily blaming Frank Jr., for what is, or is not released, but he clearly was not on board with that "100" book and after that ridiculous way that he handled himself on that "Today" show interview with Chuck Granata trying to salvage the promotion that they were attempting to do, Frank Jr. turned me off forever. Chuck, by the way, who is probably the best person in the world for us Sinatra fans to have on board regarding Sinatra releases, had to of wanted to crawl under the chair, by the way that Frank Jr. acted during that interview! Shameful and I don't care how sick he might have been and there is no excuse other than to say "I'm not coming today", rather than showing up and acting like a complete A$$.
It wasn't Chuck Granata. It was Charlie Pignone, who is the one probably most influential in these corporate decisions. And sorry, but unless you have some "inside" knowledge of the situation, I think the rest of that is equally misinformed. Let's stop spreading rumors and innuendo, especially out of respect for the man who passed away just three weeks ago. Let's return to the thread topic, please.
