I have no Sinatra on vinyl! Shame on me. Any suggestions?

I need wee small

 

My two favorites are:
"Sinatra's Swingin' Session"
"A Swingin' Affair"

 

Don't disparage those reissues. They are inexpensive and sound awesome.

 

Hit the local GW Superstore used LP bins. They are all there, but they also got played. So give 'em a good look first. Me fave?
Sept. of my Years (Mono & Stereo)

 

Do yourself a favor and pick up the 2014 UMe lp. Its still pretty cheap and fairly easy to find. Sounds very good.

 

I second this. This is classic Sinatra, in his prime voice, with great arrangements, and some of his most recognized songs. If you like it, I would go to In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning and Come Dance With Me next - both have great selections of songs. Then do Only the Lonely, which is stunning, but much darker and heavier.

 

In the Wee Small Hours

 

Watertown

 

OP - if you do Watertown, be forewarned that it’s an ambitious album from the sixties, past Sinatra’s “heyday” in terms of voice, popularity, etc., and not what most people think of when they think of Frank. Fans love the record, but it’s not the kind of music you immediately think of when you think Sinatra.

 

I would recommend the vinyl of SHE SHOT ME DOWN, his last great record. His voice takes some getting used to, but his command of dramatics is all there.

 

I would start with this one too, especially if your tastes run on the bluesy side.

 

Also, as with any artist, listeb before you decide to drop money on an album.

Many of Frank Sinatra's albums are on youtube.

 

All said 'Only The Lonley' and 'In The Wee Small Hours' are his best albums IMHO. I have green label monos of the them from the
early 1980s and they do sound good!

 

Sinatra Family Forum: Official Sinatra Albums on YouTube!
My YouTube Channel: Sinatra Albums
__________________
~ Frank's Albums

 

Don't worry about it. CDs sound perfect. Not a click, crackle or rumble, even on the 10,000th play.

 

Sinatra's Sinatra, a compilation of his personal favorites, re-recorded in the early 60s (I believe) with Nelson Riddle. On Reprise.

 

Many previous threads cover this subject, including:

Frank Sinatra - Where To Start?
10 Best Sinatra Albums*
What are the best vinyl choices for Sinatra's Columbia years?
Sinatra Capitol Years Vinyl - where to find the best sonics?
Frank Sinatra UMe Vinyl releases
Frank Sinatra best live album?

…and the many individual album threads with “Sinatra Sound Quality” in their titles:

Search Results for Query: Sinatra Sound Quality | Steve Hoffman Music Forums

 

Grab a clean grey label pressing. It used the correct (dry) tapes.

 

Another resource is the fantastic work-in-progress website of Matt Lutthans:

Welcome Sinatra Cole and/or Capitol Scorecard

 

Re: In the Wee Small Hours

As did the recent (2014) reissue by Universal Music. Good luck finding an original Capitol grey label that has not been played to death.

See: In the wee small hours - 1955

 

I used the 100th anniversary campaign to get into Sinatra and I must say that was a wonderful introduction into Sinatra. Just listened to Songs for Swingin' Lovers again last night and I think that it's truly a fantastic album: as good as it gets for someone who prefers that side of his music over the ballads and is absolutely the album I'd suggest as anyone's first Sinatra album, so I'm happy to see that the OP decided to pick that one up. Most of the 100th campaign reissues are just fine, although I found MLutthans' scorecard website useful in deciding when to buy the reissue or to search out prior releases.

I wasn't a big Sinatra fan when I started, thinking that I'd get maybe 3-4 albums, but I eventually wound up buying every title issued during the 100th campaign, and am still in the process of tracking down other titles that they didn't get to....

 

I personally love this album of re-recordings and I agree that it's a fine addition to any Sinatra collection!

This is one of the best from that album ...

 

And for the love of all things Sinatra, PLEASE get the album "Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim", which is about 30 of the most beautifully recorded minutes of music, EVER recorded, in my opinion!

 

Im with Bob on not going down the grey label Capitol highway when it comes to Frank Sinatra. That can be one expensive road .

Here bub is a sad lonesome tale...

The two grey labels I was obsessed with finding were "In The Wee Small Hours" and "Songs For Swingin Lovers". I probably spent a couple of hundred bucks a piece trying to find a nice clean copy. I finally had to settle for two records that had a clean side one and the other a clean side two. For Wee Small I did find a pretty one. But it came with a cost. Was not cheap.

In my defense, there were no nice sounding reissues at that time.

The End

How lucky you are that it is much much easier to just pick up the reissues of these two albums and receive very good non echoey sound for relativly little money!