Yeah, his enunciation was impeccable. This recording really set the standard for intimate late night vocals. In this cut I specially dig when he sings "awake" and "most"! The record was a Goodwill find, around 5 years ago. Who knows how many times it was played and the heavy tracking arms that were used! Still, like you said, the midrange magic comes through!
My CD of "In the Wee Small Hours" comes from the 21 disc UK box. It sounds OK, and is acceptable, but still really pales in comparison to those clips of the original LP. If only Steve could remaster the whole Sinatra Capitol catalog... no one seems to be able to give it justice.
Here is This Love Of Mine, the closer on the LP. What a beautiful song and this is the definitive version! Sinatra co-wrote the song back in his Dorsey days, but it was in this 1955 rendition that he nailed it, IMO.
Mine too. You would not believe the time I spent in a digital editing program trying to make the 1991 CD cut of this song sound acceptable to me. I gave up.
Wow! Thanks for the excerpts, Crooner! And thanks to Martin, too. The vocals are so warm and intimate and the strings have a wonderful transparency. The Larry Walsh CD is not bad, but the lp is so much better. How sadly ironic that what's currently available to most people is so much worse than the Walsh-mastered CD! Wouldn't it be great if Mosaic, which leases lots of stuff from EMI, did a CD box set of all the classic Capitol Sinatra albums using the untampered-with masters?
Crooner, thanks for putting these clips up. I'm glad more people can get an idea of the sound of the original issue if they don't have the vinyl.
I made a quick needle drop preview from 1984 DMM. To calibrate it with my system I also made a drop from my trashed grey label. For their price these Alan Dell's digital remasters sounds just fine to me. I mean that linked grey label was sold for 190$! It Never Entered My Mind DMM It Never Entered My Mind (Grey label) I don't intend to keep these 40s preview files on the server for a very long time, sorry about that.
Can't Access Clips Sadly, when I click on the links for any of the clips, I get the infamous "404 Not Found" error message. Any ideas? Ed
nice find! It seems like the Alan Dell one uses an unmodified copy tape for the UK...the stereo "Sings for Only the Lonely" in this series sounds good too.
The Alan Dell is the one I have, and paid something like 4.99 in like new condition. Not a mark on it. I'm still looking out for a good condition reasonably priced grey label though. They're not thick on the ground around these parts.
i recently found a grey label in las vegas last month. it replaces my capitol rainbow, which skipped badly. later, chris
Thanks. I thought of that last night and found it. Was that "our" Randy who won it? There was a copy of SONGS FOR SWINGIN' LOVERS! on eBay earlier this year that sold for IIRC $167. It was supposedly being sold by the original owner who claimed to have only played it 2 or 3 times - back in the day to record a copy, and again now. Even the cover looked really nice, so I wanted to believe he was telling the truth. I bid I think up until $162 and lost (couldn't believe it). I ended up writing to the person who won it, and he told me his top bid wasn't much higher. As much as it was, I kick myself for not bidding more...
What the hell have we started here? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110209866118&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=001 $202.50? Looks like I'll be waiting awhile to find a better copy. At least until the stevehoffman.tv bump settles back down a bit. Anyone know the NM "book value" on this one?
About $50, but (as I've felt for years) that's undervalued. Yeah, typical copies, which are very common, shouldn't go for much ($5-$10), but those old Sinatra Capitol LP's are very hard to find with the vinyl M-/NM. In a way, I'm glad to see that. These albums deserve those prices, if the records are in really nice condition.
I hate to admit it because I have drifted away from vinyl......but yes. You'd think they would put out a good one. Thge quality of FS on digital is a sad legacy overall, not because they all stink (they don't) but because there is so much unreached potential. I "have access" (do not ask how) to some 1/2" half track tape Sinatra from both Capitol and early Reprise sessions. Including the one where Jimmy Durante, MM and Ray Charles were caught by Claxton in that classic photo. Nancy (Little Nancy) is a part of the problem, not all of it. There is a lot in the vaults and a lot of stuff floating around and IMO, sadly, won't see legit release probably until the kids are all gone. Since Big Nancy is still going strong (and don't get me wrong, I'm glad she is) I might be dead and gone by then myself. It bothers me a lot. As Mazzie said... "Frank's the best. And, I should know."
