Thanks for explaining Ronald. It's incredible how good the Dorsey/Sinatra material sounds... As I said above, some of the tracks on that set sound like early 50's tape recordings.
Speaking of which, anyone know if the To Be Perfectly Frank will ever be in circulation on disc again? I had it on cassette and it's the only tape I haven't been able to repurchase on CD. Fortunently I've been able to download them individually from YouTube and transferred them to iTunes at128 kbs for iPod and burned disc. But I'd love to have a better official release.
I think that "The Song Is You" used more noise reduction than the Columbia set. Guess which one I prefer I've wondered about the bad condition of the Columbia masters as well. Just listen to Judy Garland's Decca masters - many of which were recorded at approximately the same time. Many of them sound much better than the average Sinatra/Columbia side.
And there are newer transfers and remasters of the Sinatra/Dorsey recordings which sound even better than in the 1994 5-CD box set.
"The Essential FS and TD" 2 cd set and the FS/TD tracks on "A Voice In Time" 4 cd set. Also I like the 3CD "TD: Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" box set. It should be remembered that RCA Victor was an electronics company first and a record company second. The record company also differed from Columbia in that RCA Victor had a group or oligarchical style of management as opposed to the "One-Man" rule which seemed to be the norm at Columbia.
First, in 1998, there was a newly-remastered 3-CD set, The Popular Sinatra, (Vol. 1, 2, and 3, also available separately). Then, as Ron mentioned, new transfers were done for the 2005 2-CD set, The Essential Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey. Neither set was as complete as the 1994 5-CD box, The Song Is You, but they included the most popular recordings in successively improved sound over that earlier collection. __________________ ~ Frank's Albums
If I understand correctly there's also a new Sinatra/Dorsey collection on Sony's release schedule. Hopefully this will include all (extant) alternate takes. The 5 disk set (with four of them dedicated to the studio recordings) was missing some of them...
[ From Chuck Granata, in December 2014 —> at the SFF... ] We are discussing remastering the balance of the FS-Dorsey studio recordings (all of those NOT remastered when we did The Essential FS & Tommy Dorsey several years ago, and issuing a new "Complete" FS -Dorsey studio recordings collection...
I wish they would find the first version of "I'll Never Smile Again" and confirm it was ever actually issued on a 78 or EP.
Thanks for all the remastering information, Bob. Sounds like the new "Complete" version is worth waiting for as a replacement for the old 5-disc set.
A bit off topic I know, but French singer Eddy Mitchell (a legend in the French speaking countries) has just recorded a big band album at the Capitol Studios and his first clip features lots of Sinatra footage from a time when Sinatra was on Columbia (I think).
I second Bob's opinion about the 2005 2-CD set, The Essential Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey. Amazing, you're-in-the-room sound.
I don't own any of the sets following "The Song Is You", but I have now checked the "Voice In Time" tracks against the same tracks in the former box set. It's just as I had suspected: TSIY uses pretty hard noise reduction whereas the "Voice In Time" tracks are a bit noisier but sound more natural. An update of the complete set would thus be very welcome!
That 3-CD box set was on the BMG Entertainment/RCA Victor label, before BMG merged with Sony. It's interesting that this same-titled upcoming vinyl release (due this Friday) is obviously derived from that 1998 CD box set. "3 Volume Set on 6 LPs" with the same 61-track contents and cover art, pressed on translucent blue vinyl. It's on the Megaforce Records label, so I have to assume it's grey-market, but I'm curious if the liner notes will give credit to the original compilation producer (John Snyder) and reissue engineers (Jay Newland, Glen Kolotkin, and Michael O. Drexler).
I just noticed that at —> Amazon Canada, the label is listed as "Sony Music Canada - Distribution." So this may in fact be a legitimate release. I've posted an inquiry at the SFF —> THE POPULAR SINATRA, VOLS. 1-3 (1998)
Added Note: According to Wikipedia —> Megaforce Records is an American independent record label which is distributed in the United States by Sony Music Entertainment/RED Distribution.
Megaforce records is an independent label that is distributed by SONY in North America. However it is a alternative rock label. Whether this Sinatra release is from the "same" Megaforce remains to be seen. The record #AMEG 2196 is in line with the other Megaforce LPs at Acoustic sounds so who knows?
And the UPC #020286219675 contains the same company prefix as other Megaforce products. Perhaps Tommy Dorsey's trombone is now considered heavy metal?
Well, the Come Dance With Me album, it could be argued, was a Heavy Metal Album for it's time [swing that brass, baby!].
It's not a grey label situation. PopMarket is selling this set on their site today. Sony has a big stake in PopMarkett so I suppose it's safe to say that this is a legitimate release. I'm just curious as to what the sources of the transfer are? http://www.popmarket.com/details/117600161?feature_id=117540139
It's been established elsewhere that this is a legit Sony Music release. I'm betting the sources are the same as the 1998 3-CD set with the same title/artwork. I.e., it should be an improvement over the 1994 5-CD box set, The Song Is You.
I received the popmarket email ad about the set this morning and checked it out. They state that it is a vinyl reissue of the 1998 CD set Bob mentioned. "Vinyl reissue of the acclaimed 1998 3CD set featuring Frank Sinatra's 1940-42 recordings with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra"
