Which Frank Sinatra CD's do I need?

Hi People,
Please could someone help me...
I don't have any of this great Man's music in my collection as of yet , and I need some help from any Sinatra experts out there.
I'm looking for CD's with the best music and best sound quality... are there such CD's available? Just a nice compromise would do. Maybe a Collection CD?
Should I get the DCC discs ? (Live Summit, Duets) Are these Stereo?
I don't really want Mono, unless there are no alternatives of course.
Any pointers\help much appreciated.
Thanks, Danny.

 

Much depends on the time period of Sinatra your interested in.

 

How about those wonderful Columbia sides? The Columbia Complete Box Set is fantastic.

 

It is a great box!!!
Is it still being made?

 

Songs For Swingin' Lovers. If I took one Sinatra album to a deserted album, this would be it. Your best bet is the older Capitol CD, which you can find for cheap on half.com or ebay. The remastered edition from 1998 is terrible; take a look at the Amazon.com reviews and you'll know what I mean. And yes, the album is in mono.

 

Should you decide to buy any of the boxes (Columbia, Capitol, Reprise) I'd suggest Ebay. That's where I got all of them at reasonable prices.

The Capitol era to me is the best.

 

IMO, you should start with the Capitol era, and go from there. Almost any Frank from this period is great, but you really need In The Wee Small Hours, Songs For Swingin' Lovers, and Only The Lonely. The older Capitol discs sound better to these ears. In a pinch you could go for the three-disc Capitol Years set which will give the majority of what you need from this period. Then, Pick up the single disc Reprise Years so you can find out if the later Frank is for you. For me, the Columbia years Frank material is very saccharin(sweet), but again there are a few one disc samplers to let you find out if this era is for you as well.

Again, start with almost any Capitol set, but the ones listed above are the cream of the crop.

Good luck,
MM

 

Despite the dubious claims that Sinatra's best were recorded in mono, I would suggest trying FRANK SINATRA SINGS FOR ONLY THE LONELY(Capitol, 1958)which was stereo; and of course all of FS's Reprise material was put out in stereo as well. Too bad, though, there isn't one all-encompassing single-disc retro of the Reprise years, going for quality rather than chart stats. Even so, "It Was A Very Good Year"(1965)and "There Used To Be A Ballpark"(1973)I couldn't live without; for guilty pleasures, try "Summer Wind"(1966)for cool Sinatra '60s smoothness; "That's Life"(also '66)for sheer Sinatra swagger; and a truly guilty pleasure, his duet with daughter Nancy, "Somethin' Stupid"(yeh, yeh, I should know better, but what the hell...). To get a quick overview of The Career of The Voice, try SINATRA: SOUNDTRACK TO THE CBS MINI-SERIES[Reprise 9 45091-2]from 1992. From "I'll Never Smile Again" through "New York, New York" a fair sampling of what Sinatra the musician was all about. Naturally, plenty of gaps, but has some of his best and--yes!--some of his worst(as if anything could be worse than "High Hopes"!). And a few Bing Crosby numbers, too.
Hope this helps a little; good listening.

ED

 

Thanks for all the help.
Well Ok, I think I should go with the Capitol\Reprise period.
Mono....no problem.
Songs for Swingin' Lovers sounds great . I take it the MFSL is a no go.
I just looked on Amazon and saw a couple of Capitol\Reprise compilations which are dated at early 90's. They don't look like remasters. Would it be fair comment to generally stay away from anything remastered ?

Thanks, Danny.

 

Thanks Matrix and Ed. Both very helpful posts.

 

For a nicely mastered sampler of Capitol material, try the single disc Capitol Collectors Series. You can usually find it cheap on ebay or Amazon (used). This disc was not No-Noised (unlike most of the Capitol CDs starting from about 1990), and has a nice, neutral presentation.

The 3 disc Capitol Years box set is also somewhat less offensive sonically than other releases (such as the remasters). Not too much No-Noise, but many of the tracks have a somewhat harsh quality.

Some of the original Capitol CDs issued in the 80s aren't too bad either (sonically). Songs for Swingin Lovers is OK, but I can't stand the sound on the 1987 Only The Lonely disc.

Avoid the remasters like the plague.

While there are many great CDs content-wise, Sinatra hasn't been treated too well as far as sonics.

 

snowman,
I have the MFSL Ultradisc of Songs For Swingin' Lovers, and word has it they used the wrong master (a very long story, but if you want, I'll go into detail). The Capitol CD isn't a great-sounding version, either, but considering it goes for $8 US used and the MFSL goes for at least $30, the Capitol CD is a much better deal.

The older Capitol CD's are better than the remasters, which have heavy EQ, noise reduction (and as a result tons of artifacts and distortion), and possibly incorrect masters, which is a moot point when you look at the mastering technique. However, the older CD's could have been much better. The mastering is okay, but they commit some cardinal sins, adding a touch of digital echo to the albums they present in mono.

As for Sings For Only the Lonely, that's often hailed as Sinatra's second best or best album. BUT, it wasn't presented in stereo-only. In fact, it's far better in mono. The mono was mixed live. The stereo version (which wasn't recorded as well as the mono version) was made from a three-track that already had a proper amount of compression, EQ, etc. done to it. When it came time to make the stereo mix from this three-track, they added even more EQ, echo, etc., resulting in an inferior mix. The old CD (which is in stereo) may have been a remix, but if it was, it was done to mirror the original, inferior mix. A proper stereo mix is sorely needed for this album. (I believe the remaster is the mono mix, but it was poorly mastered like the rest.)

The best way to hear those Capitol albums is on good old vinyl, but be wary of any vinyl produced after Sinatra jumped ship from Capitol. Bad tapes...

 

I'd guess your best bet is the Sinatra Concepts remasters. Some claim they are very close to the originals.

Used to be available at ebay for little over a hundred dollars (16 CDs) so the risk is not high.

.Concepts at ebay

The MoFi Lp box sounds great but is is more expensive and some albums are in annoying stereo.

Concepts is on my wish list

 

I'm not a Sinatra expert by a long shot, but I would give Songs For Swingin' Lovers a mutated 3 thumbs up. Not a bad cut on the whole album. A cooking band, great arrangements by Nelson(Route 66)Riddle. I have the older CD, and the original mono album. They get the voice to sound great on the CD, but the orchestral sound seems muted next to the original record, where it's very colorful.

But I was very happy with the CD anyways!

 

I know one fellow on the group has recommended Concepts highly, while others have hated it. It is mastered by Bob Norberg, and it apparently does feature noise reduction, stereo narrowing, and other digital machinations. I haven't heard it, but I've heard the single disc compilation which came from the same masters ("Classic Sinatra") and I was very disappointed with that. A very harsh and tinny CD.

 

As far as I remember there were several remasters and compilations released within a few years and reportedly, some were bad but the ones in Concepts were good.

I am almost sure that it is the four-CD compilation that has the same masters as the Concepts box.

 

Avoid the Capital "Concepts" box set like the plague. Packaging is beautiful. Sound leaves MUCH to be desired.

The best source for Capital Sintra is the UK box The Capital Years. The discs are remastered lovingly and contain about 40 more tracks from this golden era of Frank.

The discs in this set are better than the old CD's and absolutely blow away the '98 remasters.

It's expensive, but it's worth it for 22 CD's.

 

Found a thread on this but there's a much longer one somewhere else.

http://www.sinatrafamily.com/forum/showthread.php3?&threadid=2233

 

Found it:

http://www.sinatrafamily.com/forum/showthread.php3?threadid=2226

 

Danny,

I recommend "Songs For Swingin' Lovers!", "Frank Sinatra Sings For Only the Lonely". "In the Wee Small Hours" and "A Swingin' Affair!" as the first albums to seek out (all of these are Capitol albums). "Only the Lonely" is the only one of these 4 available in stereo, but don't worry about that - these albums were very well engineered. "Wee Small" actually won an award (don't know where from) for "Best Engineered Recording" for 1955 (I think of Pop albums). The problem is finding decent mastered copies of this material. If you only listened to the current U.S. CD's of these albums, sadly you'd never know this though.

Columbia, Capitol, and Reprise each have a 3-4 disc box set available that are good introductions to Sinatra in each of these periods - "The Capitol Years" was mentioned above. After you get these though, you may eventually want it all (especially ALL of Frank's original Capitol albums) - which is where ebay or a record club is useful to find the big (almost) complete boxes at a reasonable price. I see you're in England, so I would imagine that some of the discs in your country are different then on my side of the pond. I understand that many feel Sinatra's U.K. issued Capitol CD's (at least the British Capitol 21 CD box) are of pretty good quality mastering wise - I haven't heard them, but overall they've gotta be better than the U.S. Capitol "Entertainer Of the Century" remasters!

 

Here is a link to a question I asked about Sinatra's work way back when. There was some good responses that helped me choose some box sets. Have a look..


http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3131

 

Another factor in the Sings For Only The Lonely disc is that it is heavily no-noised. The reason for this is that Capitol was trying out a new brand of tape when Frank recorded this album. The result was that the hiss was overpowering. That's why this album is treated as it is. Another cool thing about the song "Only The Lonely"; if you listen closely at the end of the song, during the orchestral coda, you can hear Frank laughing!

Anybody here see the CBS special which showed him recording "It Was A Very Good Year"? God, that was amazing. It was rerun on 48 hours after he died. Taped it and still watch it occasionally.

 

I agree it's amazing. I also watch it from time to time too. I've heard that there's also film existing of at least one other song from the "September Of My Years" album sessions besides "It Was a Very Good Year" - I think "It Gets Lonely Early" also has filmed footage.

 

Well, if you play your cards right, you can get the Capitol boxes very cheap. I bought a sealed copy of Concepts (2000) off Ebay for $80 and just got the 4-disc Singles Collection from BMG for just over $20, shipping included. I'm very pleased with how they sound.