Which Frank Sinatra CD's do I need?

I recommend the following Capitol era CD's...


Songs For Young Lovers/Swing Easy (twofer)

Songs for Swingin' Lovers

In the Wee Small Hours

Sings for Only the Lonely

Come Fly With Me

and a neat box set:

the Complete Capitol Singles Collection

My versions date from about 1987 through to 1991 and sound OK to me...

I'm also quite keen to pick up the "live" CD of a show recorded with the Red Norvo Quartet in Australia in the late fifties, and also the "Swing and Dance" collection on Colombia (I think!) as i've heard good things about both!

 

No one seems to have mentioned it, but you also NEED the DCC CDs Sinatra - 57 in Concert and the Summit with Dean and Sammy, IMHO.

 

As well as Robin & The Seven Hoods.

 

I think that like Crosby and Elvis, Sinatra--even at his worst--was always fascinating just to listen to. I'll never forget first hearing "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" and thinking, o my GOD. Course, also thought that about half the crap on Elvis' soundtracks. Did Crosby ever do anything really awful? I have some of his stuff but not nearly as much as the other two.

ED

 

Avoid like the plague the latest "entertainer of the century" remasters of In the Wee Small Hours and Songs for Swingin' Lovers-the fake echo & no-noise are almost unbearable, a travesty. The 1987 Capitol CD's of both are preferable-the Mobile Fidelity Songs for Swingin' Lovers dosen't offer enough of an improvement to justify the outrageous price it commands these days (I have both). Apparantly, it was mastered from a mislabeled copy (not an uncommon occurrence, from what I've learned here). Search the archives here for the Sinatra threads, particularly from forum member MMM-he has an amazing, encyclopedic knowledge of the Sinatra catalog.

The aforementioned 3 CD Capitol Years from the late 80's sounds pretty decent to my ears, and is a great introduction to the artistic triumph that was FS's tenure at Capitol. The 4 CD Columbia years box is also highly recommended, mastering is excellent, given the source material.

Someday my prayers will be answered and I'll log in here to discover that Mr. Hoffman has been retained to remaster the entire FS Capitol catalog on Hybrid SACD's.

 

Were that we could get that fortunate.

ED