Sinatra / Reprise Sound Quality and General Discussion: "...Great Songs from Great Britain" (1962)*

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by AaronW, Aug 31, 2007.

  1. Rising Sun

    Rising Sun Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Thanks for pointing out the SHF thread and also the links to Sinatra family forum.
    A quick perusal of both answers most of the questions that puzzled me about this album.
    To sum up: It wasn't original released in the US, that explains why I never came across it in my travels.
    It was released briefly in the US during the 1990's as a CD but soon discontinued,
    but it's now available as part of the "suitcase" and also a new 3 CD London box set.
    Great info! Thanks all :)
     
    Bob F likes this.
  2. DmitriKaramazov

    DmitriKaramazov Senior Member

    My goodness it’s a truly wonderful album.

     
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  3. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    The suitcase is long out-of-print. The album in the Sinatra: London box set was remastered (and not to everyone’s taste).

    If you’re looking for the original standalone CD, it was reissued by UMG in the EU in 2010. It is still available at a bargain price, e.g. at Amazon.com or Amazon UK.

    Also in recent years, there was: a SHM-CD with mini-LP sleeve in Japan; a 180g vinyl LP issue; and a Hi-res Download release.
     
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  4. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    Not to mention the retitled “Frank Sinatra in London” LP, released by Warner in Italy (1976), which some credit as the best vinyl issue of the original ten tracks:

    [​IMG]
     
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  5. sinatrapicturefan

    sinatrapicturefan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oakland CA
    Does any FS fan know why only a portion of the 1962 GREAT SONGS FROM GREAT BRITAIN session material was included in the LONDON box set? Only session material for six tracks was included which seems odd. I did not see any explanation in the liner/booklet notes re the omission of the other tracks.
     
  6. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    I am not sure as to why session material from only six tracks was included. I don't think that it was because of space concerns, although I've never actually done the math. I will add this from my website:
    Screenshot_20211206-033137~2.png
     
  7. sinatrapicturefan

    sinatrapicturefan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oakland CA
    Thank you Matt. I am wondering if one of the three CTS UK studio 1/2" session tapes may be missing which may account for the omission of the other session material in the LONDON box set. The original UK session tapes made at CTS were sent to Reprise in the USA after the session was completed, and perhaps the fact that the recording was shelved in the USA for so long may have led to problems locating all of the original tapes. It would be a good question to ask the producers of the box set if anyone has contact with them.
     
  8. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    I’ve done the math, and the answer may indeed be simply: No space. The Sessions disc (CD 2) in the Sinatra: London box set runs nearly 79 minutes.
    That’s not the reason: The six tracks in the box set include at least one song from each of the three CTS sessions.
     
  9. sinatrapicturefan

    sinatrapicturefan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oakland CA
    Thanks. I was just looking at the details of the three sessions and noticed that as well. There were only three songs recorded on the third night and one was We'll Meet Again, the session material for which is included in the LONDON box set. It appears as you say an issue related to space available on a single CD rather than a lost tape. They decided to add the radio tracks to the Sessions disc rather than include all of the session material which is an odd decision.
     
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  10. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
  11. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    .... But is there enough space overall? The three CDs could hold 240 minutes of music. I don't have the LONDON box with me, but I recall that CD 1 is fairly short. Eyeballing it on Discogs, it looks like about 42 minutes, while disc three runs under an hour, so there's something in the ballpark of 58 unutilized CD minutes that could have contained session material. Would even that have been enough? I do not know, but there was certainly room in the set for more -- nearly an hour more, potentially.
     
  12. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    Well sure, but each CD has a separate purpose and title. Would you really want album session material at the end of the Royal Albert Hall concert disc?
     
  13. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    No, but they could have started with the album stuff (as on the set), then put 38 minutes of session stuff at the end of disc 1, continue the session stuff all the way through disc 2, maybe even continuing on into the start of disc 3 (depending on the aesthetic acceptability of doing it that way, I suppose), and concluded with the concert stuff, and they could have fit much more session material that way.

    It's all academic at this point, but there certainly is unused capacity within that set.
     
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  14. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Lots of session pics already posted in this thread. Here are a few more.
    mptvimages_0337_0847_pw.jpg mptvimages_0337_2559_pw.jpg mptvimages_0337_2704_pw.jpg mptvimages_0337_2572_pw.jpg
     
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  15. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    I recently posted this in the Swing Along with Me thread:
    Here is that shot (again) that appeared in the UK gatefold of THE CONCERT SINATRA in 1963:
    [​IMG]
    I'm going to postulate that, since it appeared only (?) in the UK release, there is a good chance that the photo came from the then-recent Great Songs from Great Britain sessions, during which Sinatra wore a hat with a white (or at least "light") band, as shown below. I can't prove it, but it seems likely.

    [​IMG]
     
  16. rangerjohn

    rangerjohn Forum Resident

    Location:
    chicago, il
    Thanks for these photos, Matt. Can't get enough of them!
     
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  17. sinatrapicturefan

    sinatrapicturefan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oakland CA
    Thank you Matt for posting these photos. As a collector of Sinatra-related photos, I have a lot of FS recording session photos and have found it difficult sometimes to ID the session where they were taken. The MPTV website has helped, but even there many of the dates are incorrect. The Getty site has some images, but the descriptions/dates at that site are poor, many of them clearly not correct esp. with respect to some of the Capitol recording session photos taken by Sid Avery. I noticed Chuck Granata had the same issue (identifying sessions for some of the photos) in his book.
     
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  18. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Yeah, it's tricky. I figure, "the more eyes that see it," the better the chance that somebody will spot a detail and help pin down a date, a session, etc.
     
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  19. Sean Verneau

    Sean Verneau Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan
    Hello SinatraPictureFan....I hope this is ok. I noticed that you did the world a service by sharing the Sinatra Discography (Via Dropbox) a short while ago and I wondering if you would by chance have the complete list in Alphabetical order by song....I can word with what you provided (the entire sessionography by date) but when I was working with it, I was using the complete alphabetical list. Any chance you have that to share? Thanks in advance
     
  20. sinatrapicturefan

    sinatrapicturefan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oakland CA
    Hello Sean,

    There is an alphabetical song list at the FS archive drop box folder. It is second from the bottom.

    Dropbox - Frank Sinatra Archive - Simplify your life

    Regards,

    Jim
     
  21. Sean Verneau

    Sean Verneau Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan
    Jim, yes, I saw that. The one I was working with was the alphabetical list that has all of the session information on it. I had previously copied it for myself and now have lost it. So that was why I was inquiring about the list with all the session information, not chronological like you have it, but in alphabetical.

    If not, that is ok. I just thought I would ask
     
  22. Sean Verneau

    Sean Verneau Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan
    Would kind of look something like this:


    All The Way Home (Teddy Randazzo)

    January 25, 1983: Studio Session

    1995 The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings - CD Album

    2009 Seduction: Sinatra Sings Of Love – CD Album

    All This And Heaven Too (Ed DeLange, Jimmy Van Heusen) f

    May 23, 1940: Studio Session

    1994 The Song Is You – CD Album
     
  23. Sean Verneau

    Sean Verneau Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan
    Any one have any updates on the alphabetical list by chance?
     
  24. Luca

    Luca Wolf under sheep clothing

    Location:
    Torino, Italy
    Got a NM copy today! The cover sleeve is very uninspiring... I would have never bought it if I hadn't read great things about it here! And yet... it sounds truly good!
     
    Bob F likes this.
  25. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    The final release with the original stereo mix.
     
    Luca likes this.

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