Three (Now Eight) Upcoming Sinatra/Capitol Titles on MFSL LP & SACD*

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Bob F, Aug 21, 2012.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    The song list on the front cover is not in album order. It was probably chosen to balance the spacing.

    The changes in the revised cover were certainly not random. I'm not sure if the original 11-track version was an unintentional mistake, but it was soon replaced by the revised 12-track version with the improved positioning and coloring of the titles. The latter is the one I think MoFi should use. At least, it's the one Capitol chose to use back in the day, once the erroneous first printings were exhausted.
     
  2. Tina_UK

    Tina_UK Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    We don't have " Waldo" in England, we have where's " Wally" and the name " Wally" is also another not so harsh way to call someone an idiot, :)
     
  3. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Weren't there some problems with As Time Goes By at the POINT OF NO RETURN recording sessions? (Dave Cananaugh wanted another take, and Sinatra wouldn't do it????) I wonder if at some point Capitol considered issuing the LP with 11 tracks instead of 12, and the memo that it was going to be a 12-track album didn't reach the art department people who worked on the front cover. (Probably nuts; just thinking out loud.)

    Matt
     
  4. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    The version of "As Time Goes By" on the original LP (and all CD issues up until 2007*) includes an ending intercut from an alternate take. It's distinctly audible: There is a marked difference in Sinatra's voice, leading some to surmise that the ending was even recorded (by FS and Bill Miller) on a different day than the main session.

    Whatever the true story, it's certainly plausible that the initial covers were designed around the absence of this song. I believe the title is missing from the back cover as well as the front. I remember on the family forum, a member complained that she had purchased a "defective" LP with a missing track. It turns out she was going by the jacket printing; the track was of course present on the vinyl and the label.

    *(In 2007, Capitol released a compilation titled ROMANCE: SONGS FROM THE HEART, remastered by Dave McEowen, which included for the first time an unedited remix of "As Time Goes By." This may have been an unintentional oversight. There is no mention in the liner notes of any new difference in the track, although on the same CD a previously unreleased alternate take of "Nice 'n' Easy" was noted prominently.)
     
  5. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    Just to correct an earlier misstatement: The Walsh and Norberg CD covers show only 10 tracks.
     
  6. jtaylor

    jtaylor Senior Member

    Location:
    RVA
    Isn't the same also true of "These Foolish Things?"
     
  7. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    Yes, on the final word of the song ("...remind me of YOU"), if I'm not mistaken. The intercut on "As Time Goes By" is much more extensive, about the last 45 seconds, with just a solo piano backing Frank's vocal.
     
  8. rangerjohn

    rangerjohn Forum Resident

    Location:
    chicago, il

    How does it sound without the edit? Was it so bad? Is there a clam there or something?

    Has the unedited "These Foolish Things" ever been released?
     
  9. jtaylor

    jtaylor Senior Member

    Location:
    RVA
    Bob: To your knowledge has anyone ever postulated that the intro, not just the ending, to "As Time Goes By" is from another session?
     
  10. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    No, not that I can hear. It seems the purpose of the edit was to change the pitch of the final two notes ("...as time GOES BY"). Someone with a better musical ear than mine described it as "G flat, E flat, B" instead of "three G flats in a row." To me, the unedited version sounds better because it avoids the distraction of the audio change. In particular, the reverb levels are different in the intercut section.

    No, not to my knowledge.
     
  11. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Technically, if we're in the key of B (and I haven't checked), that would be F-sharp, D-sharp, B. (Same notes; new, improved, anal-retentive nomenclature.)
     
  12. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    Not to my knowledge, but re-listening just now, it's a definite possibility. If there was another session, it was undocumented. This was Sinatra's FINAL Capitol Tower recording session, September 12, 1961. (One more contractual Capitol song would be tacked on to the end of a Reprise session the next year.) Six songs were laid down at that session, and six more the day before, to complete the album in two days. It was certainly more rushed than most other Sinatra albums, and there may have been little time or patience for re-takes, thus necessitating edits. (My conjecture only.)
     
  13. paulmock

    paulmock Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA
    Correct. It begins with "It's still the same old story..." with just Mr. S and Bill. IMHO it saves the entire song and I prefer it over the one on the original album.
     
  14. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    Just to be clear, I have that reversed: The intercut (original released) version is the one with the "flat" ending. So the purpose of the edit was apparently to make the ending more somber, less melodic.
     
  15. paulmock

    paulmock Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA
    Mr. S was into those flat type endings in the '59-'61 periods. I can't think of them right now, but I know he ended several tunes that way. "Blue of Evening" is one that just popped into my brain as I type this.
     
  16. MMM

    MMM Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Lodi, New Jersey

    I wouldn't be surprised if that 11 song cover was an early mock-up, etc., that got mistakenly used in production.
     
  17. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    Those three new LPs that were supposed to ship last Monday are now listed as "TBA" by Music Direct.
    Here's an announcement from today's Soundbytes email newsletter:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    mikrt17 likes this.
  18. aoxomoxoa

    aoxomoxoa I'm an ear sitting in the sky

    Location:
    USA
    Well ain't that a kick in the head!
     
  19. bferr1

    bferr1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    I'm sensing a pattern with Music Direct:

    1.) Announce a new title with a rapidly-approaching street date.
    2.) Make sure you stress the limited, numbered collectibility aspect-- "Be sure to preorder now to get the lowest-numbered copy!"
    3.) Delay the release.
     
  20. John D.

    John D. Senior Member

    What I meant was, you seem to have been lied to by someone at Music Direct.
     
  21. mikrt17

    mikrt17 Life has surface noise.

    Location:
    BROADSTAIRS UK
    And then count the pre-orders to see if there is a demand before producing the product hence the delay.
     
  22. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    I have it on good authority that this is the real cover MoFi will be using:

    Waldo's-Swingin'-Affair.jpg
     
    mikrt17 likes this.
  23. Tina_UK

    Tina_UK Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    :laugh: Ha good one Bob, looks good :wiggle:
     
  24. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    I've often wondered about the identities of those two SWINGIN' LOVERS (or the many dancers overlaid by Sinatra's image on A SWINGIN' AFFAIR!). Imagine going through life knowing that you are on the covers of millions of LPs, and never making that fact public. I don't imagine they collected any royalties, but I wonder if they had to sign a release?
     
    mikrt17 likes this.
  25. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer

    Wow, this is really great news!
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine