Frank Sinatra "Strangers in the Night" CD

I'd like to track down the best generally available CD version of Frank Sinatra's Strangers in the Night.

I just got an RE-1 copy of the 1990 Reprise Strangers in the Night CD (1017-2) engineered by Lee Hershberg and Eddie Brackett. From my Hendrix Reprise CDs, I know that RE-1 means this CD uses noise reduction and my ears do not detect any tape hiss at all.

I have a few questions:

Is there a DIDX version of Strangers that does not have noise reduction, and if so, is that version worth tracking down?

How does the Reprise Entertainer of the Century CD version sound?

Is there a version that the forum Sinatra experts consider to be the best?

Thanks!

 

I dont think there is a Reprise Entretainer of the Century version of this.

The one I have is made in japan and sounds sweet to me. Didnt notice any NR.

 

I have the '90 CD too. Made in Japan without the RE-1 (smooth case and all ). HERE'S a clip of Summer Wind. See how it compares to yours.

 

Mine has the matrix # 1 1017-2 SRC=05.

 

Matrix on mine: 1 1017-2 RE-1 01

 

Could make a nice gold disc...

Could you make that happen Steve?

 

I do know there's static in the middle of the first lyric stanza,in-between the word"Know" and "Love" in the title song on his first "Greatest Hits" CD.There's another portion that has this,right at the end.

 

I would have thought that "RE" just meant a re-done version, and I assumed it could be re-done for lots of reasons. Just because the Hendrix "RE" was noise reduced, is it safe to assume that every "RE" CD is noise reduced?

 

I would agree this one would make superb AF Gold in Steve's capable hands. The original mastering or RE-1 Reprise CD sounds quite well until that happens.

 

I sure wish they'd release this one in mono.

 

I'm not sure where the 1990 date comes from. This was a very early Reprise CD. My copy (USA catalog no. 1017-2) has no date printed anywhere on the disc or the liner, but I believed it to have been released in late 1986. The inner ring printing is "1 1017-2 SRC=05".

My experience with Sinatra CDs is that "RE-1" indicates a revision to the original mastering, e.g. to correct a mistake of some sort. For example, Ring-A-Ding Ding had an RE-1 release to change the incorrect version of one of the bonus tracks on the original issue.

There was none.

The only different versions I know of are various international pressings: Brazil, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, and US—all with different catalog numbers. Until your mention of the RE-1 stamping, I was unaware of any specific differences.

 

OK, I retrieved my copy. No date on it whatsoever, same catalogue number 1017-2, Made in Japan.

No Re-1 anywhere. Sounds Ok to me.

 

Bought this "Strangers" today .....

Made in Japan on disc at 6 o'clock

Mfg. by Nippon Columbia Co. LTD/Denon at nine o'clock

and

WEA-1017 1A2 69 at center, made with the little dots

Early pressing, I would say with that 1A2 designation


"Summer Wind" sounds sweet

 

I only have this on vinyl in mono. But it has a special place among Sinatra albums for me. I remember when my Dad got one of the earliest Lear 8 track players in his car and this was one of the first tapes he bought. I must have heard it thousands of times driving around with him. Even as a kid I loved it and though Sinatra was a cool dude.

I might try to track down the WEA-1017 CD.

 

"Call Me" is an overlooked gem in the Sinatra catalog, IMO. Amongst others on that album.

I don't think the mono album sounds bad at all, but ultimately the stereo wins out for me.

 

Yeah, Frank really nails "Call Me". Chris's "hit version" is good, but this is on a whole other level. A great example of Sinatra singing "for Moderns".

Stereo is best for this album (to my ears), except for the title song.

 

Yep, "Call Me" is . Also a fantastic chart by Riddle. Another track from the "Strangers" album I think deserves a little more attention than it usually gets, IMO, would be "On A Clear Day".

Would sure be great to hear Steve's mix of the Strangers album.

Best,
Bernhard.

 

I gotta say, the organ playing on this album is terrific! And pretty unusual in the FS catalog.

 

For the 'Strangers' album sessions (May 11 & 16, 1966), that was Artie Kane at the organ.

Sinatra & Riddle also employed the organ for some of the songs on Sinatra's 1966 television special "A Man and His Music Part II" (broadcast December 7, 1966 - but recorded much earlier, on June 5-6, 1966). That's the show that included Nelson Riddle's original arrangement for "That's Life" (as broadcast, when Sinatra had re-done 'That's Life' with Freeman in the interim and issued the Freeman version on Reprise).

Bernhard.

 

I only have the mono pressing because I 'inherited it' I would like to get the stereo pressing. In all honestly this is a second tier Sinatra LP, but a good one. Compared to his concept LPs and his classic "swingin" sets it is B list. But because of my personal connection to it it is special to me.

 

What fascinates me about this album is how quickly it was conceived and recorded - originally, when "Strangers" came out as a single, there reportedly was no plan to do an album of that title, too, until the single soon rocketed in the charts by early May.

It's then, so the story goes, that FS decided to build an album around it a.s.a.p. - it shows in terms of the concept being not as close-fit as on others, yes, but more or less "by the way" Riddle conceived another super-hit for Sinatra ("Summer Wind") plus the swing version of "All Or Nothing At All" that FS kept singing until his final concerts in 1994. Plus the gems that were mentioned such as "On A Clear Day" or "Call Me". All in all, not bad for an album "quickie"! Hail, Admiral Nelson!

Bernhard.

 

Unfortunately, this was about the time Sinatra and Riddle parted ways, eh? (For the most part.)

 

I re-EQ'd my 90s REPRISE disc for a CD-R. I didn't have to do much too it. Just added a touch more low end for an extra bit of "oomph" on the bass licks and the drums. I think I cut the mids by just a hair and possibly boosted the highs on one song only. I also lengthened the fade of the title track but adjusting the volume towards the end (the MONO doesn't last too much longer than the stereo, the fades are just different; one is faster and one is more gradual). That was just for my liking, though.

But even as is, that CD sounds pretty good to me.

 

It was somewhat near the time, yes - you might call "Strangers" their last 'classical' album together.

Of course, Riddle still worked with Sinatra as arranger-conductor on his next two TV-Specials ("A Man and His Music Part Two" 1966, produced a few weeks after the "Strangers" sessions, and "A Man and His Music plus Ella plus Jobim" 1967), and in 1968, Riddle arranged another Reprise single for Sinatra ("Star"/"Blue Lace") and did the arranging work for the Sinatra Family Christmas Album of that year.

After 1968, the two geniuses worked together but sporadically - e.g. in April 1973, Riddle conducted the U.S. President's Marine Band at Sinatra's concert performance at The White House. In the mid-70s, Riddle contributed a few new arrangements for Sinatra's concert programmes (e.g. a different swing arrangement for "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life", that can be heard on the officially released 1975 Jerusalem concert).

In November 1976, Riddle arranged a single session for Sinatra ("I Love My Wife" came out, while "Evergreen" wasn't completed, an almost complete run-through take remains officially unreleased).

In March 1977, for the first time in almost nine years, Riddle and Sinatra reunited at Reprise for a new album project ("Here's To The Ladies"), but the LP never materialised and the five songs that were completed remained unreleased until the 1990s (re-recordings of "Nancy", "Emily" and "Sweet Lorraine" plus new songs "Barbara" and "Linda"). "Sweet Lorraine" from these sessions you might call the last Sinatra-Riddle swinger recorded.

After that, there was a sort of break-up between the two, and they wouldn't work together until January 1985, when Sinatra called Riddle to work as Musical Director for Ronald Reagan's second-term Inauguration Gala, that Sinatra was producing as Entertainment Director. Among others, Riddle provided a slightly different arrangement of "One For My Baby" for the occasion, that had Sinatra singing with Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing to the song simultaneously.

With Frank and Nelson obviously reconciled, there soon were plans for a new Sinatra-Riddle studio album, but Riddle's health was quickly fading at the time, and the project didn't materialise. It is said that when Riddle died in fall 1985, some unfinished arrangements for the new Sinatra album were laying at his desk.

Bernhard.