Frank Sinatra: The Forgotten Reprise Studio Recordings

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by shanebrown, Jun 11, 2018.

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  1. shanebrown

    shanebrown Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    Tonight, I've been playing the disc 17 of what is commonly referred to now as the "Suitcase" Reprise set (although mine isn't the suitcase version). This disc covers many of the singles and non-album tracks that Sinatra recorded in the 1970s. Some are good, some are...not so good. But it made me realise that there are quite a lot of songs from that box that could easily be collected together to make a worthwhile mainstream release.

    There was a good job made (in the main) of releasing the Reprise albums on CD a few years back, but they didn't include songs recorded for albums but not used on them in the way former CD issues had. So those could be used too. I may have missed some, but I think these are all the previously-released songs in question. Those with an * are songs that are included on the extended versions of the album they were recorded for.

    Zing Went the Strings of My Heart*
    The Last Dance
    The Second Time Around
    Tina
    As You Desire Me
    Don't Take Your Love From Me
    Name It And It's Yours
    Come Waltz With Me
    Everybody's Twistin'
    Nothing But the Best
    The Boy's Night Out
    I Left My Heart in San Francisco
    Me and My Shadow
    California*
    America*
    Style
    Mr Booze
    Since Marie has Left Paree
    Forget Domani
    Younger Than Springtime
    Blue Lace
    Star
    In the Shadow of the Moon
    Forget to Remember
    Going Out of My Head
    I'm Not Afraid
    Something
    Feelin' Kinda Sunday
    Life's a Trippy Thing
    The Game is Over
    Bang Bang
    The Hurt Doesn't Go Away
    Walk Away
    Empty Tables #1
    Just As Though You Were Here
    Everything Happens to Me #1
    Anytime
    The Only Couple on the Floor
    I Believe I'm Gonna Love You
    The Saddest Thing Of All
    A Baby Just Like You
    Christmas Memories
    I Sing the Songs
    Empty Tables #2
    Send in the Clowns
    The Best I Ever Had
    Stargazer
    Dry Your Eyes
    Like a Sad Song
    I Love My Wife
    Night And Day
    All or Nothing at All
    Everybody Ought to Be In Love
    Nancy
    Emily
    Linda
    Sweet Lorraine
    Barbara
    Isn't She Lovely
    Everything Happens to Me #2
    Say Hello
    To Love a Child
    Love Makes Us Whatever We Want To Be
    Searching
    Here's To the Band
    All the Way Home
    It's Sunday
    The Girls I've Never Kissed
    Only One To A Customer
    My Foolish Heart

    I would also suggest that Surrey With the Fringe On Top and Body and Soul could also be included. And it's almost criminal that Leave It All To Me hasn't already been released.

    What's clear listening to the 1995 boxed set now is that it suffers from the point of view of sound compared to the more recent issues of the material on it. Relatively little of the above list is top-grade Sinatra but it does seem odd to me that there are around 60 Sinatra Reprise studio recordings currently not available (a few of the above songs are available on compilations such as Baby Blue Eyes), and haven't been available for years (not even to download).

    Does anyone else think this is something that could and should be addressed sometime soon by the powers that be?
     
  2. bartels76

    bartels76 Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    CT
    After seeing this list I am glad I have the Reprise box. If you don't have the disco version of Night and Day, you are missing out big time.

     
  3. shanebrown

    shanebrown Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    I think it's rather easy to jump on the disco recordings, awful as they are. And certainly there are a small group of other 1970s non-album sides that have really quite poor vocals, but the fact that there is a substantial group of finished masters by arguably the best popular singer of the last century that are out of print, and have been for some time, seems bizarre.

    I was pleased that the latest released of the Reprise albums didn't include bonus tracks - I generally much prefer to hear albums as they were intended without extras tacked on to the end, but, on the other hand, that also meant that these songs are now unavailable (even the two extra tracks recorded for Sinatra & Strings).

    At the very least, one would think there would be a set of the complete Reprise single sides available, where edits and mixes sometimes differ from the album versions anyway, and a "bonus" disc could mop up any stray recordings. You can download an official Sony release of Mama will Bark, and other such delights, but not Everything Happens to Me, Send in the Clowns, I'm Not Afraid, or It's Sunday. That hardly makes sense.
     
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  4. shicorp

    shicorp Senior Member

    Location:
    Austria
    I agree with everything said above except for

    Quite honestly, the suitcase generally is the best-sounding collection of Reprise era material around. All the Reprise "remasters" (previously released or not) since "Nothing But The Best" are unlistenable. Just compare "Surrey With The Fringe On Top" with the other "Trilogy" tracks in the suitcase. Huge difference! The former one is a catastrophe - almost worse than anything Bob Norberg ever did for Capitol.
     
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  5. I love my Complete Reprise box set. Some of the more recent remasters have their issues.
     
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  6. LouieG

    LouieG Forum Resident

    Old Devil Moon is a lost gem in the Reprise catalog. One album that needs a proper remix/remaster is “That’s Life”. The title track was remixed for the recent compilations “Nothing But The Best” and “Ultimate Sinatra” and it just sounds awful, along with many of the other newer remasters.
     
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  7. shanebrown

    shanebrown Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    The reissue if the Reprise albums around six years ago are mostly better than the 20cd set.
     
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  8. shicorp

    shicorp Senior Member

    Location:
    Austria
    I hope you are not referring to the Concord re-issues. They are a mess. 90% of the the Reprise-era material re-issued beginning with "Nothing But The Best" is dreadful. It's a shame that this includes several previously unreleased tracks.
     
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  9. shanebrown

    shanebrown Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    I don't like the Concord ones either for the most part. I'm talking about the Universal reissue programme, which ran from around 2009 to 2011, I think - a bit earlier than I said. I think it's the extended versions of albums and remixes that have been classed as being on Concord, and I confess I don't like the remixes much. I thought the Concert Sinatra one was a disaster, I thought, and I went back to the Universal issue. The so-called deluxe issues of Sinatra albums has been very disappointing I think. Just two or three extra tracks, only one of which is normally unreleased, and often the sound seems worse than it was originally. Of the Universal releases of the bare-bones albums that I was talking about originally, only Watertown disappointed me really, and I went back to the older version that had Lady Day added. I don't know about the sound on the Universal Trilogy and Ellington albums, as I already had them in their old form and so didn't feel the need to rebuy them.
     
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  10. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    I like the disco Night and Day quite a bit.
    I never want to hear the disco All or Nothing At All again. I'd rather listen to a on hour loop of there's a Flaw in My Flue
     
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  11. hodgo

    hodgo Tea Making Gort (Yorkshire Branch) Staff

    Location:
    East Yorkshire
    I've got to agree with this. The suitcase might not be perfect but it was was mastered by Lee Hershberg who worked on many of Frank's Reprise sessions. Lee mastered it nicely, no NR, nothing overboard on the EQ front and pre loudness wars sound.
     
  12. Celebrated Summer

    Celebrated Summer Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    That's a young Nikka Costa singing on "To Love A Child." She would have been about ten years old when it was recorded in 1982. Costa is the daughter of the late Don Costa, who arranged that 45 and conducted other titles for F.S. He passed away in 1983.

    These days, Nikki is an indie artist who has toured with Lenny Kravitz, among others. Her music was regularly played on Triple A radio stations a few years back.

     
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  13. shicorp

    shicorp Senior Member

    Location:
    Austria
    Sorry for the confusion. I didn't think of them as a re-issue campaign since only very few titles had new masterings (like "She Shot Me Down"). The UMG CDs were either based on the original Reprise CDs or the "Entertainer Of The Century" editions (where available). The difference is not as aggressive as between Reprise vs. Concord and they are sounding quite nice.
     
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  14. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    Frank Sinatra was Domenica (“Nikka”) Costa’s godfather. She was nine years old when the song was recorded in December 1981. It was released in honor of Nancy Reagan for her Foster Grandparents’ Program.

     
  15. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    It was a re-branding campaign by Frank Sinatra Enterprises, to release the out-of-print Warner/Reprise CD issues on the Universal Music label. Except for the elimination of bonus tracks, the UMG discs were digitally identical to the earlier issues. She Shot Me Down was the only “new” album mastering (as noted), but it really dated from an unreleased late ’90s remaster. These had nothing to do with the remixed Concord releases.
     
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  16. Pal Joey

    Pal Joey Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    Location:
    New York
    I created a few albums out of some of those "lost tracks." I think they make pretty good listening in general.

    First, I lost Sinatra & Company, restored Side 1 to its original stand-alone glory as Sinatra-Jobim, and created a 10 track album from the 1970 sessions that produced Side 2. Here's my running order for "Sinatra '70" (or maybe Sinatra '71, since it was recorded in October and November and wouldn't have come out in 1970):

    I Will Drink The Wine
    Close To You
    Sunrise In The Morning
    Bein' Green
    My Sweet Lady
    Leaving On A Jet Plane
    Lady Day
    Something
    I'm Not Afraid
    The Game Is Over

    Not the greatest Sinatra album, but it makes more sense than the hodgepodge that is Sinatra & Company.
     
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  17. Pal Joey

    Pal Joey Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    Location:
    New York
    Here's another one I did — a "lost" saloon songs album with Gordon Jenkins recorded between 1973-75, which I call, um, Saloon Songs:

    Everything Happens To Me (1974 recording)
    Empty Tables (1973 recording, arranged by Jenkins)
    The Saddest Thing Of All
    The Hurt Doesn't Go Away
    Just As Though You Were Here
    Bang Bang (1973 recording)
    Walk Away
    Saloon Song Medley (recorded 9/73 for the Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back TV special — I know that's cheating a little, but it's a great performance, I believe it's arranged by Jenkins, and it fits perfectly into this would-be album)
     
  18. shanebrown

    shanebrown Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    You could always steal One for My Baby from the 1973 White House concert if you have it. And maybe add the Send in the Clowns from 1976 - slightly out of your time frame, I know. And there's also the cover of All By Myself recorded live in 1976 which floats around in good sound (and The Hungry Years, but it's pretty awful).
     
  19. Pal Joey

    Pal Joey Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    Location:
    New York
    All by Myself and The Hungry Years are both a little beyond this album's time frame, and I assumed they're arranged by Don Costa, not Jenkins. I also like that the Saloon Song Medley sounds closer to a proper studio recording.

    I did, however, do a "Live In The Seventies" comp which includes both "Hungry Years" and "All By Myself," as well as most of the other songs he performed onstage but never recorded in the studio! I'll list that one next.
     
  20. bRETT

    bRETT Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    You also can't get that ultra bizarre "Gunga Din" single which according to the Kaplan bio, was the honest-to-God planned followup to "Strangers in the Night".
     
  21. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
  22. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    Another closed thread: most bizarre Sinatra recording
     
  23. ArneW

    ArneW Senior Member

    Location:
    Cologne, Germany
    Why not include „Like A Sad Song“? It fits the mood perfectly IMO.
     
  24. Pal Joey

    Pal Joey Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    Location:
    New York
    It's one of the better pop-oriented songs he did during that period, but it's not arranged by Jenkins, and I have it on yet another comp of his "lost" '70s work! Which is... I Sing The Songs (not to be confused with the less thematically coherent European collection of the same name). My version is kind of a followup to Some Nice Things I've Missed, featuring all contemporary pop material, and it covers 1975-77. Here's my running order:

    I Sing The Songs
    Anytime (I'll Be There)
    I Believe I'm Gonna Love You
    Stargazer
    Everybody Ought To Be In Love
    The Best I Ever Had
    Dry Your Eyes
    The Only Couple On The Floor
    Like A Sad Song
    Night And Day (disco version)

    It doesn't have the disco "All Or Nothing At All" (just a subjective choice), nor does it have either side of the "Send In The Clowns"/"Empty Tables" single, because they didn't fit the concept stylistically and because albums back in the '70s were largely 10-song affairs.
     
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  25. Pal Joey

    Pal Joey Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    Location:
    New York
    And here's my Live In The Seventies comp (all officially unreleased, I think):

    I Sing The Songs (Tonight Show, 11/12/76)
    Maybe This Time (Tonight Show, 11/14/77)
    See The Show Again (Tonight Show, 11/14/77)
    Never Gonna Fall In Love Again (9/27/76)
    I Love My Wife (5/25/77)
    Stargazer (5/13/76)
    Remember (9/13/78)
    The Hungry Years (4/4/76)
    Like A Sad Song (9/27/76)
    Let Me Try Again (swing version) (9/20/75)
    All Or Nothing At All (disco version) (6/2/77)
    All By Myself (5/13/76)
    Empty Tables (6/27/76)
    Everybody Ought To Be In Love (6/2/77)
    There's Something About You (4/22/79) (this is the only audience recording of the bunch)
    Night & Day (disco version) (6/2/77)
     
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