Sinatra / Capitol Sound Quality and General Discussion: "Nice 'n' Easy" - 1960*

Steve Albin's discography reports no issues for the March 2nd performance, and the March 3rd performance is identified as the version included on the album. The March 2nd performance doesn't explicitly state "unissued", although I assume it is unless there are bootlegs (the scope of his discography are official releases only).

 

I can ask Steve if he knows anything that's not in the discography?

 

Is it possible there could be a mix-up in the Capitol papers and there's really only one master?
Probably more likely the March 2nd attempt was rejected.

 

No, “Dream” was listed in the March 2 session report. Same master no. as the released version from March 3 (out of sequence with the other March 3 songs), so they probably redid something small from the previous day.

 

Was Frank dissatisfied maybe?

 

It might have been an incomplete recording. If anyone has this 2-CD set (I don’t), they might be able to confirm. It contains the first two takes of “Dream” from the session of March 2, with reported timings of 0:22 and 1:15. (The full track runs 2:48, so there must be a lot of session chatter, also.) The released album track from March 3 was 2:54 in length.



(Note the misspelling of Capitol on this “gem” issue. )

 

Attention to detail IS important.

 

I assume this is not a legit release. Have any of Frank's record labels issued CDs of just outtakes as opposed to what appears to be a few "alternate takes" found on bigger sets.

 

No.

 

Re: “Dream”

After a little bit of hunting, it turns out I do have a poor-sounding MP3 copy of this after all. (It first appeared on an underground CD titled “Rarest Capitol Sessions Vol. II” from Gem Records.) Here’s the scoop…

“Dream” was the first song recorded at the Capitol session of March 2, 1960 (session no. E-75). Sinatra had trouble with the high notes. Two unfinished takes were attempted (master no. E-33363). Take -1 was aborted after 22 seconds. FS: “Once more. Yeah, that’s a high mother! For Clark Dennis…” Take -2 lasted a minute and 15 seconds. FS: “Hold It! Next song?” Booth: “She’s Funny That Way.” He then proceeded to knock off the next tune in 9 takes and almost 19 minutes (with some lyric extras along the way, e.g., “Jewish people don’t live in tents; we don’t even smoke camels”).

Apparently, Frank returned to “Dream” at the start of the next day’s session (no. E-76 on March 3), keeping the same master number. Session tapes must exist, as “Mam’selle” and “How Deep Is the Ocean?” are also on this disc, but not the final “Dream” take from the second session. Nothing of the two aborted takes from the first session would have been released.

 

You beat me to getting to my copy, @Bob F . Great work as usual. Can you tell Mr. S was still on a high from The Summit? He worked the studio like the Copa Room!

 

Like I've mentioned before, I'm going through my vinyl collection that had been stored away for more than ten years.
And again I found another DMM mistake!!!
My "Nice'n'easy" DMM copy reads stereo (cover AND label!) but is mono! Well, at least BOTH sides are mono this time! Unlike my "No one cares" which has stereo on one side and mono on the other (remember?).

But I have to say that the DMM has a really fine beautiful mono sound. And when I compare it to the stereo Cd from 1991 it is so different I can't believe this album was a mono folddown. The instrumental soloist are so much more prominently featured, it sounds like a different mix.

 

I'm not surprised to read this. Dean Martin's A Winter Romance and Dinah Shore's Yes Indeed! also sound different enough in mono that they can't be fold-downs. All three albums are from roughly the same period (1959-1960).

 

When did this mono DMM issue come out, and can anybody compare it to the original mono LP?

 

I second that request!
The DMM came out in 1984 as part of the Alan Dell series.
If the original release was a mono folddown, what would have been the reason to re-release it in 1984?

 

It was out of print in the UK and Europe.

 

Is there a list of these DMM re-issues anywhere. And if buying from Discogs or eBay, I assume the buyer is reliant on The seller stating something like "released in 1984" etc. For identification. Any idea how these compare sound wise to an original U.K. mono release.

 

Well, somewhere in this forum I read that the later Capitol albums were fold-downs. So I assumed "Nice'n'easy" was also thought of as fold-down.