Sinatra / Capitol Sound Quality and General Discussion: "Point of No Return" - rec. 1961*

Your IP address is probably blacklisted for some reason (hopefully, unrelated to you ), Dave. Happens to me once in a blue moon. An email to <[email protected]> usually solves the problem.

 

Man, outstanding pix

 

I'm not completely sure why, but this is my favorite of the Sinatra torch song albums. I think the reason I like this one more than say Wee Small Hours or Only the Lonely is that while those you could classify as having more current to how the singer feels, for instance just after a break up, while this album has us a while after that lost love song wise in most cases. It also has my favorite Sinatra readings of September Song and I'll Be Seeing You. He also does a very good reading of Somewhere Along The Way, but I prefer Nat Cole's version. When The World Was Young has my favorite arrangement of the song that I've heard.

 

My favorite album as well

 

In "A Point of no Return", there is an interesting thing:

Although Axel Stordahl has an orchestration style similar to that of Gordon Jenkins, the musician excels in one point: the dynamism of his orchestrations, compared to Gordon's work.

Axel, duly assisted by Heine Beau, knew how to balance doses and classic romanticism, not just concentrating on the strings. Bill Miller's piano, brass, woodwind and vibraphone also stand out and give the expected atmosphere for the album's concept.

 

My FAVORITE story from Point Of No Return is the classic documented by the late Robin Douglas-Home:

The only moment the atmosphere got tense was when the man in the control room said he wanted to re-record an improvised passage on the piano by Bill Miller, put in at Mr. S's suggestion. "Why?" asked Sinatra.

"I don't like it" boomed the the voice through the speakers.

"Well I do. Next tune" answered Sinatra.

And that was that...

My God! I loved that man. Still do. Always will. He had his many grievous faults, but God forbid anyone dared to get in the way of how he perfected the recording and final outcome of his "concept" albums.

 

Cool. Wonder what song that was?

 

Many consider this recording "apathetic"; Frank seems so detached in the interpretation that many find this performance strange.
I, however, love this recording and it's one of my favorites from this new sixty-year-old on the block. I think the tone is perfect, Axel's arrangement is sparkling and conveys a certain atmosphere of levitation in the sky and Sinatra gives me the feeling of being in limbo. To me, this version of "These Foolish Things" is terrific.​

 

I love it. Yes, there’s a bad edit. But it still moves me.

 

Another fascinating moment from "A Point of no Return". It's another track that I love for the tone, I prefer this version to the one released three years later on "September of My Years", although the second one is more "complete", shall we say.​

 

Listening to the 1984 Dell UK vinyl tonight. God it sounds excellent, the tone just sounds perfect. What a wonderful sounding album that I feel needs to be heard on vinyl for full effect.

 

I've been on a bit of Capitol engineering kick of late (@MLutthans: I know I should be focused on other things!) and may have figured out who engineered Point of No Return. Neither photo is great, but I think the gentleman with Sinatra, who confounded us all a few years back, may be Capitol's Hugh Davies, seen at right next to Nancy Wilson.

Thoughts?

 

i'm pretty good at facial recognition (and not much else). i think you're right!

 

Nice thread! I just ordered a copy of the Walsh CD while watching the 1954 flick, Young At Heart. Free on YouTube.

 

I need to get a really nice sounding copy of this album, I have a mono version that sounds compressed and the streaming version is Norberg, so I’m going to have to keep my eyes peeled.

 

I know I have a reputation for hyping the Walshes, but the Walsh version of this title is quite nice and highly recommended by yours truly. I think you told me you liked the matering quality of the Reprise "suitcase", and I find the Walsh CD comparable to that very measured style.

For some reason, this album is not included on @MLutthans Sinatra scorecard! It's the only Cap album missing.

 

Really enjoying this underrated gem with my coffee this morning. I will admit, the "JFK era" is not my favorite when it comes to Sinatra's recording career. He seemed spread a little thin starting a new label, closing out his iconic run at the old one, and getting so involved in the celebrity power arena, but a couple of records from this era really bring out his professionalism and love for traditional arrangements. This and "Sinatra Sings Great Songs From Great Britain", and also "Sinatra & Strings" certainly qualify.

 

Does anyone understand why there are front cover variants with original US pressings of this album, or what order they came out in, or from what sources? I have two mono copies, both Capitol W-1676, both Capitol Los Angeles pressings with the same runouts and the same labels (black rainbow-rim, Capitol logo at top), but different front covers: one has Frank's name in white above the title in purple, while the other has the title in white above Frank's name in blue. The latter also lists only 11 songs ("As Time Goes By" is missing from the cover, though it is on the record).

Just for the record, here are the runouts:

Side 1: W-1-1676-D7 1 ☆
Side 2: W2-1676-D6 1 ☆

I would be inclined to guess that the cover with 11 songs was the original one, and in the course of correcting that, someone decided to rearrange the title and artist name, but I don't know of any actual evidence on this subject.

 

Very much looking forward to it.

 

I picked up a 1984 Dell a few years ago based on Matt’s recommendation. It is truly a great sounding pressing.

 

Yeah, I remember reading that before while browsing your site (and again, thank you for this wonderful resource!), but it doesn't explain why there were two variants in the first place. I find it interesting that my two copies have the same runouts despite having different covers. (It is, of course, possible that one of them is not in its original cover; there's no way to be sure.)