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

Wonderful, Matt! Some of my favorite tracks of the whole Sinatra-Capitol oeuvre are on PONR.

I think that "When the World was Young," "I'll Remember April," and "There Will Never Be...." are as good as anything else he recorded in this era.

Bob, what had Stordahl been doing in the intervening 8 years? For whom/what was he writing charts?

I think that if FS had stayed with Stordahl during the fifties, he would not be considered the "artist" that he is today. He would have enjoyed a commercial comeback on the basis of "Eternity," and he would have had hit albums/singles. But its his collaborations with Riddle that raise his work at Capitol to the level of high art, and that propel FS as a singer to a level beyond his otherwise magnificent peers like, Bing, Tony, Nat, Mel, Ella, Peggy and Peggy.

 

Is the monaural version simply a folddown or a unique mix?

 

Not that it has anything to do with POINT OF NO RETURN, but I just watched Axel conducting on a 1951 episode of Frank's TV show (the one with Dagmar). Her line, "Mr. Strudel, would you vamp me please?", was one of the more memorable parts of that program.

From Wikipedia, after he split with Sinatra in 1953...

And, of course, there was the work he did for Simon and Garfunkel!

 

I think this was discussed once before, and the consensus was: folddown. Perhaps Matt will post some samples for further analysis?

 

I just found the earlier discussion (here). These were a few of the comments:

 

Matt, maybe pick one song from each side, instead of two from side 2? I can't remember if "I'll Be Seeing You" on THE CAPITOL YEARS is the same as on the '87 CD. If it is, "As Time Goes By" (that you've already chosen) makes sense due to the ROMANCE compilation variant.

 

Against union rules, I believe.

 

September 11–12, 1961. Two consecutive nights; six songs each night. Frank Sinatra's final recording sessions at the Capitol Tower.

Discussion of this album always sends me back to Robin Douglas-Home's 1962 biography, Sinatra. The young British author was present, invited by Sinatra. He devotes a chapter to the first session, which is described in beautiful detail. These are photos taken that night:

 

More session photos by Robin Douglas-Home:

 

fabulous photos, bob! thanks.

 

i'd love to know the color of that pocket square.....

 

According to Douglas-Home: "He wore a well-cut dark grey suit; a dark-grey felt hat crowned him jauntily; a red and yellow silk handkerchief peeked perkily from his breast-pocket; the black bows on his patent leather pumps winked from under the knife-edge creases."

 

I had posted this once before somewhere on the forum. Someone put up a color picture from the session, and I did some adjustment on it:




Note the use of a U67 mic on Frank for this album...

 

Any anecdotes on how Sinatra treated Stordahl at these sessions? Was he rude to Stordahl? Did he show any affection towards him?

 

Nice work Bob and Martin! Thanks. The color version of that photo was tucked somewhere back in my subconscious.

Speaking of the U67 and the Tower: how long would it be before FS would once again release an album as well-recorded as this one? Moonlight? My Way? Watertown? Blue Eyes?

 

Martin's photo, and another from the same session, with additional color correction to match Douglas-Home's description of the grey suit and hat:

 

That's in the ear of the beholder. As a whole of United-Western sessions, I generally like the sound of the recordings Lowell Frank did (even with that controversial to some vocal mic). 'OL BLUE EYES IS BACK does sound really good, but that was done at Goldwyn by Ed Greene IIRC. I was playing that last week...