Sinatra / Capitol Sound Quality, etc.: "Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely" (1958)

It's certainly odd. I mean, at some point, somebody had to know the tape was broken, and had to splice it back together with a couple of seconds missing, no? I suspect that's the same thing that happened to "Anytime, Anywhere" in 1953, i.e., the tape broke, and somebody just took it upon themselves to splice it back together, with several inches of tape just missing. (I'd love to know if an un-broken safety master exists for "Anytime, Anywhere" like it did for "One for My Baby" in mono.)

 

I also now have a "Winners Page" posted, here: Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely - 1958 And the winners are....hard to find »

I always love to hear OTHER people's views on this stuff, so please, opine away!

Some qualifiers that I point out on the website:
•I think that in terms of points earned for sheer quality of sound, the 1983 MFSL and 1984 "Dell" stereo LPs are absolutely top-tier, BUT they have major tape source problems (rolling dropouts/damage on side two, channels reversed [Dell], mono substitution [Dell]), so I can't fully endorse them with a straight face. When they are "on," they work great, but they are both significantly compromised.
•I've got a 1970s SM-1053 LP that sounds really nice, but it has rolling dropouts on two songs and is MISSING two songs, so again, I can't get behind that one, despite it's positive attributes.
•The "One for My Baby" UK LP has all 12 songs in pretty good sound from the original stereo mixes, but has a jumbled running order, so that's off the list.
•The 1987 CD (and its re-use in the UK box) is pretty good, but it's got some very audible No-Noise going on, so, although it's "basically pretty good," and by far the best stereo CD version, there's no way I think it's "the best" overall.
•Some people love the mono recording, and I respect that, and it has been well-served by good mastering, but I'm not ga-ga over it. (I go into more depth on the website.)


In the end, I've gone with the nearly-impossible-to-find premier release of the 12-strack stereo version, 1972 Australian World Record Club LP #S/5004, as my "winner," with the Dutch "Frank Sinatra Story, Volume 8" 12-track 1973 LP as a close second, even though I admit that the 1983 and 1984 LPs sound better. These 1972/1973 LPs still sound very good on their own terms, and they don't come with the compromises that one has to accept on the other editions. The Dutch LP remained in-print for several years, and is much, much easier to find than the Australian LP, and sounds almost as good.

Much more info here: Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely - 1958 And the winners are....hard to find »

Oh, I've also updated the Sinatra/Capitol scorecard: Capitol Scorecard »

 

Thanks, John, and I'm stunned that a copy of that Australian LP turned up on discogs, so congratulations on landing one! I just got mine a few weeks ago on Ebay, but I've had my eyes peeled for years and had not seen one turn up until that one I bought.

 

I should have included one more bullet point:
•Several of us who frequent this thread did a collective "blind listening" comparison of complete tracks from several versions of the album, and some very positive comments were bandied about regarding my original "D" STEREO pressing that was one of the transfers. I'm not sure that any of us necessarily thought that it was "the best" of those we compared, but it had a unique and very good sound that stood out from the crowd. There was something a little tubey/gooey/yummy about it that was very attractive. (Sadly, like many releases of the album, it's missing two songs, so.....)

 

@Arkoffs @ArneW @AxeD @Bob F @bozburn @rangerjohn @SCOTT1234 @stevelucille

Thank you for contributing clips. Without clips, the pages would be mighty silent! Thanks again.

 

Yowza, check out the "stock photo" used in this Ebay listing:

"Frank Sinatra Sings for Creepy Elmer's Glue Fans"

 

Today, I picked up yet another (my third, ugh......) copy of SY-4533, the circa 1973 release of this album. Yes, I know it's a cheap-o reissue, and yes, I know that the sound quality on my other two copies is pretty middle-of-the-pack, but those are both H and J cuts, meaning they were cut on a Scully lathe (not that there's anything wrong with that), while my best-sounding SM-1053 pressing from a few years later is an F cut from a Neumann lathe. The SY-4533 LP that I got today is an F5 cut on side two, and sounds excellent (although this particular copy is not in great shape) with NO DROPOUTS, so if you come across a copy of SY-4533 and it's in good shape AND it's got F or G in the deadwax, you might have excellent sound. (It'll still be abridged, but it may sound excellent.)

SY copies are easy to spot because in the upper right under the Capitol logo where it used to say HIGH FIDELITY, the SY copies (exclusively) say STEREO.

 

Stereo release question:

I thought that Only the Lonely was in Capitol's very first batch of stereo LP releases, November 18, 1958. I'm not questioning that November release date, but am curious about the "Capitol's very first batch" bit after reading this today in the "Capitol Records Annual Report" for year ending June 30, 1959. In a letter from Glenn Wallichs included in that report, dated August 14, 1959, we have this little tidbit of information:

Anybody know what Mr. Wallichs may have been referring to with that August 18, 1958 date?

 

Well.....there you go! I wonder where the heck I got that "info" about the Sinatra album being in the first batch of stereo LPs from the label? From my cat?

Off-topic a bit, but here's a photo of the Glenn Wallichs Festival Theatre at University of Redlands:

 

Do you know of any other titles released in stereo disk on that date? Was that the same release date as the mono version? Do we know a release date for the stereo tape?

 

Thanks, Bob. I suspect that somewhere along the way, I got it mixed up with the album being in the first-ever releases on 4-track tape. My goof. I was even down in the weeds in the discussion of that Aug. 18 date, here, which clearly had left my memory at some point. I even posted this in another thread:

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Thanks, Jordan. Is there a similar list for US releases, I wonder?

 

Great! Thanks, Jordan!

 

I've got 9 of those 16 titles in some format or other, FWIW.

 

No, no, no, no, no.......

I think the only one that I have multiple copies of is Stars in Stereo.