Details
Track Listing
DISC 1:
1. Lean Baby
2. I'm Walking Behind You
3. I've Got the World on a String
4. From Here to Eternity
5. South of the Border
6. Young at Heart
7. Three Coins in the Fountain
8. Come Fly With Me
9. Someone to Watch Over Me
10. Melody of Love
11. Night and Day
12. Learnin' the Blues
13. Same Old Saturday Night
14. Love and Marriage
15. Impatient Years, The
16. Tender Trap, (Love Is) The
17. How Little We Know, (How Little It Matters)
18. Wait For Me
19. Lady Is a Tramp, The
20. Well Did You Evah? - (with Bing Crosby)
DISC 2:
1. Hey! Jealous Lover
2. I've Got You Under My Skin
3. All the Way
4. Chicago
5. Witchcraft
6. How Are Ya' Fixed For Love? - (with Keely Smith)
7. No One Ever Tells You
8. Time After Time
9. In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
10. You Make Me Feel So Young
11. I Get a Kick Out of You
12. All My Tomorrows
13. High Hopes
14. What Is This Thing Called Love
15. Moon Was Yellow, The
16. I Love Paris
17. Blues in the Night
18. Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry
19. Nice 'N' Easy
20. Christmas Song, The - (with Nat "King" Cole)
Album Notes
Personnel includes: Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Keely Smith (vocals); Nelson Riddle And His Orchestra, MGM Orchestra.
Compilation producer: Wayne Watkins.
Recorded between April 2, 1953 and April 13, 1960. Includes liner notes by Pete Welding.
SINATRA 80TH: ALL THE BEST is a collection of songs recorded during Sinatra's initial stint with Capitol Records. "The Christmas Song" is an electronically-created duet using the voices of Sinatra and Nat King Cole.
Frank Sinatra is the mythological cornerstone of the American popular song. Like Billie Holiday, Sinatra's greatest gift may very well have been his ability to sing songs as if he believed them; in his hands, a good melody was not enough. When the Chairman Of The Board sings "In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning," the song becomes a lyric vehicle for his very personal story, as the listener surrenders to a melancholy so enveloping that time seems to stand still.
But Sinatra never stood still. The popular acclaim of his work with Tommy Dorsey's big band, and his celebrated Columbia recordings with arranger Axel Stordahl would have constituted a career for most singers--Sinatra had a bolder concept in mind. Arriving on the scene after Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and Billie Holiday had established a distinctively American style of phrasing, Sinatra extended on the rhythmic rise and fall of Holiday's cadences, even as he elongated and altered lyrics with a suave brand of legato phrasing derived in part from Tommy Dorsey's urbane trombone stylings.
SINATRA 80TH/ALL THE BEST documents a period throughout the '50s in which Sinatra resurrrected his career as both an actor and singer. At a point where Sinatra had developed serious vocal problems, Columbia dropped him like a bad habit, in part because he refused to record trite material. By the time he signed up with Capitol, his voice had taken on a darker, more sensual quality, and his interpretations had grown more dramatic and swinging. Sinatra's jazzy inflection was complemented by a host of fine arranging talents, particularly those of the legendary Nelson Riddle.
Over the course of 40 selections, SINATRA 80TH/ALL THE BEST is a stunning compendium of the singer's stylistic mastery, including a surprisingly warm rendition of Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song" (in which Sinatra trades mellow choruses with the techno-specter of Nat "King" Cole). Tunes such as "The Lady Is A Tramp," "You Make Me Feel So Young" and "Nice 'N' Easy" illustrate Sinatra's rich sonority, and his engaging way of laying behind the beat and elasticizing each syllable. Sinatra's urbane, theatrical set-up of Cole Porter's "I Get A Kick Out Of You" establishes the ideal mood for a bouncy bop through the melody (inlcuding the witty way he elongates the word "terrifically" to italizize the lyric's fashionable sense of boredom). But it's the Chairman's melancholy way with a ballad--such as Van Heusen & Cahn's "All The Way," where a strong man bares his soul and wears his longing and regret on his shirtsleeve--that Sinatra reveals his true greatness.
Industry Reviews
10 (out of 10) - ...virtually beyond language. The Cole Porter numbers are so classy and dry it almost hurts...and the sad songs are tears on the ocean floor....we should all own every single one of Sinatra's Capitol recordings but this is a...good start.
NME (12/09/1995)
4 Stars - Excellent - ...Sinatra's intonation and timing were impeccable during these commercial Capitol years, and the quality of his voice tends to give some weight to even the most cliched and syrupy of lyric and arrangement...
Q (01/01/1996)
10 (out of 10) - ...virtually beyond language. The Cole Porter numbers are so classy and dry it almost hurts...and the sad songs are tears on the ocean floor....we should all own every single one of Sinatra's Capitol recordings but this is a...good start.
NME (12/09/1995)
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