The four LPs that are featured in this 2xCD package stem from 1956, 1959, 1961 and 1962 and, again, these forty-eight tracks are all extremely pleasing.
Sinatra rarely recorded a song that wasn’t written by an acclaimed songwriter or songwriting partnership and on this CD there are songs in abundance from the pens of Jule Styne and James Van Heusen two writers who often partnered Sammy Cahn; Three Coins In A Fountain, Love And Marriage, Love Is The Tender Trap, All The Way and High Hopes all came from those partnerships and have all been whistled, hummed, played and sung by young and old alike for decades. Great songs never tire.
There are other favourites too. I’ve Got The World On A String, South Of The Border, Young At Heart, Witchcraft, Chicago and I Love Paris all fall into that category and, as with many of the aforementioned songs, even if they’ve been made popular by other singers, Sinatra has a way of making them all his own, such was the man’s talent.
Many of Sinatra’s recordings were arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle, a man equally polished and at home with string or brass arrangements. Anytime-Anywhere and Same Old Saturday Night are proof of that. The old nursery rhyme Ol’ MacDonald has a Nelson Riddle-arranged re-working which almost gave Sinatra a Top 10 hit in Britain in 1960 and never sounded so hip either before or after. French Foreign Legion may sound like an unusual song to record, but with Sinatra’s inimitable style, it, too, turned out to be a chart entry in 1959. Ol’ Blue Eyes could surprise and entertain his listener at every turn.
This CD oozes class and style throughout its over two hour duration, but that’s no surprise at all.
Author: AUSTIN POWELL
Austin Powell has spent his entire working life in the music business. From being an agent and manager of ‘beat groups’ in the sixties to working for major record companies in the seventies and eighties, he has also held management positions at radio stations in England, Wales and on the Isle Of Man. He continues to act as a consultant to several record companies and artists and presents a weekly 'oldies' show on Monday evenings on 101.8 WCR FM in Wolverhampton.
