An almost perfect introduction to Sinatra

Although the casual fan may be disappointed to find Sinatra's familiar hits from the 1960s missing from this marvelous set, this actually represents Sinatra at his very best. Although Frank had become a huge popular success in the 1940s, very little of his work from that period remains especially listenable. Although he possessed a marvelous tenor voice, the arrangements and the songs themselves frequently left more than a little to be desired. In the 1950s, however, a number of factors coalesced to bring about a string of the finest popular vocal albums in American history. First, record technology developed to where the LP became the new standard for musical distribution. This allowed the grouping of a number of songs on a single disc, and Sinatra responded with a succession of superb songs grouped loosely around a theme. Second, Sinatra signed with Capitol records where he worked with a number of superb producers, especially Nelson Riddle. Bringing Sinatra's voice fully to the front of the production, the arrangements kept the orchestra completely in the background, supporting and enhancing Sinatra's singing in spectacular fashion. Third, Sinatra finally overcame some serious vocal problems that perhaps could have threatened his singing career. After healing, he lost a bit off the top of his range, but his voice became much darker and more expressive, more of a tenor with baritone overtones instead of a pure tenor. The result was one of the great periods, if not the greatest, that any popular singer has ever known.

Anyone interested in popular music ought to own some portion of these great Capitol recordings. One way--and the best way--is simply to buy every one of the Capitol albums that Sinatra did. They are all superb, but getting them all can become a tad expensive. The other way would be to get this utterly superb excellent anthology of Sinatra's Capitol recordings. It isn't perfect. Some songs are inexplicably missing. For instance, one of my favorite Sinatra songs, his extraordinary version of Cole Porter's "Just One of Those Things" (with one of the best arrangements of the period), somehow didn't make it into this collection. But as a healthy sampling of the period, this set is really hard to beat: enough selections to give you a truly representative overview of Sinatra's greatest period, but not so much as to overwhelm someone who is only wanting to get just one Sinatra album.

The album is also fascinating for being able to track the development in studio technology in the 1950s. By the end of the fifties, sonically recording came up to a level that isn't appreciably behind where it stands today. Any good recording from 1958 sounds pretty much as good as any recording from 2003. But the same wasn't true of 1952, and the earliest songs in this collection aren't quite as sharp and vivid as the later cuts. Also, on some of Sinatra's high notes, some of the treble gets cut out on the earlier recordings. I wasn't alive at the time, but having heard my grandfather's records from the thirties and forties and my father's from the fifties reveals that it had to be an exhilarating period for the lover of recorded music. Sinatra clearly was one of the first to benefit from these dramatic improvements in technology.

In short, this is glorious music produced by the finest vocal stylist the United States has ever produced. I would especially recommend it to anyone who finds Sinatra's Rat Pack and post-Rat Pack years to be somewhat off-putting. By the end of the sixties his voice started losing more and more of its range and timbre, but here we have Sinatra at the top of his vocal prowess working with producers and arrangers perfectly attune to his skills.

Fantastic Frank

A wonderful collection of some of his best performances. Worth every dime, timeless tunes, classics.

Frank Sinatra is Awesome!

I love Frank Sinatra so when I saw this 3 CD set I knew it was kind of expensive but I just knew I had to have it so I splurged and bought it and I think it was worth every penny! It's an excellent set and has a lot of wonderful songs including Lets Get Away from it All which is one of my favorite songs and I highly recommend this excellent CD set and now I have to buy a CD containing his later hits like My Way, etc!