Sinatra 80th: All The Best

Frank Sinatra

Released on 1/1/95 by Capitol Records
Main artists: Frank Sinatra
Genre: Pop

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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 Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. Sinatra is the mythological cornerstone of the American popular song. Like Billie Holiday, his 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 lyrical 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, but 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 resurrected his career as both an actor and singer. At a point where he 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 Tormé'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. His 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 (including the witty way he elongates the word "terrifically" to italicize 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.

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Sinatra 80th: All The Best

Frank Sinatra

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