Customer Reviews

Frank Sinatra (Complete Guide to the Music Of...)

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Packaged the size of a CD, it is often found sold along with Mr. Sinatra's recordings in record bins. Far from "complete" as the title suggests, this pocket guide presents some new information for the Sinatrafile, but primarily on British recordings (don't let the spellings of some words throw you!). Curiously, the text includes a pointless listing of the songs on each and every recording, which undoubtedly contributes to the overall number of pages.

The guide is organized (or organised as the case may be) by general epochs documented in Frank's life. The verbage is supplemented by a traditional set of photos, but their placement is completely disjointed from the text, being interspersed in a random, and somewhat discontinuous order. This throws the reader because there is no context developed for either interpreting or understanding the photos. Some of them are even mislabeled which serves to diminish the author's credibility.

If you are looking for record prices or other memorabilia information, you won't find it here. The back cover states that it is "the indispensible consumer's guide to the music of Frank Sinatra", but there are much more thorough and complete collection listings available on the book market.

There are probably several books that give a concise overview of Frank Sinatra's music. But are they always easy to find? I like this book, because it is small, compact, easy to read, and inexpensive (despite its very "British" point of view). I'm sure there are other (and possibly better) books about Sinatra's music, but this one will do just fine.