Customer Reviews

Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was one of the first CDs I ever bought, which was in 1989 while in high school. At that time, there was a dearth of Sinatra collections and I just wanted a starter CD. This is a decent collection of songs from the Reprise years, though not one I would purchase today due to the fact this material can be found on more recent, more comprehensive collections. Even though Amazon lists the original release date as 1961, I believe it was actually 1968. Many, if not all, of the songs on this collection were recorded after 1961. Note the title is "Greatest Hits," not "Best Of." These are songs that hit the pop charts and are not necessarily his best songs. Some are classic Sinatra, such as "Strangers in the Night," "Summer Wind," "It Was a Very Good Year," and "That's Life." However, there are also some you might have never heard before, such as "Somewhere in Your Heart," "Forget Domani" or "This Town." These are not bad songs, yet are certainly not indicative of his best work. The essential songs in this collection can also be found on "Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years," with one exception: "Somethin' Stupid." If it weren't for the omission of this track from "The Very Good Years," this collection would be completely obsolete. Furthermore, the twelve tracks on this disc run a total of just over thirty minutes. This might have been acceptable in 1968, but is ridiculous compared to today's standards. To add insult to injury, this CD has not been digitally mastered; as such, a slight hiss can be heard. Even though there are some very good songs here, don't bother with this CD. (At the time of this writing, this CD retails for $10.99. I certainly wouldn't pay more than $5.00 for it)

Don't believe the title of this album unless you like falling for Barnum & Bailey hyperbole. This is NOT a Greatest Hits album. It is a compilation of Sinatra's most commercially successful material from the mid-1960s. Commercially successful this music(?) was, but good most of it is NOT. "This Town", "Tell her you love her", "Forget Domani" and "The World We Knew" are dreadful pieces of mid-60's schlock. "Summer Wind" and "It Was A Very Good Year" are the only really good recordings on this album, but you'd be better off buying the original albums from which those recordings are derived - "Strangers In The Night" and "September of My Years" respectively. Unless you're not interested in discovering truly GREAT Sinatra, stay clear of this album!

My Mom's favorite back in the 70's and now my favorite! You just cannot beat Frank Sinatra for the overall music experience! He is truly timeless. This has some of his best on it and is a good start for a Sinatra collection! I am listening to it right now!

In 1963, the strain of wearing so many hats in the entertainment industry led Frank Sinatra to jettison one of them: he sold his controlling interest in Reprise Records, the head of a record label no longer. Part of that strain had been caused by his difficulties in generating the kind of smash hits on the singles charts that he had enjoyed during his glory years at Capitol, and of his new albums competing with Capitol dumping his back catalogue onto the market at cut-rate price.

The other impact to not just his commercial prowess, but that of everyone else in the music industry, was of course the arrival of the Beatles to the U.S. in the winter of 1964. Far more than Elvis, they changed the nature of the market, and suddenly Sinatra had to compete not simply with a generation gap as he had in the fifties, but a major realignment of purchasing habits that went across a much larger segment of all age ranges.

Enter producer Jimmy Bowen and arrangers Ernie Freeman and Billy Strange, the latter two responsible for ten of the twelve arrangements on Greatest Hits. They helped Sinatra accept and incorporate newer sounds into his instrumental palette, and it showed in the chart placings, with the modern sounds of "Strangers in the Night," "Somethin' Stupid," "That's Life," "Summer Wind," and "The World We Knew" all making the top 40, the former two both #1, during Sinatra's most impressive assaults on the charts while at Reprise, in 1966 and 1967.

No, this is not the classic Sinatra of the Capitol years, or even that of his first eight American albums on Reprise where he maintained the same approach and quality of custom in the fifties. What it is, however, is Sinatra embracing the new aesthetic of the 1960s, or at least as much of it as he could, and meeting it on his terms.

Certainly, the best item here is "Summer Wind," one of the last great collaborations with his mainstay, Nelson Riddle, and the final time one of their works made the radio. But the album is worth buying for the over-the-top, over-dramatic stabs Sinatra did make at commerciality here. The Gordon Jenkins' arranged "It Was A Very Good Year" has a very different meaning here than in the context of September of My Years, and all the songs here have their own very enjoyable charms, for schmaltz factor if nothing else.

Serious Sinatra? We've got Only the Lonely, Where Are You?, and The Concert Sinatra for that. For a sixties sound-fest while cruising down the highway, I'll put Sinatra's Greatest Hits along with Dylan, the Stones, Motown and Stax, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Dionne Warwick, and yes, daughter Nancy in the multi-disc player, and hit random. Nothing better for escaping the city and heading for the beach or the mountains.

This greatest hits collection catches some of the best of Frank Sinatra's mid-60s successes, where he placed #1 singles besides the Beatles, Beach Boys and classic 60s groups. "That's Life" is a rockin', brassy blues, beautiful and angry. "This Town" is a less successful attempt to repeat it. Nelson Riddle's "Summer Wind" wraps a sarcastic lyric in an arrangement warm and serene as the ocean breeze of its title. You get some fine pop songs ("Somethin' Stupid," "The World We Knew") and two more classics in "Softly As I Leave You" and "It Was A Very Good Year." It is a great place to start understanding the point where Sinatra no longer was the idol of the previous generation, but was reaching out, successfully, to their sons and daughters.

Good Cassette tape of Sinatra, I am not a huge fan, but Songs like Strangers in the Night and It was a Good Year appeal to me despite my age which I feel has nothing to do with knowing good music, which this is.

Clearly, when compared to much of his Capitol and Columbia material, these do not count among Frank's classic songs. However, they did appeal to enough people at the time to shoot them well up the Easy Listening [Adult Contemporary] charts, and even, to a lesser degree, the Billboard Pop Hot 100. So, to dismiss them as "commercial drek" is missing the point entirely. The man had to go on paying the bills [including alimony] and so why not churn out stuff that made the greater masses happy? Did they not count?

What I don't like about this album - which first appeared in vinyl in 1968 - is the title "greatest hits" and the meagre [1 page] of liner notes. Perhaps that was all they could squeeze onto the back of an LP in 1968, but for the CD release they could have at least added more background information AND a proper discography of the contents.

As for the title, it would have been less misleading had they said "Greatest Hits At Reprise From 1964 to 1967" because that is more or less what you're getting here. In that period, working primarily with Jimmy Bowen [who once toiled with the Rhythm Orchids and Buddy Knox in the 1950s] and Sonny Burke [who had worked with Dinah Shore on many of her earlier hits], and often with the backing of Ernie Freeman, he had 16 Easy Listening/Adult Contemporary hits, 12 of which also made the Billboard Hot 100. Here you get 11 of those two-chart hits plus one that made only the AC charts [track 10 - # 10 AC and a Hot 100 "bubble under" at # 102 in the fall of 1965].

The earliest hit covered here is Softly, As I Leave You which hit # 4 AC/# 27 Hot 100 in October 1964, followed by Somewhere In Your Heart which, in January 1965, rose to the same level on the AC charts but only # 32 Hot 100. They then skip over Anytime At All [# 11 AC/# 46 Hot 100 in April 1965] and instead include the lesser Tell Her (You Love Her Each Day), a # 16 AC/# 57 Hot 100 in June.

Forget Domani was another lightweight entry from the film The Yellow Rolls-Royce, hitting # 13 AC/# 78 Hot 100 in August 1965, as was When Somebody Loves You [the AC-only hit mentioned above]. Rounding out 1965 was the double-sided AC hit I'll Only Miss Her When I Think Of Her [# 18] b/w Everybody Has The Right To Be Wrong (At Least Once) - # 25 and a Hot 100 "bubble under" at # 131.

The years 1966/67 were much kinder in terms of chart success with no less than six # 1 AC hits, two of which also made it to # 1 Hot 100. It Was A very Good Year, done by The Kingston Trio on their 1961 LP Goin' Places, was the first to go # 1 AC [# 28 Hot 100], that being in February 1966 b/w Moment To Moment from the film of the same name, which also charted at # 18 AC/# 115 Hot 100 "bubble under" - but it's not included here.

Then came the smash Strangers In The Night [# 1 AC for 7 weeks and # 1 Hot 100 in June 1966], a song that Dean Martin had relinquished to Frank when he couldn't get his chops around it at an album recording session. A bit of trivia that would have enhanced the liner notes, by the way. Summer Wind also went to # 1 AC [# 25 Hot 100] that October, beating out the Wayne Newton rendition, as did That's Life for 4 weeks [# 4 Hot 100] in December.

Early in 1967 he teamed with daughter Nancy for a # 1 AC [NINE weeks] and # 1 Hot 100 [four weeks] on Somethin' Stupid, and that October registered his fifth straight AC # 1 [five weeks] with The World We Knew (Over And Over), which also made it to # 30 Hot 100. In December, This Town [from the film The Cool Ones] topped out at # 17 AC/# 53 Hot 100.

So, in summary, six # 1 AC hits, two of which also reached # 1 Hot 100, spending a total of 26 weeks at the top AC slot and 101 weeks in total on the charts. Some may wish to slough this off as "commercial drek" but clearly millions did appreciate them.

SKIP THIS ONE AND HEAD STRAIGHT FOR THE BEST OF VERY GOOD YEARS (1 CD)

This was the first Sinatra cd I bought. Boy was I in for a treat. When I heard the songs Softly and Tell Her You Love Her Each Day I was very moved by Franks singing. He really sings with such passion ,that you feel everything he is singing about. He was in his prime when these songs were recorded.

Good sound and Sinatra's greatest classics. I bought it for a friend who loves his music and she is thrilled!