Customer Reviews

Lucky Numbers

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Every cut here is first rate Frank,and they are mostly hard to find anywhere else. The most outrageous piece is "Boys Night Out",never released before and sitting in the vault for over 30 years. It's the all-time frat boy party song. Are you a frat man? Well,hold off on a few beers,and buy this instead. No doubt,the funniest Frank song ever recorded,and maybe the funniest song ever recorded period.And a smashing Billy May chart to boot. Here is the full length version of "Luck Be A Lady",an eternal rabble rouser guaranteed to blow away the crowd. And another rarity I vaguely remember on the radio as a very young fellow in pre-Beatles days,"Come Blow Your Horn" to round out the party.Frank also starred in the movie in 1963. More great melody and lyrics from the Cahn/Van Heusen team!! "Miracles" is another amusing tune specially written for the very young and young at heart,also by Cahn/Van Heusen.Rounding out my favorites here is the most knockout version of "Pick Yourself Up",an old Jerome Kern number restyled here (1962!),but even though it's almost 40 years old, it is as timeless as they come. The rest of this unique collection is worth checking out,too.This may be the most out and out "fun" album in Frank's monumental oeuvre,and is a very welcome recent addition!

Okay, so this isn't really a new album -- just a fun collection. You might want to own this because several of the songs are from fairly obscure albums and hard to get otherwise. "Boys Night Out" is classic Billy May, "Luck be a Lady" is as fun as ever, and "Here's to the Losers" belongs here.

Serious Sinatraphiles may pass on this one, but it's a fabulous CD to have in the car with the top down!

"Lucky Numbers" is another disc that demonstrates that the Chairman was as capable at upbeat casino music as he was at melancholy crooning. Tracks like "New York, New York," "Luck Be a Lady," and "Here's to the Losers" show the happy-go-lucky side of Sinatra just as "In the Wee Small Hours" (which is possibly the downbeat companion to this album) shows his longing, sad side. "Lucky Numbers" won't disappoint any fan who can appreciate Frank's versatility.

I confess I initially didn't "get" this collection on Reprise, Sinatra's own label. The program is quite short (about the length of the old LPs--under 30 minutes, I'd guess), the songs are "B" material (with the exception of Frank Loesser's "Luck Be a Lady," Jerome Kern's "Pick Yourself Up," and that perennial favorite "Pennies From Heaven"--made swingingly radiant by the accompaniment provided by the Basie band). But the other tunes (with the exception of NY, NY) are rare, hard-to-find, and unfairly neglected "period pieces."

Well, guess what? This is the right period for them. From struggling to get back in the game ("That's Life") to championing the cause of the "Losers" to obstinately insisting we're all "Winners," this is Sinatra's most explicit album about optimism, hope, affirming and celebrating life (with a little help now and then from faith in serendipity, or luck). The songs are so tightly organized thematically and flow into one another so logically and seamlessly, that you might even think of the program as an extended "suite" composed by a single person.

Don't mistake this for escapist fluff. Sinatra is reprising some of the same tunes that Crosby used to get us through the Great Depression ("Pennies from Heaven," "I've Got a Pocketful of Miracles") and calling on the best in all of us to get us through the worst of times. "That's Life" has all the realism and triumph of the best blues--the singer challenges life to hit him with its hardest punch because he still finds himself able to crawl back from the gutter to live and sing about it. And if he's not back on top of his game by July, he'll "just roll up in a ball and die." But then in a delightfully ironic twist, he laughs off such suicidal posturing with a bit of self-mockery: "My, my!"

Whether you're looking to add some of these elusive Sinatra songs to your collection or simply to cheer someone up (they need not be Sinatra fans), this curious, therapeutic little package may be just what the doctor ordered. The title "Lucky Numbers" fits the Chair's persona but doesn't do justice to the thematic emphasis and unity of the program. On the other hand, who would take seriously a collection by Old Blue called "Songs of Hope and Inspiration"?

Well, thanks to my Philosophy class from 1998, I'm now a big fan of Frank Sinatra. I really lied this CD, especially the fact that it has the staple song from Guys and Dolls on it "Luck Be A Lady". Mr. Sinatra was Nathan Detroit in the movie, so he didn't sing it (Marlen Brando was Sky Masterson, so he sang it). It's a great CD and you should all hear it soon.