Customer Reviews

My Way: The Best Of Frank Sinatra (2CD)

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This two-CD Reprise "Import" collection includes among its 46 selections many of the very best recordings Frank Sinatra ever made. Count this reviewer among those who believe FS produced his very best performances during the first years of his own record label in the early Sixties---and not during "The Capitol Years" in the Fifties (please see my review for "The Very Best of Frank Sinatra"). The simple fact is Sinatra didn't reach the peak of his vocal powers until 1963---three years after the first Reprise recordings represented here.

It's now fully 40 years since two of these selections, "Bewitched" and "America the Beautiful," were recorded for what the singer himself considered his crowning achievement (in the bel canto, operatic style) --- "The Concert Sinatra" album. Almost 30 years elapsed before "America the Beautiful" finally was released on the 4-CD Reprise box set. For "The Concert Sinatra" arranger/conductor Nelson Riddle assembled, on the singer's orders, his largest-ever symphony orchestra, recorded on a huge sound stage at the MGM film studios. Riddle claimed near the end of his life, that he never saw the singer better prepared or more focussed for a recording session.

Among other highlights of this splendid 2-CD collection are:

- The opening track from the June 1962 "Great Songs from Great Britain" album---the Ray Noble classic "The Very Thought of You" arranged/conducted by Robert Farnon.
- Three from the 1961, Don Costa arranged "Sinatra and Strings" album, which many consider the singer's best `ballads' from the Reprise years: "Come Rain or Come Shine," "Night and Day" and "All or Nothing at All."
- Sinatra's best version (with Nelson Riddle) of the Glen Miller/Mitch Parish classic "Moonlight Serenade" from the "Moonlight Sinatra" album; also, what many fans consider the singer's very best `swinger'---arranged by Riddle in the early 60s---the Kern & Fields Oscar winner "Just the Way You Look Tonight."
- Great tunes from his earliest Reprise (1960) recordings for the classic "Ring-a-Ding Ding!" album---the only one arranged by composer ("Shadow of Your Smile") Johnny Mandel. Among those: Berlin's "Let's Face the Music and Dance."
- Definitive re-recordings of Capitol-era classics such as "I Get a Kick Out of You" (arranged by Neal Hefti) and "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" which finds the singer in perfect voice, and with a revised (even better?) Riddle arrangement. Also worth noting: markedly improved sound quality achieved at Reprise (compared to the Capitol Years) by the best engineers in the best Hollywood recording studios.

This collection provides (arguably) the best overall mixture of `old and new' Sinatra, ever assembled on two CDs. The 46 tracks here include all-time best sellers---disdained perhaps by some as `weak tea' compared to the strong meat of the Great American Songbook, otherwise well represented in this collection. Yet those same commercial hits struck a chord with `baby boomers' that was key to re-establishing Sinatra's career in the Beatles' era----and beyond to a fifth, then a sixth decade of public performances. To borrow a phrase from song titles here, it's from these songs that the "best" (really was) "yet to come" at Reprise Records---as well the (very) "bad, bad." Whatever your tastes, be certain at least 40 of these tunes you'll love and never tire of playing. Could we name other great singers whose "best of" compilations could meet those criteria?

This is simply a desert island set. I don't care how many Sinatra albums you've got; this one package puts together a program you'll turn to over and over again. Especially great for in car listening, when you don't want to fumble around with many different CDs. This collection is a mood changer, so put on a happy face. While the complete Columbia, Capital, or Reprise albums represent different moods, this set has a nice sequence/flow to it. Frank tackles everything here! There are his signature songs, great standards, a couple of duets(incl.
"Something Stupid" with daughter Nancy) and even a swing take on
Jim Croce's "Bad Bad Leroy Brown". For the Sinatra addict or the casual novice, you can't go wrong. Charming tribute essay by long time Sinatra friend, Stan Cornyn included.

Frank's career began in a very different era, when swing bands were fashionable. He maintained this style long after it ceased to be fashionable, yet continued to sell records in huge quantities. Indeed, he recorded some of the best music of his career during the sixties and seventies.

My way actually began as a French song - it was titled Comme d'habitude and recorded by Claude Francois in 1967. Paul Anka later translated it into English and the rest is history.

This collection contains many other Sinatra classics - New York New York, Strangers in the night, Somethin' stupid, Come fly with me and so much more. Most of his songs were culled from the Great American Songbook, but he showed that he could do contemporary songs well - among those to be found here are Mrs Robinson (Simon and Garfunkel), Yesterday, Something (both Beatles) and You are the sunshine of my life (Stevie Wonder).

This set works well as an introduction to Frank's music, but for those who only want one collection, this is the best of many compilations available. A single-CD version is also available for those who want it - it has a different color cover and merely contains the first of the two CD's here - but you can't buy the second CD separately.

Listening to Frank could not get any better by having this 2cds collection of the best. I could not imagine a better gift for Sinatra fans. Perfect

I felt like owning some Sinatra, and this seemed like a good place to start, so I added it to my amazon.co.uk wish list, and fortunately someone purchased it for me. I was not disappointed: this is exactly what I wanted, a great roundup of Sinatra's best 60s material.

As well as classics such as New York New York, Strangers in the Night, Mack The Knife, Something Stupid, My Way, Fly Me To The Moon and a personal favourite of mine The Way You Look Tonight, Sinatra has a stab at some classics of his day by other artists, such as The Beatles' Yesterday and Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson, largely with success, transforming them from guitar-pop songs into his classic swing band sound.

As the amazon.com reviwer says, not a hit is missed. Sinatra was, is, and always will be cool, and that is more than evident on this suave collection of songs with his deep, rich, varied voice. 5 stars.

"I can't help myself. If a song is a lament about the loss of love, I get an ache in my gut. I feel the loss and I cry out the loneliness." ~ Frank Sinatra ~

This deliciously sweet 2-CD-set, "My Way: The Best of Frank Sinatra" contains some of the most loved Sinatra staples - songs that convey the many facets of love and romance. Its repertoire is something that will warm your hearts even on the coldest winter day! There's no denying that the Chairman's music is as everlasting as time, and his ageless music has always been a part of me. It has reached my heart and soul. Needless to say, his evocative music has moved and inspired me. It made me glad but it also made me cry.

The above quote from the legendary singer is so true. His interpretations of all the songs he recorded in this collection are sincere, heartfelt and credible. His stirring renditions combined with the flawless chart arrangements of the greatest arrangers/orchestrators of all-time such as Nelson Riddle, Johnny Mandel, Robert Farnon, Billy May, Gordon Jenkins, Claus Ogerman, Neal Hefti, Quincy Jones, Don Costa, Ernie Freeman, Billy Strange, Frank Foster, Dave Matthews, Lennie Hayton, Joe Parnello and Billy Byers make these compilation CDs some of the greatest recordings of all-time.

With so many nice songs in this set, it's so hard to select favorites, but I'm very partial to the Riddle-arranged-tracks. A proverbial match made in heaven, Sinatra and Riddle were a powerful pair! There's a mysterious allure in his interpretations. Consider the songs that are throbbing with varied range of emotions: "Moonlight Serenade," "The Way You Look Tonight," "All The Way," "Moon River," "Bewitched," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "Summer Wind," "Love And Marriage" and "In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning."

There's also a stunning combination of perfect arrangements and exceptional and immaculate renditions that make the rest of the songs absolutely appealing to my ears. You can almost feel the silkiness, smoothness and the sleek elegance of his voice on the slow tempo tracks, and the exuberance and perkiness that he projects on the up-tempo tracks.

"The Very Thought of You" - Robert Farnon
"Let's Face The Music And Dance" - Johnny Mandel
"Fly Me To The Moon" and "The Best Is Yet To Come" - Quincy Jones with Count Basie Orchestra
"Night And Day," "Come Rain or Come Shine," "For Once In My Life" and "My Way" - Don Costa
"They Can't Take That Away From Me," "I Get A Kick Out of You" and "Pennies From Heaven" - Neal Hefti
"It Had To Be You" and "Come Fly With Me" - Billy May
"Send In The Clowns" - Gordon Jenkins
"The Girl From Ipanema" - Claus Ogerman

I can certainly say that this 2-CD-set is a heartfelt statement of Frank Sinatra's unparalleled brilliance as well as his love and dedication to his craft. Frank Sinatra was truly a phenomenon who earned a reputation as a world-class Entertainer of the Century. And he did it all . . . his WAY!

"I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing ...
... The record shows, I took the blows
And did it my way"

If you enjoyed this set, say it and share it. Wholeheartedly recommended.

P.S. Thanks so kindly to a friend of mine and a fellow Amazon reviewer who provided me with this 2-CD-set. It's priceless and very much appreciated.

Being an avid collector of Old Blue Eyes dating back to when he started(1939) and I first saw him in person in 1941 at the Chicago theater before I went overseas,I am in possession of a great many of his works.
This compilation on 2 discs is very good,remastered well mostly in Monaural,yet still great to hear again,
to reminisce all of those wonderful WW2 Big Band days; I Treasure the music ,all of which I will be leaving for my Daughter in Michigan when I go visit The Man when my time comes.
The Greatest,The Consummate singer of our time!!
Richard(Dick)Lindstrom
Venice,Florida nee Kalamazoo,Michigan

This aint any indispensable Frankie collection but most of the all-time favorites are packed in this cd. Im discovering the beautiful song, "Summer Wind". It's a soulful concoction of delicious double bass, bold brass, calm, poignant piano, and spiced with organ ooz.....hypnotic drums...and that VOICE. For the rest of the list...I got my thumbs up and even higher.

An artist as well known and as marketable as Frank Sinatra is bound to have numerous amounts of copilations of his works released, each of them boasting be his "best" or his "greatest hits", some more deserving of the title than others.

"My Way: The Best Of Frank Sinatra" was originally released in 1997, a year before Frank passed away. At 2 cds and 46 songs complete with excellent sound quality and solid liner notes, this collection could've been the definitive reprsentation of his later years at Reprise. It almost manages to achieve this title, but a few questionable selections negate it from this title.

Disc 1 is the more traditional of the two cds, boasting just about all the familliar Sinatra hits most are familliar, such as "My Way", "Strangers In The Night", "New York, New York" and "I've Got You Under My Skin" (one of the many songs that are Reprise reduxes of their Capitol originals). In addition, you get a nice batch of underrated gems like his excellent covers of "Moon River" and "For Once In My Life" (popularized in their initial forms by Andy Williams and Stevie Wonder), his brilliant Antonio Carlos Jobim partnering "The Girl From Ipanema", and his fun, swaggering cover of Jim Croce's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" all hold their own agains the old warhorses.

However, this disc is bogged down a bit by a few selections that don't belong. "Whar Now My Love" was a major highlight of Frank's late 1980s'-early 1990s' concerts, but this original studio version is too upbeat and corny (especially with the vocal chorus and electronic organ) to have any real effect. The 1965 version of "Love And Marriage" is but a brief snippet and is nowhere near as good as the 1955 version. "Love's Been Good To Me" is the kind of late 1960s' attempt to be hip that got Frank major criticims from music writers of the time, while "L.A. Is My Lady" is an awful attempt at 1980s' synth-pop. Really, what makes these songs more worthy of inclusion than, for example, "Luck Be A Lady"?

Disc 2 is even more flawed in its selection. It starts off quite well. Frank's masterful renditions of "Come Rain Or Come Shine" and "Night And Day" both make the cut, as does as his brillian and rarely heard 1962 rendition of "The Very Thought Of You". The version of "Bewitched" here is easily among the Top 10 Finest Frank Songs Known To Man, and to hear Frank's fantastic version of "Pennies From Heaven" with Count Basie is pure bliss.

Things get weird with "America The Beautiful". This song is hardly essential. It's a good performance, but not among his best. Nor is "Moonlight Serenade", "Somewhere My Love" or his abysmal covers of "Yesterday" and "Something". I'd add "Mrs. Robinson" to this list, but Frank's version, a massive Fu*k-You" to 1960s' flower children who deemed him "lame", is just so bad it's brilliant.

The rest of the cd is overall quite good, with Frank's excellent renditions of "Send In The Clowns" and "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" being the most worthy of inclusions, though I'd keep the two closing tracks as reminders of just how great Frank sounded even in the early 1980s'.

That being said, if I had to alter the track listing, it would be:

1) My Way
2) Strangers In The Night
3) New York, New York
4) I Get A Kick Out Of You
5) Somethin' Stupid
6) Ring-A-Ding-Ding
7) Luck Be A Lady
8) Summer Wind
9) For Once In My Life
10) (How Little It Matters) How Little We Know
11) Witchcraft
12) My Kind Of Town
13) Fly Me To The Moon
14) I've Got You Under My Skin
15) The Best Is Yet To Come
16) It Was A Very Good Year
17) Come Fly With Me
18) That's Life
19) The Girl From Ipanema
20) Wave
21) Something
22) I Won't Dance
23) The Girl Next Door
24) You And Me (We Wanted It All)
25) Forget To Remember

1) Let's Fall In Love
2) Come Rain Or Come Shine
3) Night And Day
4) The Very Thought Of You
5) Pennies From Heaven
6) Bewitched
7) The House I Live In
8) All The Way
9) In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
10) The Way You Look Tonight
11) Learnin' The Blues
12) Softly As I Leave You
13) The September Of My Years
14) Last Night Whe We Were Young
15) September Song
16) This Is All I Ask
17) All Or Nothing At All
18) All I Need Is The Girl
19) You Will Be My Music
20) Let Me Try Again
21) You Are Sunshine Of My Life
22) Send In The Clowns (1976 version)
23) Nancy (1977 version)
24) The Gal That Got Away / It Never Entered My Mind
25) My Foolish Heart

A good collection, but not quite the best.

Definitely this double album is one of the best compilations of an artist. This double CD contains some of the best song recordings of Frank, and includes all of his best songs, in just the right price. "Something Stupid" sang with his daughter Nancy, was to me a very pleasant surprised, as i never heard this recording before. Seriously, people who are not fun of Sinatra or 60s music of this kind, did not complain listening to both CDs playing one after the other ;)