Sinatra & Company [Import]

Frank Sinatra | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 9, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Warner Bros UK
• ASIN: B000002K9V
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,221 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

His 1971 album for Reprise long deleted in the US but available as a mid-price import. Features the same content as the out-of-print US pressing; 'Bein' Green', 'Close To You', 'Don't Ever Go Away', 'Drinking Water', 'I Will Drink The Wine', 'Lady Day', 'Leaving On A Jet Plane', 'My Sweet Lady', 'One Note Samba', 'Someone To Light Up My Life', 'Sunrise In The Morning', 'This Happy Madness', 'Triste' and 'Wave'. Warner. 1995.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not half bad, September 16, 2002

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sinatra & Company (Audio CD)

I usually maintain that Sinatra albums are of such a thematic and artistic wholeness that to issue them in the form of sampled collections is to a grave disservice to the original projects. If so, "Sinatra and Company" is the exception that proves the rule. Despite a happily conceived Sinatra reading of "Being Green," the second side of this album is benignly irritating (on the other hand, had the material been sung by an Engleburt Humperdinck, Jerry Vale, or Andy Williams it could have been downright nauseating).

Not just Don Costa but Sinatra must share some of the blame for the lapses in judgement that are 50% of this album. The tunes and lyrics are so lame, so much a part of '70's pop culture, that it's almost understandable why Costa would overscore them in garish colors. And whoever the engineer was who mastered the album--washing out Sinatra's voice in the mix and pumping up the bass to ridiculous levels (I can't even reduce it sufficiently when I back off the bass tone control as far as it will go) certainly had to receive Sinatra's approval. In the 50's Old Blue had the integrity not to even pretend to meet the Elvis challenge. So in the 70's why was he trying to emulate Herb Alpert, Burt Bacharach, and the Fifth Dimension?

Side One is also overly loud and thickly textured (the Claus Olgerman session with Sinatra and Jobim is clearly superior), but it contains some indispensable musical moments by the Master Storyteller. No one else has come close to matching Sinatra's passionate reading of "Someone to Light Up My Life" (which should be a popular standard based on the evidence here), to probing the depths of the ocean (a resonant bottom D) on "Wave," or elevating "One Note Samba" from a facile ditty to a musical main event (just dig Blue's vocalese on the second chorus--a rare Sinatra moment).

In short, don't bother with this album unless you already own at least 25 Sinatra albums. Instead, go with "Frances Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim" or, since this latter album is quite short (25-30 minutes?), simply wait for the inevitable release of "Best of Sinatra and Jobim."

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The CD with the split personality, July 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Sinatra & Company (Audio CD)

On the one hand, you have the first seven tracks, consisting of bossa nova tunes performed with the composer Antonio Carlos Jobim. As good as a previous album Sinatra did with Jobim was, these seven songs are even better. Eumir Deodato's arrangements are a little more aggressive than Claus Ogerman's on the first Sinatra/Jobim album. Combined with three songs that didn't make it, "Bonita", "Song of the Sabia", and "Desafinado", all of which are available only on the Reprise box set, this might have been on a top three list of all time Sinatra albums. There are several tracks like "Wave", "Agua de Beber" and "This Happy Madness" that are astonishingly good. "Agua de Beber" is an interesting fusion of swing and bossa nova, in which Sinatra actually sings in Portugese.

Unfortunately, instead of those unreleased bossa nova tracks, Sinatra grafted some mediocre soft rock tunes from the early 1970's onto the second half of the album. "I Will Drink the Wine" is not bad, but "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" and most of the others are just woeful. Sinatra sounds disinterested, and it's not surprising he retired shortly after this album came out.

So you have an album with a split personality. The first seven songs are as good as anything Sinatra ever did, while the last several songs are unworthy of such a great singer. Still, even bad Sinatra is worth hearing.

And it's worth tracking down "Bonita" and "Song of the Sabia" if you can find them. Add those tunes to the songs on the first half of this album, and you will have discovered a lost treasure.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best recording of Wave ever!, April 19, 2006

By 

A. Wilkerson (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sinatra & Company (Audio CD)

I had this lp years ago and lost it in a flood. I am so happy to finally find it on CD. Sinatra's recording of Wave is the best ever done by anyone and that track alone is worth purchasing this collection. Sinatra - probably the greatest singer to ever grace the planet, knew how to handle the Jobim material with complete artistry. A must for any serious fan of Sinatra and especially for any serious singer.
Andrea Baker