Customer Reviews

Sinatra Sings Rodgers & Hammerstein

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This is a great album - but be aware that this is Sinatra in the 1940's recording for Columbia. This is not the "swinging" Sinatra on the later Capital and Reprise labels. As regards Sinatra performing songs from Carousel note that the selections on this albim were recorded with Axel Stordahl conducting in 1946. There is a later recording of "Soliloquy" on the album "The Concert Sinatra", this was done with Nelson Riddle conducting in 1963. It is not the same "Soliloquy" as is on this album as another reviewer claims. It is interesting to note that when this Sinatra recording of "Soliloquy" was released in 1946 it was done as two songs with two different melodies, in two different keys, which were divided onto two sides of the original 78 rpm record. According to the liner notes of this CD, the "entire passage (bridging the two sections of the soliloquy) was cut from the original poduction of Carousel, before it even hit the Broadway stage. Although it was included in the original cast recording of the show (sung by John Raitt), it has not appeared on any subsequent recording, from either stage or film. It has only been heard on Sinatra performances from the 1940s: for his Concert Sinatra album, the singer deleted this section, making the original Columbia rendition all the more precious."

As far as this album goes, these are wonderful recordings of a young Sinatra beautifully interpreting some of the best Broadway showtunes ever written. Pay particular attention to "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" and "People Will say We're In Love" - Sinatra recorded these songs as part of his premiere solo recording session at Columbis (i.e. not as boy singer for Tommy Dorsey) which was during a musicians strike. That's right, Sinatra had to interpret these two songs without the benefit of an orchestra, instead it was recorded with an "a capella" choir!! There's also lots of other interesting tid-bits in the liner notes written by Will Friedman.

As an aside also note that Sinatra, prior to walking off the set of Carousel, supposedly recorded several songs as "Billy Bigelow" in 1956. Hopefully some day these tracks will be available on an official realease someday.

Sinatra does well with this composer, as he did with most; but some of the originals are of poor quality and the whole disc is badly equalized. Occasionally shrill highs and too much bass is missing. Great music,, many poor transfers to CD. Could have been better with proper handling.

Let's get one thing straight right away -- this album isn't the only place to get "Soliloquy" or even the best place. The version on this album is *exactly* the same as the one on "The Concert Sinatra". That's a Reprise album, and I'm going to guess that it was lifted for this release -- same running time and I've listened to them side by side and it is the same track.

Indeed, if you don't have "The Concert Sinatra" you need to get it first. It's a far superior, if shorter, album, and contains in addition to "Soliloquy" the equally extraordinary "This Nearly Was Mine" and a slightly different (but better) version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" than is on this album.

"It Might As Well Be Spring" here has also been done better on "Sinatra and Strings", "Some Enchanted Evening" is done by a more informed Sinatra on "The World We Knew", etc. But for those folks with extensive Sinatra collections, this album does contain songs available nowhere else, particularly the songs from "Oklahoma" that begin the album.

Since he'll never create any new songs it's always a treasure to find things not easily available, and this is the album for the Sinatrophile who thinks he has it all.

Had he lived, Sinatra would have been 95 years old this week.
As a tribute to his storied career, I give a thumbs-up to this offering of 17 Rodgers and Hammerstein songs, mostly from his ingenue days of the 1940s.
It includes three songs (one with two different versions) from "Oklahoma", including an a cappella version of "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'", that is probably reflective of either of the two musician's strikes that took place in 1943 and 1948, when so many a cappella songs were produced, followed by "People Will Say We're in Love", "The Surrey With the Fringe on Top", and an orchestrated rendition of "Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'".
"From "Carousel", we hear the wistful ballad, "If I Loved You", the reverent, "You'll Never Walk Alone", and his rendering of Billy Bigelow's "Soliloquy", whom Sinatra might have played in the 1956 film version had he not walked out due to a conflict of interest with the directors.
From "State Fair", we hear versions of "It Might as Well be Spring", and "That's For Me" that have a lighter touch than the one Sinatra's fellow crooner, Dick Haymes gave them in the film version of that musical.
From the less-lauded musical, "Allegro", we hear, " A Fellow Needs a Girl", and "So Far".
Much of the real fire and passion seem to have been saved for the last six songs on the CD. From "South Pacific", we have, "Younger Than Springtime", "Some Enchanted Evening", and "Bali Ha'i", and finally, from "The King and I" we have, "Hello Young Lovers", "We Kiss in a Shadow", and finally, "I Whistle a Happy Tune".
All in all, this Columbia Legacy album provides a fine record of Sinatra in the early phase of his career, and listeners can audit the talent of the lean and hungry kid from Hoboken, who rallied bobby-soxers, consoled lonely women and girls as they awaited the return of loved ones away at war, and who was on his way to taking the world by song.

"Rodgers himself apparently thought of Sinatra as more of a Hart man than a Hammerstein man. Yet Sinatra was on the ground floor of the Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership, becoming one of the first pop singers in the world to record their songs. But in a more specific way, the Rodgers and Hammerstein cry out for Sinatra." ~ Will Friedwald ~

For Frank Sinatra fans like me who enjoy Broadway shows, "Frank Sinatra Sings Rodgers and Hammerstein" is one of the perfect CDs to listen to. For the past few nights, my listening sessions were devoted to Frank Sinatra music. As I was listening to this CD that I ordered from Amazon a few years ago, I realized that I haven't written a review for this remarkable album so deserving of a five-star-rating. So here it goes - my better-late-than-never-five-star-review. It doesn't pale in comparison with the other albums that he recorded during the early stage of his prolific and radiant musical career with Columbia Records. With Charles Granata and Didier Deutsch as compilation producers, you can't go wrong with this collector's treasure.

Presented in this disc is the young Frank Sinatra rendering songs with varied moods and wide-ranging levels of emotions from the pens of famed pair of songwriters, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. The songs were recorded from 1943 through 1951 and were taken from various Broadway musicals such as "Carousel," "State Fair," "South Pacific," "Oklahoma," "Allegro" and "The King and I."

My favorites from this compilation are some of the greatest and best-loved Broadway songs of all-time which include "If I Loved You," "It Might As Well Be Spring," "You'll Never Walk Alone," "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Younger Than Springtime."

I have always loved listening to Frank Sinatra's young voice that speaks of pristine elegance and unadulterated, innate beauty as it glides flawlessly to the charming chart arrangements of Axel Stordahl, so this compilation is a real treasure. I heartily recommend it to Frank Sinatra fans who appreciate Broadway musicals and their theme songs.

"Representing the conjunction of two great American collaborators - Rodgers and Hammerstein and Stordahl & Sinatra - these Columbia recordings preserve the vision of four vital musical figures, their work captured at its Olympian zenith, in a way that bespeaks of all the charm and elegance that is Rodgers and Hammerstein." ~ Will Friedwald ~

Amen to that, Mr. Friedwald! And kudos for the informative and well-crafted Liner Notes.