Customer Reviews

This Is Frank Sinatra 1953-1957

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While the first 24 songs of this collection cut a broad and satisfying cross-section of Sinatra's work in the mid-1950s, songs 5-20 on the second CD of this collection represent the only faithful availability of the relatively unknown but brilliant LP "This is Sinatra, Volume Two." Of the sixteen tracks presented here (all Nelson Riddle charts) eight were recorded for release as singles, with eight more recorded to comprise another gem in the Sinatra/Riddle "theme album" catalog. Though, properly speaking, this was only "half an album" of fresh material, the blend of ballads and up-tempo numbers comprises one of Sinatra's best song collections from a crop of brilliant offerings during that decade. Contrast, for instance, the elegant, romantic Sinatra/Riddle version of "Everybody Loves Somebody" to the famously campy Dean Martin edition, and it becomes a brand new song. Riddle shares the spotlight in these songs aside Sinatra, issuing one of his best-balanced sets of arrangements of this period, at once urbane, lilting, and textured...I am still waiting for a CD release of my old LP of this gem, but as part of the current package, it is very much more than satisfactory.

This 2-cd import set is worth every penny and then some! It contains much of Frank's golden hits from '53-'57 when he really was at his peak. Whether finger-snapping swing tunes or relaxing ballads, every tune is a gem. Highly recommended for all Sinatraphiles.