Classic Sinatra: His Greatest Performances 1953-1960

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Product Reviews

(5 stars) - Great Gift for Sinatra Fans
I bought this for Christmas for my grandfather (he is 84) and he loved it. He said that it included many of his favorite tunes. He and my grandmother are big Sinatra fans and have many recordings. I've listened to it at their house and thought that it was great too. I think that other fans would love to recieve this as a gift! I might get another copy for myself.

(5 stars) - The title of this CD says it all
There is not much more to say. Classic Sinatra: His greatest performances between 1953 and 1960. They have been digitally cleaned up and enhanced and Frank is, and always has been, The Man!!!

(1 stars) - Wretched mastering
First off, everyone should own the music contained on this disc. 1950's Sinatra represents truly the best of the best of American music - fantastic songwriters, arrangers, players and recording engineers, all providing the perfect complements our greatest interpreter of swing, show, and saloon tunes. Unfortunately, since about 1960, very few of Sinatra's peak performances have been commercially available in optimal sound quality in any format. At that time, Capitol reprocessed the original tapes, creating new "masters" with added echo, silly equalization, fake stereo, and other sonic abominations.

When Frank's Capitol output first got released on CD around 1987, mastering engineer Larry Walsh did a passable job considering the available technology and the the combination of "wrong" tapes he was often working with and "wrong" instructions he was given regarding when and how to add reverb to tapes that in their original, classic LP releases were "dry". A pair of compilations (the single-disc "Capitol Collectors Series" and 3CD "The Capitol Years", both also mastered by Walsh) improved things by going back to the genuine 1950's masters and NOT adding reverb.

Then in the mid-to-late-90's, Capitol handed its Sinatra CD projects over to Bob Norberg, who among Sinatraphiles is about as popular as Voldemort. Norberg readily admits that he is more interested in putting his own personal "stamp" on a project rather than presenting the listener with the most accurate representation of the original recording. After getting through the "Complete Capitol Singles Collection" without inflicting too much damage, Norberg unleashed his full arsenal of weapons of music destruction on the 1998-2002 "Entertainer Of The Century" and "Concepts" projects, from which almost all the tracks on "Classic Sinatra" are taken. All these discs sound truly bad - Frank's voice is buried in a cloud of reverb, the mono songs are presented in fake stereo, and EQ and noise reduction have been used without mercy, rolling off the treble sparkle in a silly attempt to reduce tape hiss (Here's an idea for reducing tape hiss: USE THE REAL MASTER TAPES INSTEAD OF THOSE BOTCHED 1960's REMIXES!). Sinatra and the orchestra sound like you're listening to them through a cardboard paper towel tube.

There IS some good news: Bob Voldemort - er - Norberg is no longer working at Capitol, and the sequel to this CD, "Classic Sinatra II", sounds fantastic (Larry Walsh has returned as the mastering engineer). Mono songs are in mono, no added reverb, all the sparkle intact. Frank is in the room with you, or at least he's in front of the orchestra instead of behind it!

Whether Capitol will ever fix its Sinatra CD catalog - arguably the greatest American musical asset that exists between one label and one artist - remains to be seen. At the moment the only "good" discs in print are "Classic II", the aforementioned "Capitol Years" 3CD set, and the Mobile Fidelity "Only The Lonely" and "Nice 'N Easy" discs (note: the out-of-print MoFi "Songs For Swingin' Lovers" uses a bad '60's fake-stereo tape).

My recommendation? Spend a couple bucks on a used copy of this, then get "Classic Sinatra II" and listen to both on your CD changer in shuffle mode so you can hear for yourself how much of a difference there is in mastering between the two.

(5 stars) - Sinatra
I just love Sinatra's music. His smooth voice will never get old. This CD has an excellent sample of his works.

(5 stars) - Absolutely lives up to its title...classic and great performances.
I've heard a few single-CD Sinatra compilations, and this is hands-down the best in terms of songs and value for your money. The only thing that would have made it better would be the combination of this CD and Greatest Love Songs as a 2-CD set, because let's face it...if you're listening to "Classic Frank," you're going to want to hear "Fly Me To The Moon."

That minor detail aside, look at what you get: 20 songs from the ridiculously well-known ("My Funny Valentine" and "Come Fly With Me") to songs which may be better-known among the Frank Faithful ("It Happened In Monterey," "Oh Look At Me Now").

Twenty songs, and when you are in the mood to hear a legend at the top of his game, singing some of his best material, this is the CD you'll want. When you combine it with the "Greatest Love Songs" CD, it is FAR superior to the recent Nothing But The Best. That CD has its own merits, which pale in comparison to the one-two punch of the CDs I've listed here.

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