Sounds As Great Today At It Did Way Back When
Craig Connell | Lockport, NY USA | 12/20/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"My father used to play this "album" a lot in our house when I was a kid growing up. Thus, the songs kind of grew on me. However, I never realized exactly how great they were until I bought this (for sentimental sake) and listened to it again at the age of 50-something.
The songs in here just never grow old and Sinatra's "takes" on them are as fresh-sounding now as they were made he recorded them.
What really shocked me was that every one of the songs on this CD are great! That's almost unheard-of, for any artist. There isn't a clunker in the bunch, so I can't cite some of them; they are all classics, thanks to Frank.
I'm not an expert on Sinatra, but I don't know how he could ever have sounded better than he sounds here. This has to be him in his prime - the best album he ever made, in my humble opinion."
The "Chairman" At The Height Of His Powers!
Michael Neiss | Princeton, NJ United States | 08/31/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"What can anyone possibly add to the Sinatra conversation? For most men, living one of his lives would have been sufficient. But for "The Chairman," the Greatest Entertainer of the 20th Century, reality and myth have fused to forge a reputation that long ago escaped the gravitational pull of mere mortality.
The "facts" alone are as daunting as they are unassailable - more Billboard placements than Elvis, The Beatles and Michael Jackson combined - the highest grossing entertainer of all time by a factor of 3x - Oscars, Emmy's Grammy's - a parade of the most beautiful women that ever lived - consigliere to the Kennedy's and the Giancana's and, for good measure, on the seventh day he transformed Vegas from a sandy rat trap in the Nevada desert to the 'rat-packed', "What Happens in Vegas...." entertainment mecca that it is today.
So with all of that back-story clogging the narrative the logical question should be - was his singing really as good as your older relatives claim? The short answer is - it was better! There's a reason Sinatra turned from a noun into a verb and on his 1956 masterpiece, Songs For Swingin' Lovers he proves why.
Swingin' Lovers is Sinatra in full measure - sublime vocals, impeccable phrasing and, a songbook that cherry-picked the best from the legendary mid-century song-smiths. With Nelson Riddle at the controls, Sinatra chilled, belted and crooned his way through the best of the Gershwin's, Cole Porter, Billy Rose, Whiting & Mercer - just to mention a few heavyweights lending support. It is almost impossible to listen to the record and not wish you were knocking a few back at Toots Shor's watching Frank and his entourage hold court. This is definitive Sinatra and pure proof why men become legends and legends become myths.
ESSENTIAL for every collection.
"