Review of Frank Sinatra: A Man And His Music Pt 2

Introduction

Frank Sinatra was a musical legend. No arguments. He was one of a small handful of certified Stars whose appeal transcended age, colour, creed, class and even mortality. The acknowledged King of cool, Sinatra and the Rat Pack personified post-war America, or what most post-war Americans aspired to. He made some truly great movie musicals, some truly iconic movies and although Chicago was his kind of town, he was most at home on stage in Las Vegas.

This disc contains a 1966 tv special with his special guest star, daughter Nancy Sinatra. There are eighteen tracks on the disc, including classics such as "Luck Be A Lady" and "My Kind Of Town".

Video

Considering this is taken from 1966 videotape, the image is quite acceptable. It is slightly fuzzy, there are light flares and the colours (yes, this is a colour recording!) are on the pastel shade, but then I`d like to see a recording of that vintage that isn`t. Digitally speaking, the disc shows few if any artifacts.

Audio

The soundtrack is pleasing played on stereo equipment. It has been processed from the original mono source to spread the sound out a little, but the recording techniques of the time leave a lot to be desired and the sound remains pretty tinny. The audio track is in L-PCM Stereo format.

Features

Disappointing. There is a Warner Music Vision trailer for the programme, song access and subtitles and a point-and-click catalogue of Sinatra DVDs that just gives cover shots and catalogue numbers.

Conclusion

I am sure that Sinatra fans will lap up this disc, and certainly it is a record of one of Ol` Blue Eyes` performances, but personally speaking, I found "Frank Sinatra - A Man and his Music II" a disappointment. The programme is a 1966 vintage tv special starring Sinatra, daughter Nancy and legendary music arranger Nelson Riddle. As an aficionado of television history, the programme itself is very interesting, but Sinatra`s performance lacks (pause to find the right word) attention. Perhaps I`m missing the point, but I find Sinatra`s improvisational singing style of his later years distracting. I appreciate he might have been bored stiff having to sing the same songs day in day out, but when he originally sang some of his old standards, he nailed the performance perfectly. Why then insist on changing words, rushing verses and otherwise monkeying around? Why is "Fly me to THAT moon" better than the original lyric "Fly me to the moon"? I think (and I`d rather not be flamed for saying so) Sinatra`s heart wasn`t in it. He cracks a joke about acceptance and adulation during the show and I suspect that most audiences would have clapped if he`d read the ingredients off the back of a cereal packet. There`s no challenge in that kind of performance - indeed, his attention wanders to such an extent during a duet with daughter Nancy that she has to nudge him to sing a verse of Petula Clark`s hit "Downtown", which he then takes a delight in mispronouncing in a demented Inspector Clouseau fashion. If this offends Sinatra fans, I`m sorry, but I`d rather not remember a great entertainer with a performance like this in comparison with some of his truly stellar musical performances (say On The Town, High Society, etc.)