SINATRA 80TH: ALL THE BEST
Capitol #35952 (November 14, 1995)
40 Tracks on 2 Discs
Total Playing Time: 2:00:07

Compilation 2-CD Set
Produced by Wayne Watkins
Liner Notes by Pete Welding

Disc One:

01. Lean Baby
02. I'm Walking Behind You
03. I've Got The World On A String
04. From Here To Eternity
05. South Of The Border
06. Young At Heart
07. Three Coins In The Fountain
08. Come Fly With Me
09. Someone To Watch Over Me
10. Melody Of Love [with Ray Anthony]
11. Night And Day
12. Learnin' The Blues
13. Same Old Saturday Night
14. Love And Marriage
15. The Impatient Years
16. (Love Is) The Tender Trap
17. (How Little It Matters) How Little We Know
18. Wait For Me (Johnny Concho's Theme)
19. The Lady Is A Tramp
20. Well, Did You Evah? [with Bing Crosby]

Disc Two:

01. Hey! Jealous Lover
02. I've Got You Under My Skin
03. All The Way
04. Chicago
05. Witchcraft
06. How Are Ya' Fixed For Love? [with Keely Smith]
07. No One Ever Tells You
08. Time After Time
09. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
10. You Make Me Feel So Young
11. I Get A Kick Out Of You
12. All My Tomorrows
13. High Hopes
14. What Is This Thing Called Love?
15. The Moon Was Yellow
16. I Love Paris
17. Blues In The Night
18. Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry
19. Nice 'N' Easy
20. The Christmas Song [with Nat King Cole]

This double-CD collection was released in honor of Sinatra's 80th birthday. Most of the songs were singles, which showed up the following year in The Complete Capitol Singles Collection, along with a few concept album tracks.

The one oddball recording is Nat King Cole's posthumous duet, produced by Phil Ramone. This mixes Sinatra's "The Christmas Song" from the 1957 album, A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra, with Nat King Cole's unforgettable 1961 rendition. Ridiculous (IMO), but Capitol seemed partial to such electronic pairings due to the success of the Duets albums.

Included is a 24-page booklet containing numerous recording studio photos of FS, with liner notes by the late Pete Welding (his last set of notes).

[Adam]

This was the second cassette album that i bought when i first began listening to Frank.

I eventually wore out both cassettes, and had to buy a CD player for the other albums i bought.

If one listened to 'I Love Paris' on one side of the tape, and flipped it over straight away, it would give one the start of 'How Are Ya' Fixed For Love' so i did that almost constantly because i loved both songs.

Adam

[Marty]

Originally posted by Bob in Boston
Included is a 24-page booklet containing numerous recording studio photos of FS, with liner notes by the late Pete Welding (his last set of notes).

It's a real shame some of Welding's (and others like those of Stan & Will) liner notes haven't a home here on the site as in themselves are wonderful stand-alone articles on the man and his music, which many who don't possess the specific compilations or re-issues would really enjoy reading.

[MAP 55]

I had forgotten about it.

[Rusty Bob]

I see where Larry Walsh is listed last under "Special Thanks" but no real credit as to who did the actual mastering. These tracks are pre-Norberg right? Are they drawn from previous CD issues?

[Gail]

Originally Posted by Marty

It's a real shame some of Welding's (and others like those of Stan & Will) liner notes haven't a home here on the site as in themselves are wonderful stand-alone articles on the man and his music, which many who don't possess the specific compilations or re-issues would really enjoy reading.

I completly agree, Marty! I made the mistake of making a few of my first purchases via iTunes, and therefore did not have liner notes!!! I'll never do THAT again!

I have since purchased "The Complete Reprise" and "The Capitol Yeas" [UK version - which does not have much in the way of a booklet, but does have original liner notes for the CDs]. The Reprise has a nice book, but no liner notes for the individual lps I've been able to burn.

I would gladly pay for the liner notes as a separate purchase. I guess that's why many people who already have the music might buy something like this "80th" -- just so they can have the liner notes and/or booklet.

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a book (the same size as an lp) with the original lp cover art and liner notes -- often those liner notes are very hard to read in the "CD size".

Originally Posted by Rusty Bob

These tracks are pre-Norberg right? Are they drawn from previous CD issues?

Yes and yes.

This was an excellent compilation. When FS was alive, Capitol actually made an effort at a nice presentation. (Compare with their most recent offering which has no liner notes at all and mistakes in the song listings.)

[SinatraFan]

Yes, All The Best is a quality product from Capitol and they chose an excellent group of songs. That included many hits and some of Frank's best songs for the label. Also, this was my second Capitol purchase and it helped me become an even bigger fan of Sinatra.

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a book (the same size as an lp) with the original lp cover art [u]and[u] liner notes -- often those liner notes are very hard to read in the "CD size".

I agree, that would be a great idea, especially to have the cover art in LP size.

[Tim]

Glad to see some props for this great set. Similar to Adam, I've worn out one of the tapes, but the other still works fine.

I've been considering replacing the tapes with the CD package, but I'm not sure that this would be necessary. Since I bought these tapes, I've bought all of the concept albums, the 3-disc Capitol Years set, and the complete singles collection - although not all in that order!. I'm not sure there is much here that I don't have elsewhere (except for the Christmas Song duet, and a missing line (?) from the Crosby/Sinatra duet).

Nevertheless, this was a great introduction to the Capitol era.

EDIT - Crosby's line towards the end, "You must be one of the newer fellows" is not present on the Capitol Singles collection. Not sure why they had the line in the 1995 All the Best release, but dropped it from the 1996 Complete Singles collection. Perhaps the line wasn't on the original single?

[SinatraFan]

Originally Posted by BillyJo

EDIT - Crosby's line towards the end, "You must be one of the newer fellows" is not present on the Capitol Singles collection. Not sure why they had the line in the 1995 All the Best release, but dropped it from the 1996 Complete Singles collection. Perhaps the line wasn't on the original single?

Tim, for more information about Well, Did You Evah?, see posts 63 to 66 and post 74 from the Sinatra In Hollywood thread.

[Tim]

and thanks for the links!

A very interesting read indeed.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by GeeBee

The Reprise has a nice book, but no liner notes for the individual lps I've been able to burn.

No, but there is the section in the book from Stan Cornyn. It's a compendium of sorts from various past liner notes he wrote for Frank's albums, including IIRC a few additions (like noting Lee Herschberg), made to hang together as a set of "liner notes" for the box. It was nicely done...

[Gail]

Originally Posted by MMM

No, but there is the section in the book from Stan Cornyn. It's a compendium of sorts from various past liner notes he wrote for Frank's albums, including IIRC a few additions (like noting Lee Herschberg), made to hang together as a set of "liner notes" for the box. It was nicely done...

Thanks for the tip, Martin. Do you recall the name of the book? Thanks.

Originally Posted by GeeBee

Thanks for the tip, Martin. Do you recall the name of the book?

Gail, Martin is talking about the book that comes with the Reprise 20-CD suitcase/box set. Stan Cornyn's chapter is titled "Eye Witness."

[Gail]

Thanks, Bob......I do have the 2nd Edition and the book that came with it. It is a beautiful chapter, but I wonder how many details I miss by not having the liner notes to the individual CDs/lps.

Getting back to this thread, are the liner notes worth the purchase of this CD if one already has the music?

[Edwin]

I did a search, could not find a thread with this album, so started this. I just picked up this 2 disc collection that has been around for a long time. It's a good collection, but I have everything on it so I didn't bother buyint it till now. .

I found it in a used CD box in a local store for $5 and bought it mainly because it has, as far as I know, the only CD version of "Well Did You Evah?" that includes Bing Crosby's comment, "You must be one of the newer fellas." Worth $5? Yes, to me. Of course there are 39 other fine recordings, too.

Even better is the movie version to see these two guys do the number, mix it up with each other, toss in some other dialog not on the record and enjoy Sinatra's wonderful moves. It's the highlight of the movie and Crosby has said it's his favorite of all the movie scenes he's ever done.

[Gonzalo Duque]

It's a great compilation, and there is a thread for it, I found it on page 6, started by Bob on October 4, 2005.

It is worth having, and although I had all the songs on it anyway I didn't have the Christmas duet with Nat King Cole, done well after the fact.

I'm sure a member of the Mod Squad will merge yours with it.

Not too sure if that is the only Frank CD it can be found on BUT the version with the line "You Must Be One Of The Newer Fellas " can also be found on the "That's Entertainment" box set..