Many hidden beauties on this album, indeed.

For which by the way there is an earlier thread here at this section at:
http://www.sinatrafamily.com/forum/s...ht=Great+Songs

And also look out for another take of "Roses Of Picardy" from these sessions (take 6 is the one present on the CD-issue of the album), that is contained on the Sinatra TReasures CD (it is take 1 and FS instantly nailed the tune on the spot, while demanding for some more takes after that, still a fascinating listening.)

Bernhard.

For "Roses Of Picardy", the song that was originally left out from the album but then got restored to it finally (after some earlier vinyls) on the CD edition, there is a second take (outtake) no officially released on the "Sinatra Treasures" book-CD.

Bernhard.

[Adam]

I have merged the new thread created about this album with the original one already in place.

Adam

[JamesDeFrances]

Does anybody know if there are other alternate takes of songs from any Frank album released in a foreign country. For instance maybe a take that is on an album relased in the US that is not the same take of the song included on the lp released in France. Does anybody know if anything like that has ever happened?

To my knowledge, "Great Songs From Great Britain" is the only Sinatra album where this has happened, James.

Before the invention of LP, with the release of Sinatra singles in foreign countries (namely Europe) it has been the case a few times.

Bernhard.

[JamesDeFrances]

Interesting.

[Ronald Sarbo]

It happened mostly with Columbia material that was also being issued on LP (10 and 12 inch) in Europe on Phillps and Fontana labels.

Some of the Columbia alternates came out on Lp in Europe that way.

On Capitol some songs that only came out in US on singles appeared on LP in Great Britain first.

Sinatra's Capitol recordings of "White Christmas" and "I'm Walking Behind You" were on the LP "Look Over Your Shoulder" in England and not in US.

Yes, if one includes the Columbia stuff, some of the Japanese LP releases (CBS/Sony) like "Reflections" etc. also contained alternates, I think.

Bernhard.

[MMM]

I'm a little confused - the Japan issue LP of Reflections has (some) different takes compared to the US version of that album?

[JamesDeFrances]

Was "Reflections" an actual album? Or just a collection of 78rpm singles?

[MMM]

It was a 12" LP compilation from Columbia, from 1960 IIRC.

[Ronald Sarbo]

Martin: It is same as US Lp. Here what is meant is that a take issued on the Lp such as "Body And Soul" is a different take than what was issued on 78 or EP or 10 inch Lp.

Happy Holidays to you and your family and extend same to Chuck for me.

Best, Ron.

[MMM]

Thanks Ron. Hope you had a great holiday as well.

[Mark Blackburn]

My father is a friend of Robert Farnon and got a Christmas note confirming that "The King of Strings" as Quincy Jones calls Bob (in his recent biography) is still alive and well.

Some nice fellow in Memphis posted a note at Amazon.com saying my review of this great album "should be included with the liner notes" -- and it reminded me that Bernhard had made a minor correction (about dates) when I posted my review here (first) a couple years ago.

Thanks to Rick in Sidney for keeping this folder alive and well too! Keep up the good work in 2005 Rick!

-----

"Emotion Recollected in Tranquillity" (five stars)

All the world's great arrangers---most of whom got to work with Frank Sinatra (the rest wish they had)---are (or were) American. With one exception: Canadian-born Robert Farnon. At last report, Bob was still alive and well, and living at "La Falaise" on the Channel Island of Guernsey (a letter with only that address can reach him). Now 85, he still makes the occasional foray into London to do what he's always done best.

Andre Previn, told the late, great lyricist Johnny Mercer that "Robert Farnon is the greatest living string arranger in the world." The great ones who admit to Farnon's influence have included Nelson Riddle, Don Costa, Quincy Jones, Neil Hefti, Torrie Zito and Johnny Mandel (just to name the best who worked with Frank Sinatra), plus, (among those who didn't, but wished they had) Henry Mancini, Roger Kellaway, and John ("Star Wars") Williams.

Great popular singers who share that opinion, include Sarah Vaughn and Tony Bennett. The list of musicians who feel the same way is too long, but start with pianists Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson and George Shearing.

Sinatra's voice on "Great Songs from Great Britain" may be functioning at only 80 per cent (my estimate) but it's still better than on some of his some later recordings, and no worse than on his roughest days at Capitol in the 50s. Listen again to the Billy May "Come Fly With Me" CD and the lone Nelson Riddle arranged song Cole Porter's "I Love Paris. "Sure, it's "rough" (was Frank up all night?) but still, you love it, right? Same with this CD: Precisely because he's the greatest interpreter of popular song, Sinatra makes adjustments to his delivery, transforming weaknesses into strengths before your very ears. Fascinating!

So why wasn't this album released in America prior to year 1993? Having read all speculations here and elsewhere, I think the critics are simply uninformed. Because the singer has left true fans some `between-the-lines' clues to how much he loved these recordings.

Let's begin with the speculation that Sinatra had `second thoughts' about what his American fans might make of the material----obscure, almost quaint, English songs, some dating to the First World War, which have Sinatra "gathering lilacs" or keeping a stiff upper lip "until we meet again" i.e. songs that might not survive a trans-Atlantic crossing, let alone achieve posterity.

Well that ignores some important facts: Sinatra selected all these songs himself, in advance of his world tour (30 stops, the last in London, in aid of children's charities). Don Costa---Farnon's biggest booster in America (and the most heavily-influenced of his protégés) invested a lot of time, as Sinatra's `middle man,' cabling between LA and Farnon's island home, to ensure this recording `happened.' (In the end, Costa couldn't be there; but Nelson Riddle made it to one session at London's "CTS Bayswater" studios).

The singer's only objection was uttered as he sipped some "JD" and listened to the playback of "Roses of Picardy" (now considered by some critics to be the loveliest `rose' of the bunch). Sinatra said: "Scrub `Roses of Picardy'---I don't like it" (meaning, he didn't feel he'd done it justice). So "Roses" was not included on the original LP, released only in Britain).

The suggestion that Sinatra was in any way "embarrassed" by these recordings, is belied by his personal selection of "If I Had You" for inclusion among his 19, all-time favorite recordings, preserved on the 1996 compilation "Everything Happens to Me" (please see my review for that one). The singer himself approved the inclusion of two others, "Garden in the Rain" and "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" for the 4-CD Reprise box set. And the latest Sinatra compilations ("Romance" and "Love Songs") include this version of Ray Noble's classic, "The Very Thought of You."

Enjoy great liner notes? There's none better written for any Sinatra release: You get literate musician Benny Green's original, 1962 notes, plus American James Isaacs' superb, 1992 supplements, closing with thoughts about Sinatra's achievement on "If I Had You."

"If Sinatra's wistful, daydreamy first (take) in 1947 was truly in the subjunctive (IF I had you,) and if his cocky medium-bounce Riddle-arranged '56 take might be dubbed "I can have you," then this rendering, with its brandy-by-the-fireside feel and older-but-wiser protagonist, is more like "If I'd HAD you." Notwithstanding a lyric that's far more Tin Pan Alley than Tintern Abbey, Sinatra's (and Farnon's) conception is, to borrow from Wordsworth, "emotion recollected in tranquility."

[DOUGofOHIO]

Good back to winter evening from The American Midwest-USA:

Wonderful comments...thank you so much....

I have to hear these songs because I love their era...One of my favorites is THE GYPSY...but, really, to me they are all great.. I'll never forget when I found this CD in Columbus, OHIO-USA and played it for my friends,,they all loved it..

Wow!! Those arrangements, the wonderful music....just perfect for me.....I wish they'd play it on the radio every day...

***So why wasn't this album released in America prior to year 1993? Having read all speculations here and elsewhere, I think the critics are simply uninformed. Because the singer has left true fans some `between-the-lines' clues to how much he loved these recordings.****

Yet I'm not too sure about your view, Mark. Sinatra's firm decision to not release this album anywhere outside U.K. is well documented, and not speculation.

Alas, he allowed further European releases in 1965.

Sinatra had some kind of "perfect ear", also and especially for his own recordings. He 'knew' that is was, *vocally*, an album that didn't match his 1962 standards, he knew he could have sung all selections much better *vocally*. And he was right (listen to the struggle especially on "If I Had You", which he had recorded and sung many times before!)

Yet, still, at least from today's point of view, he was also *wrong*, since he had brought several new sounds & approaches to the package that didn't resemble anything else he had done before. There's nothing 'anti-FS' in stating the fact that Sinatra, as particular as he was with his recordings, also was in error occasionally. While, to stress that again, his main point when rejecting GSFGB for wide-spread-release in 1962 was his vocal status, and there he was right (measured by what FS was capable to do vocally in 1962). Perhaps he just underestimated that people would not that much care for 100% vocal form as he thought - the fact that this album today (and rightfully) claims its place among his finest shows it: It's rated fine for the song material and the arrangements (not for the vocal performance overall). Robert Farnon gets much of that credit, for sure.

Bernhard.

[Ronald Sarbo]

Although released in other countries I believe the album was meant as a thank you to his British fans for their loyalty during a period when his American fans seemed to have deserted him.

[Mark Blackburn]

Loved reading these comments from old friends here -- Doug, Bernhard and Ron. And I'll bet we can all agree it's a pity that Frank and Bob didn't get together on more albums. Robert Farnon had two brothers who were lesser known arrangers residing in the United States: Dennis, who arranged my favorite Chet Atkins album ("In Hollywood" -- and who was living in Holland in recent years) and Brian who was for a time Nat Cole's musical director.

As our resident experts, Berhard and Ron are aware, Frank admired Robert Farnon since meeting Bob when he was 'just' a trumpeter with fellow Canadian Percy Faith's orchestra 60 years ago. Frank was impressed with Bob as a trumpeter and was in good company. Dizzy Gillespie heard Robert Farnon solo in a club in Toronto and declared "Bob can find notes and chords other trumpters can't!"

Yes, imagine if Robert Farnon had spent as much time in Hollywood as his brother Dennis; there might have been at least one other "Sinatra & Strings" album! We wise men can agree there are dozens of 'should-have-been-standards' that Frank and Bob could have rescued from obscurity. I'm sure we could have suggested/requested a few good ones, couldn't we?

Ah, what might have been.

Yes, a sequel by another Sinatra-Robert Farnon album would for sure have been something. Maybe again with the help of Nelson Riddle (who actually advised some of the 1962 charts to be adjusted to Frank's key a bit better before the June sessions at Bayswater). Farnon's grand imaginery in his string arranging surely was a beautiful counterpart to Sinatra's singing.

At least, Sinatra did perform in concert with the Brian Farnon Orchestra a few times later on casino dates (in February 1975 and March 1976 at Harrah's in Lake Tahore, and in September 1976 at Caesars Palace in Vegas), to quite beautiful results.

Bernhard.

Bumping up this thread for the sad occasion of Robert Farnon, Sinatra's arranger-conductor for this album, having passed away today (Saturday April 23, 2005) at age 87.

How about playing this album tonight as a tribute - Farnon created some really beautiful backgrounds for The Voice on this package.

More info and links here:
http://www.sinatrafamily.com/forum/s...threadid=19920

Thanks for the music, Mr Farnon, and sleep warm.

Bernhard.