The Frank Sinatra Juggernaut Rolls On With a 5 LP Box Set Focused On WW II Radio Era Live Performances and Beyond

remarkable A.I. sound restoration from glass, metal and shellac transcription acetates

The Frank Sinatra juggernaut rolls on. Last up was the In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning Tone Poet reissue, which generated a large buzz and for good reasons explained in Paul Seydor's scholarly review. Before that was IMPEX's Sing and Dance With Frank Sinatra. As with the latter, the glue that binds this Sing, Inc. set together is Sinatra authority Charles L. Granata's annotation. Most remarkable about all of this Sinatra interest is that it's not the result of a concerted marketing effort by the Sinatra estate nor is it being directed by any commercial entity. It just is.

(And weirdly I started writing this yesterday, which was December 12th, Frank Sinatra's birthday—and I didn't know it! It was also the day I wrote the Bennie Wallace review not knowing it had partly been recorded December 12th last year. And one more weird thing and I'm sorry for the review interruption: there was a story in The New York Times about a withdrawn Beatles bio called "The Compleat Beatles". McCartney didn't like it and bought it to squelch it. I found a copy online and bought it. Then I flew off to Los Angeles to M.C. the L.A and Orange County Society Gala and presented Sheryl Lee Wilson and Dave (posthumously) the Founders Award. I took the "redeye" home Sunday evening the 7th following the event and the DVD had arrived so I decided to watch it right away not realizing until later that December 8th was day John Lennon was assassinated (on that exact day I was having dinner with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Schriver and their hosts Chuck and Nancy [no not that Chuck and not that Nancy]. That's a story for another time!).

Someone else can explain from where this energy comes. I'm just here to tell you about this box, which has generated some controversy among Sinatra fans, mostly because they are unfamiliar with what's been done here by a company that self-describes itself as "... a blockchain IP tech company and rightsholder, selling music from major artists and catalogs as vinyl/digital hybrid releases to mass-market super-fans. We tokenize raw content into premium collectable SING Records™, unlocking revenue and consumer data as we lead the return to music ownership".

This is a 5 multi-colored LP box set containing much previously released public domain music culled from radio broadcasts (which is why the fans are outraged that the material is out yet again and costly), the exception being disc 5, "Christmas On the Air", which includes 12 previously unreleased mostly secular Christmas tunes plus one previously released song, "Going Home" based on a theme from Dvorak's "From the New World" symphony.

But before getting to the contents, here's what's key: the restoration engineer Harry Hess at H Bomb Mastering used A.I. to "de-stem" Sinatra's voice from the orchestral or combo backing, which allowed him to remix and greatly improve the balances that previously had Sinatra in places buried behind the instrumentation. Other modern noise removal tech removed noise without doing damage to the music.

I listened before reading about the mastering and all I kept saying to myself was "but they didn't have tape at this time so how were these tracks recorded? They sound so timbrally natural and the backgrounds so quiet". Though on a few of the later discs there was some background noise but even there, it was way in the background and had been deftly put there without muffling the musical content.

Charles Granata's opening annotation sets the scene, which is especially useful for younger listeners (if such exist for Sinatra of this era). Granata points out that few Sinatra live performances from the 1940s were recorded and many discs from that era that were, had been discarded. The source for much of the contents here are from the Armed Forces Radio Service, including Sinatra's two Hollywood Bowl performances and one from a 1945 Philadelphia Convention Center appearance where the Bobby Soxers behaved and screamed like Beatles fans did 20 years later. Think of that: 20 years separated Sinatra at the end of WWII and The Beatles. Twenty years ago back from now was 2005. Is time standing still?

The set opens with Sinatra at the Hollywood Bowl on Academy Night with the L.A. Philharmonic August 4th, 1945. He sings five tunes from Broadway and film, beginning with "Long Ago and Far Away". He's in magnificent, powerful voice and it's immediately obvious that the sound will not be scratchy and distant. Mr. Hess's deft EQ touch serves Sinatra's voice well throughout.

There are appearances at The U.S. Naval Training Station, in the Bronx, a War Bond Rally in Central Park (1943) a Waldorf-Astoria March of Dimes Fund Appeal (1944) with Axel Stordahl and his Orchestra, the aforementioned previously unreleased Philadelphia Convention Hall performance (3 tunes), a second Hollywood Bowl appearance with the L.A. Philharmonic (1948) and a third with the LA Phil from August 14, 1943, which is a set highlight and actually was Sinatra's first Bowl appearance (the set is not presented in chronological order) and the first non classical vocalist appearance at the Bowl, featuring "Ol' Man River" (with the original now "offensive" lyrics), "Night and Day", and other Sinatra classics including "All or Nothing at All" and "You'll Never Know" backed by full symphony orchestra.

Disc 4 includes an episode of the "Meet Frank Sinatra" CBS radio show, November 12, 1950, which featured live and recorded music as Sinatra has aspiration of being a disc jockey. The segment adds two previously unreleased Sinatra performances to the catalog: "Can't We Talk It Over" and "I'll Always Love You". Disc 4 side 2 is a January, 1951 Paramount Theater New York performance preserved by Radio France. Sinatra is backed by Joe Bushkin and his Orchestra featuring Dagmar and it includes live performances of George Siravo arrangements he'd recorded the previous year for Sing and Dance With Frank Sinatra. A year and a half later Sinatra exited Columbia. Soon thereafter he signed with Capitol and the rest we all know!

The 5th disc titled "Christmas On the Air" features mostly secular Christmas songs, (all but one previously unreleased) taken from various radio shows including "Your Hit Parade", "The Frank Sinatra Show" and "Light Up Time" on which with Dorothy Kirsten he sings the now considered a "rape song", "Baby It's Cold Outside". The talking intro is both funny and creepy! The rendition is uptempo and chipper even when Frank sings he's locked the front door and swallowed the key. Its innocence avoids the tone of some of the later more lascivious, suggestive versions. Four songs later Frank sings "All I Want for Christmas is my two front teeth". Must have been quite a night.

This is a set Sinatra fanatics will greatly appreciate for the annotation and how it ties together Sinatra's live performances during those years, for the unreleased material and especially for the warm, inviting sound quality that will make you feel as if you're living in that time sitting in front of a warm sounding "tubey", floor standing console radio listening to these broadcasts live, and not filtered through noisy, crackly transcription discs. It's quite remarkable.

As of now the set is available only directly from the SING website hyperlinked above, "not according to the company's choice" the publicist emailed me. Not sure why but will update this story when I find out.

There's also an expanded 22 track Christmas only CD that includes Granata annotation.