Reading through the other reviews, there is nothing much I can add to the superlatives directed at this compilation of the work, at Columbia Records, of a man who can arguably be described as the greatest vocalist of the 20th Century. However, I notice too that the only two 3-star reviews to date have drawn a disproportionate number of negative votes, almost as if it's regarded as sacrilege by some to even dare cast a negative light on any compilation of Frank Sinatra songs. Well, I can see their point to some degree.

A large part of my 5-star assessment relates to the near-flawless sound quality and the packaging, 4 discs contained in a book-like 5.5 x 10 inch case which also presents a 68-page booklet divided as follows: Introduction by Nancy Sinatra; At the Heart Of American Music by Daniel Okrent; The Essence Of Axel - An appreciation by Will Friedwald; Sinatra Standards by Roy Hemming; The Art Of Recording by Charles Granata; Sinatra In Transition by Will Friedwald; Frankly Speaking - personal recollections by Dave Mann and Matt Dennis; Here's To The Band - Orchestral personnel listing - New York and Hollywood; Alphabetical Song Title and CD location; Discography. Sprinkled throughout are some 78 rpm/vintage poster and advertisement reproductions and many candid photographs, including one delightful shot with a very young Nancy.

As to the music contained herein, well, they do call it The Best Of The Columbia Years 1943-1952 after all, and when a collector like myself sees the term "best" - especially from that pre-LP era - they are thinking those songs that became national hits, since that was the whole idea behind popular 78 rpm releases, i.e., "sell as many as we can and get as much air and jukebox play as we can."

And since, in the 1943 to 1952 period, Ol' Blue Eyes registered some 87 hits for Columbia, one might think that a 97-track box set so-titled would contain most, if not all, of those hits. But when you look closely you find that just 39 of those charted songs are here!

Now, I can readily understand the producers selecting items that, while never actually hits for Frank, or perhaps were among his more modest chart entries, are nevertheless regarded as among his finest performances at Columbia, Standards such as April In Paris, Body And Soul, Always and She's Funny That Way (none of which charted), and I've Got A Crush On You (# 21), All Of Me (# 21), Autumn In New York (# 27), and The Birth Of The Blues (# 19 in late 1952 and his last Columbia hit), all of which were modest entries at the time.

But it's definitely misleading to some to have just 42% of the contents legitimate hits in an album titled "The Best Of." Especially when no less than 14 TOP 10 hits were omitted: All Or Nothing At All (# 1 in 1943 with Harry James); You'll Never Know (# 2 in 1943 and the A-side of a record that included Close To You, a # 10 that IS included here); Sunday, Monday Or Always (# 9 in 1943); I Couldn't Sleep A Wink Last Night (# 4 in 1944); You'll Never Walk Alone (# 9 in 1945); Don't Forget Tonight Tomorrow (# 9 in 1945); All Through The Day (# 7 in 1946); The Coffee Song (# 6 in 1946); That's How Much I Love You (# 10 in 1947); I Believe (# 5 in 1947 as the A-side to Time After Time, a # 16 which IS included); So Far (# 8 in 1947); The Hucklebuck (# 19 in 1949); Goodnight Irene (# 5 in 1950); One Finger Melody (# 9 in 1950); and Castle Rock (# 8 in 1951).

What I would dearly love to see is a follow-up volume in the exact same format containing those and other missing hit singles. In the meantime, if you just enjoy the music of this legend, regardless of the title, you will definitely NOT be disappointed. It's a gem in that regard.

Frank Sinatra, son of a fireman, dropped out of high school as a senior to pursue a career in music. At 20, Frank Sinatra started out singing with the Hoboken Four, then as a singing waiter, but had his eye on bigger fish. In 1939 he signed with trumpeter and bandleader Harry James (The Complete Recordings Nineteen Thirty-Nine). The next year, he left to join Tommy Dorsey's band as vocalist (The Song Is You), until he set out for a solo career with Columbia Records in 1943. These early years were previously available on the excellent (and now-out-of-print) box set The Song Is You and the single CD reissue of The Complete Harry James and Frank Sinatra. However, a new Sony box set, A Voice in Time: 1939-1952, combines this pre-Columbia Brunswick material with Sinatra's Columbia gems and airchecks. If you're looking for a more complete portrait of early Frank, you're better off buying the new A Voice In Time release.

The Columbia Years, 1943-1952

Frank signed with Columbia in 1943, although the groundwork had already been laid for his first solo album The Voice of Frank Sinatra with several Cole Porter recordings in 1942 (arranged by Axel Stordahl). Throughout the mid-1940s, Sinatra appeared in numerous films and radio series. The Best of the Columbia Years conveniently lists songs by the film that they appeared in; nearly all of the Great American Songbook composers make appearances, including Gershwin, Berlin, Rogers and Hammerstein, Porter, Kern, Arlen, and Mercer.

By the early 1950s, Sinatra was increasingly at odds with Columbia head Mitch Miller, who relied on having his stars record silly novelty songs to boost ratings. Miller was also in favor of overdubbing, where the technically exacting Sinatra preferred recording with a live band and backup singers. Miller's demands that Sinatra record the truly awful "Mama Will Bark" (thankfully omitted here), and his perception that Sinatra was already a washed-up teen idol, led to Sinatra's switch to Capitol Records in 1953, where he had the last laugh on Miller (and the rest is music history).

The original Frank Sinatra: The Columbia Years: The Complete Recordings was a massive twelve-CD, 285-track epic collection of Frank's entire Columbia catalog (hideous novelties included). This four-CD, 97-track distillation offers the highlights, including many memorable original recordings (as opposed to later Capitol and Reprise rerecordings) of seminal American Songbook classics such as Night and Day, All of Me, You Do Something To Me, Where or When, How Deep is the Ocean, etc.

Packaging

The Best of the Columbia Years comes in at least two versions: a longbox, and a more compact, traditional four-CD set in a slipcase. I own the longbox version. Two CDs are stored vertically on the front and back plates, and the nearly 70 pages of liner notes are full of rare photographs of Frank and family, essays by Sinatra expert Will Friedwald, orchestra personnel listings, alphabetical song listings, and a discography.

It's clear that this was a labor of love, and it is a collection to be treasured, especially since the original Complete Columbia Recordings has been out of print for several years. The sound quality is impeccable, the songs themselves are a reflection on a simpler time long past, and the liner notes are full of personal recollections and trivia. Buy this while you still can; it's worth twice as much!

"Frank Sinatra was like the Mount Everest for a songwriter: if you got Frank to do one of your songs, it was done right." ~ Antonio Carlos Jobim ~

This is *the* most comprehensive CD package I've ever came across in all Sinatra recordings. It's a 4-CD set consisting of his best recordings from Columbia Records from 1943 thru 1952, which includes ninety-seven songs, most are rare recordings and some alternate takes. With the package is a very detailed and informative booklet of 76 pages that documents Frank Sinatra's fruitful tenure at Columbia Records. The introduction was written by his celebrated daughter, Nancy Sinatra, who singled out the most outstanding quality of her father, his honesty - "honesty that comes through in the lyrics, in the music, in everything that he does. It's that feeling that enables him to take for example, a Sammy Cahn lyric - with Sammy's deepest, most profound feelings - and make it understood by everybody. That's the mark of a great communicator, and not many people are able to do that sort of thing in the honest way he does!"

The booklet offers a chock-full of goodies such as photos of Sinatra with some of the musicians involved in these recordings -- mini photos of music sheets, album covers and single records; photos of songwriters Irving Berlin, Jonny Mercer, Rodgers & Hart, George & Ira Gershwin, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn; alphabetical song titles and CD location listing; a discography; a complete orchestra personnel listing in New York and Hollywood studios; brief information on arrangers Heinie Beau, Sy Oliver, Ray Conniff and Percy Faith; and the following interesting articles.

1. At The Heart of American Music by Daniel Okrent, Managing Editor of Life Magazine
2. The Essence of Axel by Will Friedwald, Author
3. Sinatra Standards by Roy Hemming, Classic Pop Historian
4. The Art of Recording by Charles Granata, Author, Sinatra Historian and Archivist
5. Sinatra In Transition - an appreciation by Will Friedwald, Author
6. Frankly Speaking - interviews and personal recollections by Dave Mann and Matt Dennis, Composers

One thing I admire about Frank Sinatra besides his many musical virtues was his deep sense of gratitude, he always gave credit when it's due especially to people whom he had worked with. And these are his thoughts: "I consider myself among the luckiest people in the world to have been able to make a career out of what I love to do - interpret wonderful music." It's a common knowledge that Sinatra's bright career started at Columbia and he declared that it was a "rare opportunity and a treasured gift having the opportunity to immerse himself in the talents of people like Axel Stordahl, the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Alec Wilder and Nat King Cole" while he was at Columbia Records. In addition, his pianist Stan Freeman commented that he only remembers Sinatra as "being very aware of what he wanted, and getting it! If he thought a flute or oboe part should be left out on one session, he would say so. He didn't have to take charge, but nominally he was in charge - and everybody knew that. He was always very pleasant, never any tantrums or anything."

Listening to these CDs gives me a touch of nostalgia that takes me back in time when I was growing up and constantly hearing these same songs played repeatedly by my late parents. These are the original recordings and I guess Sinatra's renditions are more subdued and reserved as opposed to the second or even third recordings. In my opinion, there is that element of restraint in the way he interpreted them as compared to his passionate performances in the succeeding years from 1953 thru the last years of his recording career. But don't get me wrong, I still consider these CDs five-star materials. They are truly remarkable and the songs that stand out and the most wonderful from this set are as follow.

Disc 1
"Close To You," "If You Are But A Dream," "Stormy Weather," "Embraceable You," "Where Or When," "All The Things You Are," "Dream," "If I Loved You," "Someone To Watch Over Me," "You Go To My Head," "These Foolish Things," "Day By Day," "Put Your Dreams Away" and "I Should Care."

Disc 2
"Always," "Mam'selle," "Time After Time," "Try A Little Tenderness," "Full Moon And Empty Arms," "Begin The Beguine," "They Say It's Wonderful," "That Old Black Magic," "Five Minutes More," "The Things We Did Last Summer" and "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry."

Disc 3
"My Romance," "If I Had You," "Stella By Starlight," "But Beautiful," "All Of Me," "Night And Day," "The Song Is You," "S'posin'," "What'll I Do?," "Fools Rush In," "I've Got A Crush On You," "It All Depends On You" and "Some Enchanted Evening."

Disc 4
"You Do Something To Me," "When You're Smiling," "Nevertheless," "The Birth of the Blues," "Should I Reveal?" and "I Could Write A Book."

This is Axel Stordahl's greatest contribution to Sinatra's rise to stardom. He was called the "Father of Modern Vocal Orchestrations" for his exceptional arrangements on most of the tracks. Nelson Riddle once said that Stordahl was his favorite arranger/conductor. He was Sinatra's very first conductor and musical director. He was described by Will Friedwald as "the man who helped popular music's greatest vocalist lay the foundation for his entire career."

I agree with another great Sinatra arranger who was also very impressed with the works of Stordahl, Don Costa, when he said; "Nobody wrote ballads as pretty as he did until many years later when Nelson Riddle came along. I think he was really the "Daddy" that people began to learn from in the sense of writing orchestrations. He was really the most prolific of his time."

Here's to the magic of wonderful music courtesy of Sinatra and his great orchestrators/arrangers in these recordings: Axel Stordahl, Sy Oliver, Heinie Beau, Ray Conniff, Norman Leyden, Mitch Miller, George Siravo, Alec Wilder, Jeff Alexander, John Guarnieri and Percy Faith. And not to mention the special contributions of his guest musicians: Nat King Cole (piano "Sweet Lorraine"), Johnny Hodges (alto sax "Sweet Lorraine"), Coleman Hawkins (tenor sax "Sweet Lorraine"), Dinah Shore (duet "My Romance"), Felix Slatkin (violin "Always") and Ray Charles Singers ("I'm A Fool To Want You").

The songs in these CDs are the very same songs that launched the bright career of the Chairman of the Board. These are the original recordings that speak of simple elegance and honest-to-goodness interpretations devoid of any technical tricks.

To any serious Sinatra collector, this is an essential add-on.

"I adore making records. I'd rather do that than almost anything else." ~ Frank Sinatra ~

As though to help his biographers, Frank Sinatra's musical career can be separated into clear-cut, chronological periods: the Tommy Dorsey years, the Columbia years, the Capitol years, and the Reprise years. These four CDs comprise the best of the Columbia Record years. The first is my favorite because of my familiarity with so many of the lyrics and songs, and the fourth segues nicely into the swinging and saucy style Sinatra adopted when he signed with Capitol Records (a sweet, nostalgic world-weariness alternating with a swinging, in-your-face sexiness, sometimes on the same record).
The maturing, confident Sinatra of the Columbia years in the '40s and early '50s reveals a resonant and deepening voice (compared to the Dorsey years) that combines with a gentleness and tenderness that had to appeal not only to bobby-soxers (whose younger sisters, seduced by early rock, would not find the Sinatra of the Capitol years ten years later anywhere as appealing) but also to their mothers and older sisters who, lonely keeping the home fires burning, were waiting for husbands and lovers to return from war. Anyone who remembers the '40s with anything approaching fondness will find memories forcefully stirred, and those who know those heady times only second- or third-hand will be equally stirred by a musical master whose style and command of the standards matched Bing and Perry's and perhaps, for strength and intimacy, even surpassed theirs.

In comparison to his Capitol and Reprise years, Frank Sinatra's tenure at his first label, Columbia, is unfairly forgotten about by most. And at first glance, it's easy to see why, as artistically, it's easily his weakest period. There's nothing on here as memorable or as artistically impressive as, say, "I've Got You Under My Skin", and Frank's voice had not yet matured into the rich, provocative instrument it would become, nor had be begun to work with arrangers as talented as Nelson Riddle or Don Costa (though Axl Strodahl more than holds his own).

That being said, the 97 tracks featured on "The Best Of The Columbia Years" are nothing to sneeze at. This is Frank in all his youthful glory. His voice isn't as resonant or raw as it on his later recordings, but his way of interpreting a song properly like no other past or present is in full bloom.

For the most part, the songs are on the slower side of things, which for me is excellent. To hear Frank's voice in such a youthful, intimate manner is simply a thrill. It makes songs like "Close To You", "If You Are But A Dream", "The Things We Did Last Summer" and many others sound all the more endearing and passionate. Of course, the album does swing in many instances, and those tracks work just as well.

Many of the songs here (such as, "Someone To Watch Over Me", "Put Your Dreams Away", "Nancy", "Where Or When", "Oh, What It Seemed To Be", "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry", "All Of Me", "Night And Day" and especially "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) were perfected at Frank's latter recording labels, without these, the excellent in their own right originals, as the foundation for those wonderful later renditions, it's unlikely those later versions would have been half as good (though I'm amazed at the striking difference between the lackluster 1947 version of "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)" and the masterful 1958 rendition, as they're almost two completely different songs).

The sound quality is fantastic despite some distant static, and the booklet and overall packaging are boh simply magnifcint. This a an absolute must have that all Sinatra fans should snatch up without hesitation.