THIS WAS A BIRTHDAY GIFT FOR MY 91 YEAR OLD DAD.
WHAT ELSE CAN I SAY?

Look at that mug! Is that the face that launched a thousand hot rods and toppled the towers of Vegas?

Don't mind me, folks. I'm the guy who gave negative reviews to the Da Vinci Code, Glen Gould, 300, and the King James Bible. I'm either a kneejerk liberal or a rabid right-winger, depending on which you execrate most. But the proof of what a whacko I must be is that I can't stand Frank Sinatra. I have been known to drop milk bottles and rush out of supermarkets when the oily sound of his voice comes over the speakers. I once grabbed a casette of Sinatra out of the hands of the captain of a Portuguese freighter sailing from Newark to Lisbon, and tossed the accursed thing into the Atlantic. The captain literally had the power to make me walk the plank, but he'd played Frankie three times in a row! There are limits!

Sinatra could sing in tune most of the time, which put him a step closer to music than Tony Bennett, but whoever got the notion of calling him a jazz singer? Where's the jazz phrasing? Where are the blues, the soul, the deep dregs of life? You wanna hear jazz singing, listen to Chet Baker or Billie Holliday, or even Mel Torme! Sinatra was a pop singer, and no number of Playboy subscribers could vote him into jazz.

So if he wasn't a singer, what was he? An image. A vicarious trip into arrogant nastiness. The bad boy someone's mama was afraid she'd be attracted to. Lord, if You promise me that there'll be no Sinatra on the sound systems of Heaven, I'll reform my agnostic ways and rejoin my church choir.

Now let's see how many "unhelpful" votes one review can get in a day.

I love this cd but my husband would rather it had a few more hit songs.

Growing up as a young boy in my parents house I was bombarded with a variety of music in my youth. My mother would be ripped after drinking Hamm's beer with my uncle Terry all day (My dad made good money. I mean she couldn't buy better beer?).... My elementary school teachers are still probably wondering why I was so dang tired all the time. You try sleeping through Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger blasting unto the wee hours of the morning at seven years old and I bet you would try to catch some shut eye too. Needless to say Frank Sinatra was one (one of many) artists my mom would play.

I picked up this CD as a casual listener of Sinatra, and as an attempt to bring back some old memories (one of which is sleep deprivation, I am going to be a dad for the first time so it's appropriate practice right?). I love every song on this CD. I don't think you can get a better Sinatra compilation without making it a two to three CD set. Almost all the songs I really wanted are on this. Having said that Frank has SO MANY great songs he's performed, and there is absolutely NO WAY you could limit even a portion of his career to twenty songs. That's why I can only give this CD 4 stars in good faith. It's a great compilation, but it is still a compilation. As I've said this is an artist that's performed so many great songs; not even the best compilation could span a portion of his career and give it justice. Even so, I loved hearing: Young at Heart, My Funny Valentine, and Come Fly With Me.... Not a bad grouping of songs on this one.... Plus a few old memories just for the sake of it...

Bottom Line: a solid effort to put together a compilation from an artist that can't be done proper justice from a 20 song compilation. Solid 4 stars...

oh this is good!what it must have been like to have been able to see him live during this time.thank god that we have the magic of recording . this guy is timeless.the songs are the kind that take you in and give you a nice ride.i play this disc often and am never disappointed ,it always lightens my mood and i am always pleased that i chose to play it.if you don't have any frank sinatra music,i recommend that you get this one.i'm sure that there are many others,but for now this one is the one.