Capitol Years

Product Description:

Capitol Records, the label for which Sinatra recorded many of his greatest albums in the 1950's, commemorates the singer's 75th birthday with this 3-disc set. Of the 75 chronologically-arranged tracks, about half appear on CD for the first time. The set includes a 36-page booklet with full color photos. Reprise, the label which Sinatra founded in 1960 and still records for, has also released a 4-disc box set anthology.

In millennia to come, if evidence is required to substantiate the claim that Frank Sinatra was the finest singer of the 20th century, the three-disc CAPITOL YEARS set should settle the case. For the countless listeners to whom Sinatra spoke so eloquently, he was confidante, drinking buddy, philosopher, confessor, therapist, and more, as both his voice and his interpretive artistry reached their full maturation during his mid-1950s-to-early-'60s tenure at Capitol Records.

It's almost difficult to believe that the man voicing the assured elan of "I've Got the World on a String" is the same harried soul who takes himself to task in the haunting welcome-to-my-nightmare ballad "I'm a Fool to Want You." Nevertheless, both the sensual intimations of "Embraceable You" and the sassy invitation of "Come Dance with Me" are equally powerful, not least on account of the growing simpatico of the arrangements, courtesy of giants such as Billy May and Nelson Riddle. As overwhelming as the artistic heft of THE CAPITOL YEARS box may be, the fact that many of these tracks are previously unreleased alternate takes makes Sinatra's gift seem just that much more sui generis.