The Ultimate Rat Pack Collection

Product Description:

Full performer name: Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin/Sammy Davis Jr.

This release includes a bonus DVD.

Personnel includes: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. (vocals).

Producers: Robert Finkelstein, Charles Pignone, Elliot Mazer.

Recorded live at The Villa Venice Night Club, Chicago, Illinois between November 26 & December 2, 1962. Includes liner notes by Bill Zehme.

In 2001, THE RAT PACK LIVE AT THE SANDS was released, a live album from the early 1960s capturing the onstage antics of notorious cohorts Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dean Martin. Two years later, THE ULTIMATE RAT PACK COLLECTION picks up where its predecessor left off. Disc One features a different live recording from the same era, capturing the trio in all their martini-swilling glory. The second disc is a DVD of another performance from a few years later. Even though the video finds the Rat Pack nearing the end of its tether in 1965, the chemistry and onstage dynamism is just as remarkable.

Both discs feature the three singers performing both alone and together, and engaging in plenty of clowning around with each other. The DVD is heavier on classic Sinatra tunes, but the first disc has even more Dean-and-Frank schtick. That said, the footage of Sammy running through "One for My Baby" in the styles of about a dozen different singers is an uproarious moment, and to see the three men in action together is to truly understand the nature of both their artistic powers and their personal appeal.