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My Way - The Best Of Frank Sinatra – Frank Sinatra



Year Released: 1997

Label: Reprise

Year Bought: 1999

It is a truth universally acknowledged that being a 14-year-old isn't easy. I decided to make it more difficult for myself by not only being one of only three kids in school to learn the trumpet, but by shunning most musical touchstones of the time in favour of older music. And it doesn't get more of a throwback than Sinatra.

This was 1999, so before Robbie Williams made his 'Swing When Your Winning' album and TV talent shows were stacked with kids doing Dean Martin impressions. I felt like an outlier. Indeed, I remember borrowing the money from a friend I was with in town the day I got this record, and when I gave her the money back she muttered to herself "I can't believe I lent someone money to buy a Frank Sinatra album."

Anyway, I loved this CD. Well, the first CD of the set.

The first disc is just stacked with classics. It kicks off with funeral favourite 'My Way', then goes on to 'Strangers In The Night' and then wedding party constant 'Theme From New York, New York'. 

You know all them, but as the disc goes on there's just banger after banger, all sung and played brilliantly.

There's a run of songs that are just phenomenal: 

My Kind Of Town

Fly Me To The Moon

I've Got You Under My Skin

The Best Is Yet To Come

It Was A Very Good Year

Come Fly With Me

Seriously, these are all fantastic. My favourite is 'I've Got You Under My Skin'. It builds up slowly, then you get this great brass solo and the whole band speeds up a bit and then Frank comes back in and the song builds and builds and then he truly unleashes that glorious voice as he battles against the trumpets and you don't even realise how loud it is until it all drops out. Stupendous. 

Other highlights on the record include a raucous live version of 'The Lady Is A Tramp' taken from a 1974 Madison Square Garden concert and a swinging 'What Now My Love'.

There's only two real missteps. Sinatra's version of 'Moon River' doesn't really land. The song needs lightness, but Old Blue Eyes delivers it with a punch. The final track on the CD, 'LA is my Lady', is god-awful. Don't ever mix Sinatra and synths

CD2, however, is pretty uninspiring. While it kicks off with a rousing version of 'Let's Face The Music And Dance', there's then a run of ballads which are very crooner-by-numbers. 

This side also shows Sinatra at his worst (besides that awful dalliance with synths). His interpretations of 'Yesterday' and 'Something' by The Beatles are forgettable, as are versions of Simon & Garfunkel's 'Mrs Robinson' and Stevie Wonder's 'You Are The Sunshine Of My Life'.

The best on CD2 is his interpretation of Sondheim's 'Send In The Clowns'. Sinatra nails it perfectly, bringing pathos and self-reflection to the song. Regrets? He's clearly had more than a few.

Other tracks worth checking out on CD2 are 'Bewitched' – where Sinatra lets rip that gorgeous baritone of his – 'In the Wee Small Hours Of The Morning', which is pure whiskey-in-a-glass at 2am, and 'Three Coins In The Fountain'.

This album - particularly CD1 - meant so much to me growing up. Musicality, romance, emotion. Listening back as I near 40, I not only get the same feelings from it as when I was a teenager, but new ones as well. How can 'It Was A Very Good Year' not provide a whole new resonance now I'm passed 35? 

Accept no imitations. 

8/10

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