Softly As I Leave You – FRANK SINATRA***

Emily/Here’s To The Losers/Dear Heart/Come Blow Your Horn/Love Isn’t Just For The Young/I Can’t Believe I’m Losing You/Pass Me By/Softly As I Leave You/Then Suddenly Love/Available/Talk To Me Baby/The Look Of Love

On Softly As I Reach You Frank Sinatra tries to get with it and fails. Artists should stick to what they do best and ignore modish attempts to try and update their musical style. (US:19 UK:20)

"This album was Sinatra's first tentative attempt to come to terms with rock & roll. Arranged by Ernie Freeman Softly As I Leave You, Then Suddenly Love and Available are definitely stabs at incorporating rock & roll into Sinatra's middle-of-the-road pop, featuring drum kits, backing vocals and keyboards. The rest of the album is pieced together from leftovers from various early '60s sessions, from many different arrangers and conductors, giving the album a rather uneven finish."

"The '60s were the beginning of the end for jazz-infused popular music. Softly As I Leave You finds Sinatra looking for material worthy of his vocal talents and commercially viable. Here he succeeds on the second count, but only occasionally on the first. Five stars for the vocals, two stars for the songs."

"The title track is moving, even with the obligatory '60s choir in the background. Sinatra explores his somewhat deepened register, with none of the coarseness that would alter his sound later in the decade, and the result is seamless and powerful. He sounds engaged in the song."

"I will never understand how an album that proclaims to bring us Sinatra singing about 'everything there is to know about love' would sink to this kitsch."

"Not an easy review to write, because the best popular albums ever made have Sinatra written all over them. The Reprise era was uneven and the present album - even with a few high points - shows the wheels coming off the exquisite taste and excellence of the Sinatra legend. Recommended for serious Sinatra fans only."

"This album is a classic example of the more commercial sound created for Frank by producer Sonny Burke in the sixties. This is truly a solid and underrated effort. It is very listenable with the exception of Pass Me By. A must buy for any Sinatra collector."