Greatest Hits – FRANK SINATRA****

Strangers In The Night/Summer Wind/It Was A Very Good Year/Somewhere In Your Heart/Forget Domani/ Somethin’ Stupid/That’s Life/Tell Her(You Love Her Each Day)/The World We Knew/When Somebody Loves You/This Town/Softly As I Leave You

Few Sinatra fans would consider this to be a genuine greatest hits package as it confines itself to his more commercial releases from the mid 1960s, when he was struggling to come to terms with the changing music scene. (US:55 UK:8)

"Appropriately, it begins with his biggest solo hit of the '60s, Strangers In The Night, and then vacillates between adult contemporary pop songs and ballads. Much of the production sounds dated, with its guitars, reverb, and arrangements bearing all the hallmarks of '60s pop. While some of the songs rank among Sinatra's finest moments, particularly Summer Wind and It Was A Very Good Year, most of the songs here are guilty pleasures. They might not have the emotional resonance of his finest ballad and swing albums, but fluff like the Nancy Sinatra duet Somethin' Stupid, the fuzz guitar-tinged The World We Knew and the bluesy This Town are enjoyable as pop singles."

"Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits isn't a good introduction to his music, as it isn't even a representative chronicle of his '60s Reprise recordings. Instead it's a fun and effective portrait of Sinatra as he was in the late '60s, illustrating how he was struggling to come to terms with contemporary pop music."

"Sinatra as usual is superb, the songs are classics and just pure beauty, and very entertaining."

"These are songs that hit the pop charts and are not necessarily his best songs. Some are classic Sinatra, but there are also some you might have never heard before. These are not bad songs, yet are certainly not indicative of his best work."

"You just cannot beat Frank Sinatra for the overall music experience. He is truly timeless. This has some of his best and is a good start for a Sinatra collection."

"It would have been less misleading had they said 'Greatest Hits at Reprise from 1964 to 1967' because that is more or less what you're getting. Sinatra embracing the new aesthetic of the 1960s, or at least as much of it as he could. Worth buying for the over-the-top, over-dramatic stabs Sinatra did make at commerciality here."