Thursday 28 November 2019

Sinatra & Company - FRANK SINATRA****

Drinking Water/Someone To Light Up My Life/Triste/Don't Ever Go Away/This Happy Madness/Wave/One Note Samba/I Will Drink The Wine/Close To You/Sunrise In The Morning/Bein' Green/My Sweet Lady/Leaving On A Jet Plane/Lady Day

Sinatra & Company was a hybrid album divided into two parts. The first was a revival of the collaboration with the bossa nova stylist Antonia Carlos Jobin. The less well received second side features the arrangements of Don Costa on some soft rock songs of the time. Includes the UK top twenty hit I Will Drink The Wine. (US:73 UK:9)

“Sinatra's voice is in top form and the arrangements are beautiful. Wave stands out as one of his all time best performances. As for the Don Costa arrangements that make up the second half, they could have been better. They are too mixed up and disturb the easy flow of Jobim's bossa nova.”

“The main attraction to this album is that the first seven cuts are the unreleased sequel to the earlier Jobim sessions. The other side consists of the usual Sinatra style songs with some odd tunes like Sunrise In The Morning, but the gem is his remake of Lady Day.”

“The side with Antonia Carlos Jobim is worth five stars, but not other side, although I Will Drink The Wine is a fine track. This album would have been really good if both sides were with Jobim.”

“In fact, it is like two EPs on one album. One is a spin-off of the earlier Jobim album, produced by Sonny Burke with really wonderful songs like Drinking Water and Wave, to name only those I love above all. The other is produced and arranged by Don Costa, with pop songs of the time, sung the Sinatra way.”

“There is bossa nova on side one, pop on side two. Responsible for the arrangements on the first is Deodato, who brings a lot of flavour to the sessions, with Don Costa for the second. Sinatra sounds as if he walks to the mike, gives it one try, sings and then walks away, and it's quite likely that's the way how the songs were recorded. It's side one which makes this release Sinatra's finest from the 70s.”

“As good as the previous album with Jobim was, these seven songs are even better. Unfortunately, Sinatra grafted some mediocre early 1970s soft rock tunes onto the second half. I Will Drink The Wine is not bad, but most of the rest are woeful. Sinatra sounds disinterested, and it's not surprising he 'retired' shortly afterwards.”

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