Frank talk: `Frank'ophiles may want to buy the new Sinatra collection, but the six-CD box isn't for the casual fan

Insight on the News, July 22, 2002 by Dick Heller

Frank Sinatra may be the greatest singer of popular songs this nation has produced. His voice, his interpretations, his ability to capture nearly every human emotion in his music--these are rare and beautiful qualities whose effect has not been diminished by his death in May 1998.

But it is important to know that Sinatra, like any artist, turned out his share of dreck. As an unabashed admirer of his music, I would like to be able to say I love the new six-CD box set Sinatra in Hollywood (Rhino Records, $119) and that it's worth every penny. But I can't.

When Sinatra was in the studio recording for Columbia, Capitol or Reprise, he would do a song countless times, if necessary, to get it right. This painstaking procedure resulted in perhaps 20 of the finest thematic albums in creation, from the wildly uninhibited Come Dance With Me to the agonizingly sorrowful Only the Lonely.

On-screen, however, Sinatra was known as "Charlie One-Take" for his often careless method of working. From 1940 to 1964, when he was making films, he always seemed to have something else to do, somewhere else to go, somebody else to see. Hollywood reflects this approach, as well as the fact that he often was forced to do mediocre material before he became "chairman of the board" and called his own shots.

Because Sinatra never sang a tune exactly the same way twice, collectors may be interested in owning the film versions of some well-known takes. And there are "new" songs, previously unavailable, including "The Last Call for Love" from Ship Ahoy, "We're on Our Way" from the [lamentable] Kissing Bandit and "Boys and Girls Like You and Me" from Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Sinatra's rendition of "Ol' Man River" from `Til the Clouds Roll By is his best version of this American classic, and much more moving without the lily-white suit the filmmakers had him don for this otherwise worthless biopic of composer Jerome Kern.

Then there is the matter of Sinatra's partners in films. On Hollywood, he sings with superstars such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and Doris Day, as well as with Groucho Marx, Jimmy Durante and flat-as-a-pancake Shelley Winters. The collection also includes outtakes and alternate takes, interviews and promotional spots, although it's unclear why we need to hear Sinatra accept Oscars for The House I Live In and From Here to Eternity on a set supposedly dedicated to music.

In fairness to the producers, the set does give us a chance to hear some great soundtracks in their entirety rather than bits and pieces. Sinatra's songs from his first two low-budget RKO productions, Higher and Higher and Step Lively, are mostly wonderful, as is the belated classic "I Fall in Love Too Easily" from Anchors Aweigh. The scores from Pal Joey and High Society are marvelous, too. My favorite is "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Town of Berlin," from a World War II propaganda short called The Road to Victory. It includes this wonderful, if dated, lyric, "We'll take a hike through Hitler's Reich and change that `Heil' to `Whaddya know, Joe?'" If nothing else, the song serves as a reminder of just how long Sinatra's career lasted.