Frank Sinatra: The Chairman of the Board
Francis Albert Sinatra doesn’t sound very cool, does it? Who would have guessed the man with such a girly name would go on to be one of the most famous singers of any generation and respectfully earn the titles 'Ol’ Blue Eyes' and 'The Chairman of the Board'?
Way back before plastic pop and talentless synchronised dancing clones took over the popular music world, entertainers had a heart, a soul and a style like no other. At the front of the pack in the coolest era of music was Frank Sinatra. Having a way with words that would make the women swoon and the men want to be like him, Sinatra started his career in the thirties and didn’t let up until the nineties.
He played with the likes of Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Nelson Riddle and even Bono from U2, while his career even branched into films with performances alongside Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity, winning an Oscar), Angela Lansbury (The Manchurian Candidate) and Gene Kelly (On the Town).
But although his acting brought him some welcome diversion during a bad period, it was always the singing that would make his name and his fame live on. His respect for the songwriter's lyric made the music his, and in Sinatra’s own words: “One thing I’ve always tried to reach for in my approach to a ballad is a respect for the lyric. I try to do it the way I think the writer would like to have had it done.”
So if work has got you down, if the bills won’t stop coming and the kids won’t stop screaming, then do yourself a favour and switch off your mobile phone, put away your laptop computer and mix yourself a martini or three. There’s simply no better legal way to bliss out than with Frank Sinatra on DVD.
On this DVD
1981, and Frank takes to a studio set for an easygoing performance. He’s older and more mellow, but in good musical shape. The pace has been slowed a tad, and this time it works because the songs come across like relaxed background ballads in a restaurant. There isn’t a live studio audience for this set, and I think this would have livened up the interludes a bit, but as it stands this is a nice way to wrap up my reviews of the Frank Sinatra collection of DVDs, going out on a high note, so to speak.
Track List
Nice And Easy
The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else
Pennies From Heaven
I Loved Her
The Girl From Ipanema (With Tony Mottola On Guitar)
At Long Last Love
Something
Monday Morning Quarterback
The Best Is Yet To Come
(We Had A) Good Thing Going
Say Hello
I Get A Kick Out Of You
Theme From New York, New York
Thanks For The Memory
Don’t go expecting a picture and sound worthy of the latest and greatest blockbusters, because it just won’t be found on this set of DVDs. But it’s also not the fault of the transfer process either. As the cover slicks helpfully warn us: “Due to the nature of the original source material some slight audio/visual imperfections may appear in this programme.” Primarily shot for television broadcasts between ’65 and ’85, the images are all fullscreen and while far from perfect in condition are easily forgivable for the content they deliver. Colour quality on the source can vary a little, with sometimes natural looking colours to occasional oversaturation and a bit of bleeding, while whites vary from washed out to reasonably detailed under the glare of the lights. Shadow detail is fine, with the live concerts a bit flat in the crowd shots but passable because they’re brief. The audio is stereo Linear PCM, but is derived from original mono sources. Occasionally the limitation of this is fairly evident in the quality of many pieces, but from time to time Frank’s performance in some songs and DVDs are allowed to soar in a way that captures the mood and enthusiasm he has for the music and allows you to get carried away with the whole affair.
I’m not going to complain about the extras, or lack of extras, on this series. Frankly, the main features are good enough, even with their brief running times, that to ask for substantial extras on top of 10 great discs just seems bloody outright greedy. What we get is a catalogue of the Frank Sinatra DVDs available in this set with a track listing for each disc and a trailer for the series.