Sinatra – Singing At His Best

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: D     Music: B-

 

 

Passport has been doing star compilations of great singers of the past and this Frank Sinatra installment of the Singing At His Best series is one of the best yet, partly because it discusses each composition before we see him perform it.  I wish more of the series were done in this fashion.  With that said, the songs are:

 

1)     I’ve Got The World On A String

2)     Stardust

3)     I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm (from the 1937 film On The Avenue)

4)     Ol’ Man River (from the 1927 Musical Showboat)

5)     Fly Me To The Moon

6)     Last Night When We Were Young

7)     I’ll Never Smile Again

8)     When You’re Smiling

9)     My Romance

10)  Hello Young Lovers

11)  Oh! Look At Me Now

12)  That Old Black Magic

13)  Talk To Me

14)  It Had To Be You

15)  Luck Be a Lady

16)  High Hopes

17)  Angel Eyes

 

 

The selection is exceptionally tasteful, though most of the compilations have been solid.  The footage is not always in great shape, but I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm (from the 1937 film On The Avenue) and Ol’ Man River are in color and the latter showed up on other Passport sets now inexplicably in black and white.  The footage is almost always full frame, except for some letterboxed film trailer footage and the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is mixed from song to song.  Sometime it is just too small, while in others, it is on the distorted side.  In most cases, he is singing the music on location, so a search for other, better sources of the audio will not be as easy as just going to an archive.  There are no extras outside of the main program, but even with all the technical glitches, Sinatra - Singing At His Best is worth a look and listen.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo