Frank Sinatra: The Best of the Columbia Years 1943

The Best of the Columbia Years 1943–1952

Frank Sinatra

1995: Sony/Columbia/Legacy C4K 65620

Disc One

Close to You
7 June 1943
with the Bobby Tucker Singers
People Will Say We’re In Love
[from Oklahoma!]
5 August 1943
with the Bobby Tucker Singers
If You Are But a Dream [adapted from Rubinstein’s Romance]
14 November 1944
Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night in the Week)
14 November 1944
White Christmas
14 November 1944
with the Bobby Tucker Singers
I Fall in Love Too Easily
1 December 1944
featuring Dave Mann, piano
Ol’ Man River
[from Show Boat]
3 December 1944
Stormy Weather
[from Cotton Club Parade of 1933]
3 December 1944
with the Ken Lane Singers
featuring Yank Lawson, trumpet
Embraceable You
[from Girl Crazy]
19 December 1944
(I Got a Woman Crazy for Me) She’s Funny That Way
19 December 1944
My Melancholy Baby
[from Birth of the Blues]
29 January 1945
Where or When
[from Babes in Arms]
29 January 1945
with the Ken Lane Singers
All the Tings You Are
[from Warm for May]
29 January 1945
with the Ken Lane Singers
I Should Care
[from Thrill of a Romance]
6 March 1945
Dream
[from Her Highness and the Bellboy]
6 March 1945
with the Ken Lane Singers
Put Your Dreams Away (For Another Day)
1 May 1945
Over the Rainbow
[from The Wizard of Oz]
1 May 1945
with the Ken Lane Singers
If I Loved You
[from Carousel]
1 May 1945
Someone to Watch over Me
[from Oh, Kay!]
30 July 1945
You Go to My Head
30 July 1945
These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)
[from Spread It Abroad]
30 July 1945
The House I Live In
[from The House I Live In]
22 August 1945
Day by Day
22 August 1945

Disc Two

Nancy (With the Laughing Face)
22 August 1945
Full Moon and Empty Arms
[based on a theme from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2]
30 November 1945
Oh, What It Seemed to Be
30 November 1945
(I Don’t Stand) A Ghost of a Chance
[from Folies Bergere]
7 December 1945
Why Shouldn’t I?
[from Jubilee]
7 December 1945
Try a Little Tenderness
7 December 1945
Begin the Beguine
[from Jubilee]
24 February 1946
They Say It’s Wonderful
[from Annie Get Your Gun]
10 March 1946
That Old Black Magic
[from Star Spangled Rhythm]
10 March 1946
How Deep Is the Ocean (How Blue Is the Sky)
10 March 1946
Home on the Range
10 March 1946
Five Minutes More
[from Sweetheart of Sigma Chi]
28 May 1946
The Things We Did Last Summer
24 July 1946
Among My Souvenirs
[from The Best Years of Our Lives]
30 July 1946
September Song
[from Knickerbocker Holiday]
30 July 1946
Blue Skies
[from Blue Skies]
30 July 1946
Guess I’ll Hang My Tears out to Dry
[from Glad to See You]
30 July 1946
Lost in the Stars
[from Lost in the Stars]
8 August 1946
There’s No Business Like Show Business
[from Annie Get Your Gun]
22 August 1946
Time After Time
[from It Happened in Brooklyn]
24 October 1946
The Brooklyn Bridge
[from It Happened in Brookyn]
31 October 1946
Sweet Lorraine
17 December 1946
piano: Nat Cole; guitar: Bob Ahern; bass: Eddie Safransky; drums: Buddy Rich; trumpet: Charlie Shavers; trombone: Lawrence Brown; alto sax: Johnny Hodges; tenor sax: Coleman Hawkins; baritone sax: Harry Carney
Always
9 January 1947
Mam’selle
[from The Razor’s Edge]
11 March 1947

Disc Three

Stella by Starlight
[from The Uninvited]
11 March 1947
My Romance
[from Jumbo]
25 April 1947
with Dinah Shore and chorus
If I Had You
11 August 1947
One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)
[from The Sky’s the Limit]
11 August 1947
But Beautiful
[from Road to Rio]
17 August 1947
You’re My Girl
[from High Button Shoes]
19 October 1947
All of Me
[from Meet Danny Wilson]
19 October 1947
Night and Day
[from The Gay Divorce]
22 October 1947
S’posin’
24 October 1947
with the Tony Mottola Trio
piano: John Guarnieri; bass: Herman Albert; guitar: Tony Mottola
The Night We Called It a Day
26 October 1947
The Song Is You
[from Music in the Air]
26 October 1947
What’ll I Do?
29 October 1947
The Music Stopped
[from Higher and Higher]
29 October 1947
Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread)
31 October 1947
I’ve Got a Crush on You
[from Strike Up the Band]
5 November 1947
featuring Bobby Hackett, trumpet
Body and Soul
[from Three’s a Crowd]
9 November 1947
featuring Bobby Hackett, trumpet
I’m Glad There Is You
9 November 1947
Autumn in New York
4 December 1947
Nature Boy
10 April 1948
with the Jeff Alexander Choir
Once in Love with Amy
[from Where’s Charley?]
14–15 December 1947
Some Enchanted Evening
[from South Pacific]
28 February 1949
The Hucklebuck
10 April 1949
with the Ken Lane Singers
featuring Herbert Haymer, saxophone
Let’s Take an Old-Fashioned Walk
[from Miss Liberty]
6 May 1949
with Doris Day and the Ken Lane Singers
It All Depends on You
[from Big Boy]
10 July 1949

Disc Four

Bye Bye Baby
[from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes]
10 July 1949
with The Pastels
Don’t Cry Joe (Let Her Go, Let Her Go, Let Her Go)
10 July 1949
with The Pastels
That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls around Heaven All Day)
15 September 1949
Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy
12 July 1950
with the Jeff Alexander Choir
American Beauty Rose
10 March 1950
featuring WIll Bradley, trombone
Should I (Reveal)
[from Lord Byron of Broadway]
14 April 1950
You Do Something to Me
[from Fifty Million Frenchmen]
14 April 1950
Lover
[from Love Me Tonight]
14 April 1950
When You’re Smiling (The Whole World Smiles with You)
[from Meet Danny Wilson]
24 April 1950
London by Night
21 September 1950
Meet Me at the Copa
21 September 1950
with The Whippoorwills
April in Paris
[from Walk a Little Faster]
9 October 1950
featuring Billy Butterfield, trumpet
I Guess I’ll Have to Dream the Rest
9 October 1950
with The Whippoorwills
Nevertheless (I’m in Love with You)
9 October 1950
featuring Billy Butterfield, trumpet
I Am Loved
[from Out of This World]
11 November 1950
Hello, Young Lovers
[from The King and I]
2 March 1951
We Kiss in a Shadow
[from The King and I]
2 March 1951
I’m a Fool to Want You
27 March 1951
with the Ray Charles Singers
Love Me
27 March 1951
Deep Night
19 July 1951
I Could Write a Book
[from Pal Joey]
7 January 1952
with the Jeff Alexander Choir
I Hear a Rhapsody
7 January 1952
with the Jeff Alexander Choir
My Girl
6 February 1952
The Birth of the Blues
[from George White’s Scandals]
3 June 1952
Azure-te (Paris Blues)
3 June 1952
Why Try to Change Me Now
17 September 1952

I’m not actually a big fan of this collection; I bought it because I wanted to explore the developmental journey of his voice and performance style (a journey that just got better and better as the years went on and both the polish and the roughness deepened, replacing the almost brash too-easy-ness of these earlier recordings) at a time when I happened to have some funds available for such an indulgence. I’d be content to listen to most of this collection, in doses, but I can’t say it’s a destination item in my world.

Having said that, I’ll confess that my favorite track here rates as such because for me it provides a guilty bit of fantasy: the obviously World War II soldier-to-his-buddy song “Don’t Cry Joe (Let Her Go, Let Her Go, Let Her Go)” plays out a little differently in my mind than was intended or indeed received by probaby all of its contemporary listeners (aside from possibly some gay Frankie fans). Let’s just say that Frank’s consoling voice develops the scene into more of a caress than just this vocal one, the way I hear it…very sweet, certainly plausible, definitely hot, arguably opportunistic, but actually appropriate and, again, sweet. (Don’t accuse me of sexualizing it, though: first because I’m not visualizing anything so explicit, rather just genuine affectionate consolation (again, though, arguably opportunistic), second because Sinatra’s singing IS so inherently sexy.

Um…the 76-page booklet’s introduction and essays are definitely a treat, too. Lotsa photos—even better, in this case.

HOME • MUSIC