User Reviews

I think I have a "right" tp comment on "Sinatra Sings" as I spent roughly 35 years singing/chanting Offices and Mass as an Anglo-Catholic/Anglican Catholic priest. I enjoyed good teachers, especially a rather famous organist, and did well enough, although one organist suggested that I "crooned" the Mass! Thus, I can say with some authority that I wish I could have seen this DVD at the beginning of my ministry for, if one should watch Sinatra carefully, one would see a singer with a total mastery of "belle canto" breath control. Beside his perfect pitch, his ability to both stretch and compress time, direct every note the musicians play (in a few shots of rehearsals it is obvious that Sinatra is the real conductor). He may or may not have been an admirable human being, but he was a Master of the human voice.

I loved this one hour retrospective of Frank in concert. Put together in 2011 by his daughter, Tina, it blended great clips from his TV and concert appearances for 4 decades. Many of his standards are shown and obviously the clips were the cream of the crop.

Tina's narration provides brief background info on the songs and/or her father's approach to performing. That's one thing to remember here...most of the clips are of him performing as opposed to recording in a studio, although there are a few of those. When performing, you see the joy and playfulness Frank would interject into his concerts. He was, after all, putting on a show as opposed to just trying to replicate the sound you heard on his albums. In addition, his vocal range and tone had changed as he grew older and the way he approached a song did as well. If you had the pleasure of ever seeing him live, these clips will bring back wonderful memories.

The thing that stands out to me is his ability to command the stage and massage the lyrics based on the arrangement he was using at the time. You can see just how much he loved being in front of an audience. His smile tells it all. The greatest saloon singer who ever lived, for sure, but also a magnificent performer. He makes it look so easy...and natural. Listen to how he allows the song to get in front of him...he was a master of "catching up" with the lyrics which at times required him changing them slightly, but many performers do not have the guts, or talent, to follow this style.

I also loved the clips from his live TV show from back in the 50's. Here we see a much younger Sinatra, a bit nervous doing the 2 songs they show. It was all live done on the spot and you can see in his eyes and facial expressions he was a bit uncomfortable. He pulls it off though, and it was great seeing these clips that I had never seen before.

Great clips. Great music. The greatest artist of our time. What more could you want?

Tina Sinatra narrates this collection of her father's performances, which first aired on TV in 2011. Her memories add little to the film. At one point, she says her father had great respect for lyrics and tried his best to honor them (in so many words).

Nothing could be further from the truth. Frank Sinatra is widely recognized as one of the best vocalists when it comes to phrasing (if not the best). That assessment is absolutely true. Frank had an uncanny knack for extracting the most from a song phrase. But there were two Frank Sinatras--the great vocal stylist and the ring-a-ding-dinger.

This collection is fairly comprehensive with its inclusion of a broad sampling of iconic Sinatra hits. But the quality of the sampling is lackluster. We hear Old Blue Eyes wringing every ounce of meaning out of a lyric. But we also hear the Sinatra who was, perhaps, bored with the repetition of singing the same hits.

When Sinatra performed with the Rat Pack, he had no regard for the subtle meanings within a lyric. He and his entourage were too cool to care for the audience or the sentiment in a song, always laughing among themselves at their own private jokes. This too-cool persona was Sinatra's modus operandi for many years.

In these performances from his television show and his specials, we hear him (intentionally) slur words as a joke. He skips words--not the worst effect--and he changes the words, often in service to his cool cleverness, not for emotional impact. He sang some of the greatest ballads of the twentieth century and massacred many of them on occasion. It's a shame, because every song in this film was performed by Frank, at some point, with great earnestness and honesty.

I am sure there are many superfans of Sinatra who will not care, appreciating virtually everything he sings, just as many Elvis fanatics forgive every over-the-top Vegas vocalization. The rest of us, who cherish the best of Sinatra, have many other recordings and performances to enjoy.

Sinatra Sings (2011)

*** (out of 4)

This made-for-TV special has Tina Sinatra playing narrator as she discusses some of her memories of her legendary father. After she says a few lines we then get to see the legend sing some of his most famous tunes from previous television specials.

The majority of the footage here comes from FRANK SINATRA: A MAN AND HIS MUSIC and SINATRA: CONCERT FOR THE AMERICAS so, needless to say, if you want to get the full impact of those performances and shows it would be much better to watch one of those special in full. With that said, this special gives you some of his best tracks including My Way, Strangers in the Night, New York New York, I've Got You Under My Skin and You Make Me Feel So Young among others. There's no doubt that the two bits of footage show Sinatra in two different periods of his career but it also shows that no matter what his age was he was able to captivate you by singing standing still and giving you that terrific voice.