Frank Sinatra
A master of pop forms, Francis Albert Sinatra went from a teen idol to a brooding melancholic with a song in his heart to an elder statesman of song. His career, while long and varied, stayed focused on swinging, hip music--stuff that sounds timelessly germane. Here are Sinatra's essential recordings.

	In the Wee Small Hours [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
	by Frank Sinatra Amazon.com essential recording The first of many artistic milestones in the long and illustrious collaboration of Frank Sinatra and arranger Nelson Riddle that began at Capitol Records, In the Wee Small Hours is a first in other notable ways as well: It was the pair's first 12-inch LP; their first album devoted entirely to ballads; the first "concept album," a program of songs designed to be heard in a particular sequence that sustains a mood and suggests a story; the introduction of Sinatra's definitive "saloon singer"... Read more
	The Best Of The Capitol Years
	by Frank Sinatra Amazon.com essential recording This is a flawless single-disc condensation of the three-CD Capitol Years box featuring many of Sinatra's most famous songs of the '50s and early-'60s period he spent making masterpieces for the label. Sinatra displays at least as many emotional shadings here as there are songs on the disc; not only is there the unfettered ebullience of "I've Got the World on a String" or the desolation of "What Is This Thing Called Love?" but a riotously insouciant reading of the ostensibly heartbroken "South... Read more
	Songs for Swingin' Lovers! [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
	by Frank Sinatra Amazon.com essential recording Sinatra already had one youthful career behind him by the time he made Songs for Swingin' Lovers! His were no longer the lustrous pipes of the kid crooner from Hoboken--the voice that made bobbysoxers swoon--but from the first notes of the opening track ("You Make Me Feel So Young"), he seems to have discovered a musical fountain of youth that fully justifies the exclamation point in the album title. There's a buoyant new spring in his step, accented by Nelson Riddle's lighter-than-air... Read more

	Sings For Only The Lonely [Remaster] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
	by Frank Sinatra Amazon.com essential recording Look past the tacky, sad-clown velvet painting on the cover (a Grammy winner for album design in 1959!); there's nothing cheap or sentimental about this record--the bleakest and blackest album of popular songs ever recorded, so quietly powerful, it can leave you slumped in your chair with the ice cubes still rattling in your glass. Every single "suicide song" (as Sinatra liked to call them) on Only the Lonely is a stunner that will take your breath away. Nelson Riddle's arrangements are like... Read more
	A Swingin' Affair! [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
	by Frank Sinatra Amazon.com essential recording A Swingin' Affair! is as perfect as records get. Sinatra sounds near to bursting with self-assurance on this 1957 release; even on the laments "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plans" and "No One Ever Tells You," this is a Frank who's at the top of his game and isn't shy about letting you know he knows it. Nelson Riddle's upbeat arrangements are among his smoothest, and the varied program (which also includes "Night and Day," the wiseacre "I Wish I Were in Love Again," and "I Won't Dance") makes... Read more
	September of My Years [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
	by Frank Sinatra Amazon.com essential recording From the evocative cover painting to the impeccably chosen songs within, this 1965 album harks back to Sinatra's great Capitol-era concept albums like In the Wee Small Hours and Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely. The theme revolves around a man approaching his 50s, looking back with a mixture of nostalgia, regret, and uncertainty; given Sinatra's age at the time (he was 49 when this was recorded) and the way he invests himself in the material, it's impossible to interpret the record as... Read more
	Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
	by Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim Amazon.com essential recording The talent of Brazilian musician Antonio Carlos Jobim was revealed to a larger world in 1959 by his and Luis Bonfa's score for the film Orfeo Negro (Black Orpheus) in 1959. Songs such as "A Felicidade" and "Desafinado" generated the bossa nova movement of the early '60s that inspired the likes of Stan Getz, Charlie Byrd, and Miles Davis. This 1967 album features Jobim sharing vocals with Sinatra on "The Girl from Ipanema" and "How Insensitive." Three standards--"Change Partners" by Irving... Read more