Nice repackaging of classic Sinatra tunes...

Review Score: (10/10)
There is probably no way that anyone can take 20 songs from Sinatra's Capitol years and NOT come up with a five-star album. That said, this is one of the better Best of packages, and I would recommend it to anyone who has not already bought the Best of the Capitol Years or, better still, the original concept albums. Songs like It Happened in Monterey and Put Your Dreams Away are more imaginative and deserving selections than those on the numerous other Capitol Sinatra compilations. This set also earns high marks for original recordings, avoiding the awful studio-engineered duet trap that marred the otherwise okay Sinatra 80th 2-CD set.

If this is your only Sinatra purchase, you are missing the enjoyment of the concept albums, which were assembled carefully to create a mood and an experience -- swinging, melancholy, etc. Ironically (or maybe not!), the best songs on the concept albums were not always the opening tracks (Come Fly with Me, Come Dance with Me,...), and by limiting yourself to this set you may be missing some great tunes.

There are several less available concept albums, such as Close to You (mentioned by another reviewer below)and No One Cares, but these are not represented here -- which would have made this set much more attractive to Sinatraphiles who already own everything on Classic Sinatra. Capitol would have served us better by finding something new in the Sinatra archives (such as the great 1957 Seattle concert released last year!) rather than resequencing admittedly great songs that were already readily available. In the meantime, I would strongly recommend to serious fans to find used copies of the more obscure Capitol albums: they do exist on CD, and if you are patient you can find them reasonably priced on eBay or other auction sites. Or you can buy the big Capitol set for a few hundred dollars...

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