Search - Frank Sinatra :: Sinatra 80th Live

A Smaller Cake For Sinatra's 80th Birthday

Anthony G Pizza | FL | 03/13/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Even when The Voice was not as strong as before, Frank Sinatra's gift of phrasing and charisma allowed him continued ownership of the concert stage. These performances, from the last 20 years of Sinatra's career, present him singing timeless classics, greatest hits and (then) contemporary songs in band settings with and without string sweetening. It's an intriguing selection: "For Once In My Life" and "You Are The Sunshine of My Life," associated with Stevie Wonder, were staples of Sinatra's 70s-80s concert tours and are given popping big band treatment. Two from the classic "Only The Lonely"(three, counting "Where Or When" from the same sessions) are exquisite, Sinatra masking the faults in his voice as vulnerability from the songs' protagonists. These versions trump those heard on "Sinatra At The Sands." NO ONE sang Cole Porter like Sinatra, and "In The Still Of The Night" is given a classy, swinging arrangement. It seemed in the 1970s that no one (but the Carpenters or Sesame Street characters) sang Joe Raposo's songs BUT Sinatra, and his "You Will Be My Music" is somewhat strained. (The better Raposo song to include would've been "There Used to Be A Ballpark.") "Soliloquy," which Sinatra describes as "one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written," retains its dramatic power despite lesser orchestral power behind it.Frank Sinatra does due diligence here, also, singing three of his most popular hits with just a little irony (introducing the writers of "Strangers In The Night" by saying "I don't know who the hell these guys are," and calling "New York, New York," "the anthem," before delivering a happily growling version of it.) His closing studio duet with Luciano Pavarotti, "My Way," is worth no more than novelty, decreasing an otherwise interesting, if inessential, Sinatra concert document."