Frank Sinatra: The Chairman of the Board
Francis Albert Sinatra doesn’t sound very cool, does it? Who would have guessed the man with such a girly name would go on to be one of the most famous singers of any generation and respectfully earn the titles 'Ol’ Blue Eyes' and 'The Chairman of the Board'?
Way back before plastic pop and talentless synchronised dancing clones took over the popular music world, entertainers had a heart, a soul and a style like no other. At the front of the pack in the coolest era of music was Frank Sinatra. Having a way with words that would make the women swoon and the men want to be like him, Sinatra started his career in the thirties and didn’t let up until the nineties.
He played with the likes of Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Nelson Riddle and even Bono from U2, while his career even branched into films with performances alongside Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity, winning an Oscar), Angela Lansbury (The Manchurian Candidate) and Gene Kelly (On the Town).
But although his acting brought him some welcome diversion during a bad period, it was always the singing that would make his name and his fame live on. His respect for the songwriter's lyric made the music his, and in Sinatra’s own words: “One thing I’ve always tried to reach for in my approach to a ballad is a respect for the lyric. I try to do it the way I think the writer would like to have had it done.”
So if work has got you down, if the bills won’t stop coming and the kids won’t stop screaming, then do yourself a favour and switch off your mobile phone, put away your laptop computer and mix yourself a martini or three. There’s simply no better legal way to bliss out than with Frank Sinatra on DVD.
On this DVD
It’s now 1985, and Frank has made his way over to Japan to play at The Budokan Hall in Tokyo. With a killer set list, everything looks in place for a ripper concert. But fortune doesn’t favour the fat (or something to that effect) because try as he might, the audience don't respond in the often incredibly enthusiastic way Western ones tend to, adhering more to a policy of sitting back to quietly and politely enjoy the show. That, and the fact that Frank’s voice is a shadow of what it once was and the music lacks the sting it so deserves. Had this same concert been performed in America 15 years earlier, then it would probably have been one of the best of his career. As it stands though, it comes across too much like a paycheck effort for me.
Track List
The Lady Is A Tramp
Fly Me To The Moon
My Way
I’ve Got You Under My Skin
Something
I Get A Kick Out Of You
My Kind Of Town
Someone To Watch Over Me
All Or Nothing At All
Mack The Knife
Luck Be A Lady
L.A. Is My Lady
Strangers In The Night
Come Rain Or Come Shine
Pennies From Heaven
One For My Baby
Theme From New York New York
Don’t go expecting a picture and sound worthy of the latest and greatest blockbusters, because it just won’t be found on this set of DVDs. But it’s also not the fault of the transfer process either. As the cover slicks helpfully warn us: “Due to the nature of the original source material some slight audio/visual imperfections may appear in this programme.” Primarily shot for television broadcasts between ’65 and ’85, the images are all fullscreen and while far from perfect in condition are easily forgivable for the content they deliver. Colour quality on the source can vary a little, with sometimes natural looking colours to occasional oversaturation and a bit of bleeding, while whites vary from washed out to reasonably detailed under the glare of the lights. Shadow detail is fine, with the live concerts a bit flat in the crowd shots but passable because they’re brief. The audio is stereo Linear PCM, but is derived from original mono sources. Occasionally the limitation of this is fairly evident in the quality of many pieces, but from time to time Frank’s performance in some songs and DVDs are allowed to soar in a way that captures the mood and enthusiasm he has for the music and allows you to get carried away with the whole affair.
I’m not going to complain about the extras, or lack of extras, on this series. Frankly, the main features are good enough, even with their brief running times, that to ask for substantial extras on top of 10 great discs just seems bloody outright greedy. What we get is a catalogue of the Frank Sinatra DVDs available in this set with a track listing for each disc and a trailer for the series.
