From the Warner Vision Sinatra collection comes Sinatra and Friends, a key catalog entry for all lovers of true showbiz schlock.

This 1977 concert from somewhere - we're never told where it was recorded or if there was any special reason for it being recorded - features Old Blue Eyes singing several solo standards, and duets with a bizarre array of guests - Natalie Cole, Robert Merrill, Dean Martin, Loretta Lynn, Tony Bennett, Leslie Uggams and John Denver. John Denver? I said bizarre, but this is just bad!

Robert Merrill, a fine Metropolitan Opera baritone, sings one of the world's worst songs, If I Was a Rich Man. Then he slums it in a trio with Frank and Deano from Guys and Dolls, Oldest Established Floating Crap Game - yes, crap.

Then things look up as the very fine counry and western singer Loretta Lynn takes a turn, both solo and in duet with Frank. And then a bizarre but very entertaining moment, as rival standards-belter Tony Bennett takes the stage, looking like a shagadelic-sleaze refugee from an Austin Powers film-set. No, he's too sleazoid even for a Mike Myers movie...

Things look up as Frank is joined by the sleek, svelte and sexy Leslie Uggams, but the ride becomes a downhill roller-coaster as we hear from Frank's final friend, little hirsute John Denver who attemps a song, My Sweet Lady. Then he and Frank assault the fine Kurt Weill standard September Song - Frank, how could you let this happen?

By the time Frank sings the evening's final number, Put Your Dreams Away, we truly have.

It's a decent transfer from a dated video film. Image quality is secondary when assessing musical documents from this period.

Sound quality, for an original mono source, is excellent. The sound is described as LPCM Stereo, but there appears to have been little effort made to create pseudo-stereo; the strong mono sound is well spread across centre-stage.

The subtitles are laughable. Once again there is English for between song introductions and banter with his friends, and these brief moments are given subtitles for French, Dutch, Spanish and Italian viewers. But only English viewers are given the luxury of subtitles for the song lyrics, surely the most important information of all for those interested?