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New Sinatra DVD Collection: Beautiful Stories in Song
He knocked down the wall between performer and audience, inviting listeners inside his mind. Before Sinatra, no one had ever told such vivid and beautiful stories through song.
—Tony Bennett
The Royal Festival Hall (1962) & Live at Carnegie Hall captures Ol' Blue Eyes performing before royalty at a children's charity event in London, and in New York City's most famous concert hall. Live from Caesars Palace & The First Forty Years combines two events from "The House that Frank Built" (Las Vegas' Caesars), a concert performance in 1978 and a 1979 celebration honoring the singer's birthday and first four decades in show business, with Harry James, Robert Merrill and Dean Martin among the presenters.
The Frank Sinatra Collection concludes with Portrait Of An Album & Sinatra Sings. Portrait of an Album is a remarkable 1984 documentary of the recording sessions for L.A. Is My Lady (1984, Frank Sinatra Enterprises) with an all-star orchestra arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones and produced by Phil Ramone. Sinatra Sings closes with television and concert performances selected and narrated by Frank's daughter Tina.
Some select facts: 2015's Ultimate Sinatra collection extended his record to 57 Top 40 albums on the Billboard 200. He charted at least one Top 40 single in eight decades. Frank Sinatra claimed nine GRAMMY® Awards, including three for Album of the Year. He also appeared in more than sixty films and won an Oscar. Frank Sinatra performed incredibly popular music that was also incredibly good because he performed with the best musicians, from Harry James and Tommy Dorsey to Quincy Jones and the Brecker Brothers, and exquisite arrangers such as Nelson Riddle and Don Costa.
Tony Bennett, who knows his way around a song or two, explained in his autobiography The Good Life (1998, Pocket Books): "I feel Sinatra exemplifies the best music that ever came out of the United States. Not only was he a great interpreter, but he had a magic voice...He communicated precisely what he was feeling at any moment. He knocked down the wall between performer and audience, inviting listeners inside his mind. Before Sinatra, no one had ever told such vivid and beautiful stories through song."
Read More: The Royal Festival Hall (1962) | Live At Carnegie Hall
Read More: Live From Caesar's Palace | The First 40 Years
Read More: Portrait Of An Album | Sinatra Sings
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