Ultimate Sinatra

101 songs for less than $40.00? That’s what you get with this box set. The sound quality is amazing and the box set itself is very well made.As previously stated in other reviews this is the best way to start listening to Frank Sinatra if you’re a beginner.The CD’s are absolutely filled up with this set. Three out of four CD’s track at one hour twenty minutes each and the one disc that isn’t tracks out at one hour nineteen minutes, that’s over five hours of music on four CD’s! Buy it!

Got this for my vinyl-obsessed brother, and let me tell you, he looked at me like I was the chairman of the board when he opened it. Now he’s strutting around the house humming Sinatra like he’s headlining Vegas.The sound quality is so good it’s like Frank himself is serenading you, and the vinyl design is sleek enough to make my brother forget about the other 10 albums he left lying on the couch.Perfect gift for any Sinatra fan or wannabe crooner. 5/5—my brother’s already asking Alexa to dim the lights for “mood.

My all time favorite singer. The selections included in th CD were thoroughly enjoyable

With his 100th birthday fast approaching, it was inevitable that Frank Sinatra’s 60+ year recording output would be anthologized for the umpteenth time, with the obligatory ‘unreleased track’ or two included to entice hardcore fans, along with the promise of remastered sound and other goodies.“Ultimate Sinatra” is available in several different editions, the most extensive being the four disc collection that covers 1943-1979. This is the first time material from all three of Sinatra’s labels (Columbia, Capitol, and Reprise) are included on the same collection, and it’s also the first time many of these tracks have had any significant remastering efforts, so that alone makes this a worthy purchase.The collection is certainly not perfect; as pointed out in at least one other review, the Capitol years are especially missing some essential performances (“Lonely Town” from “Where Are You,” “Grenada” from “Swing Along with Me,” “Prisoner of Love” from “Sinatra & Strings,” and “Soliloquy” from “The Concert Sinatra” come to mind immediately), and in some cases inferior versions of song Sinatra did better later on somehow made the cut (“Night and Day” and “The Song is You” both should’ve been represented by the Reprise takes). Also, I know it’s almost written in stone that every career spanning collection should end with “New York, New York,” but Frank still made new music right up until 1988, including one album of superior quality (“She Shot Me Down”) that deserves to be represented, as well as a wealth of orphaned tracks that are hard to find nowadays (“Searching,” “The Girls I Never Kissed,” “My Foolish Heart”). Any of these would be a worthy addition, especially since the bonus track, the 1979 rehearsal outtake “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” isn’t anything to write home about (though Frank sounds quite good vocally on it.)The remastering is fantastic; the Columbia tracks sound better than ever, and the Capitol cuts don’t have the treble turned all the way up like on the 1998 remasters (really, though, can Sinatra’s entire catalog from that period be remastered with this much care and attention?). The packaging, on the other hand, leaves something to be desired: it’s quite flimsy, and the booklet is largely just a collection of quotes.“Ultimate Sinatra” isn’t perfect, but you can’t fault the great music on here, and the sound is more than commendable enough to make it a worthy purchase.

If you into vinyl, this is the quessintial Jazz vocal band album to own. If you won just one, this is it. all his classics on full display.

Sounds great and is very affordable!

Frank Sinatra's nearly 60-year recording career can be divided into six areas:1) The ten recordings made with Harry James And His Orchestra in 1939. The first Sinatra/James 78 RPM single, "From The Bottom Of My Heart" b/w "Melancholy Mood," was originally issued on the American Record Corporation's Brunswick imprint, which was later folded into the revitalized Columbia Records label. All other Sinatra/James singles were issued on Columbia. In the 1940's, American Decca revived the Brunswick imprint.2) The 1940-42 RCA Victor recordings with Tommy Dorsey And His Orchestra. Toward the end of his Dorsey tenure, Sinatra made four solo sides with Axel Stordahl, issued on RCA's Bluebird imprint.3) His solo recordings on Columbia from 1943-1952.4) The first Capitol era (1953-62).5) The recordings for his own Reprise label (1960-88).6) Sinatra's return to Capitol (1993-94), where he made the commercially successful but artistically dreadful Duets albums. The phoned-in guest singers were good for the most part, but Frank's voice was shot.ULTIMATE SINATRA is Universal Music Group's attempt to honor Mr. Sinatra's 100th birthday on December 12. It is not the first Sinatra collection to feature songs from all eras; that honor goes to the soundtrack to the CBS miniseries with Philip Casnoff. While it has 100 songs (plus a bonus track) on four CDs, the collection, while good, could have been much better. It was understandable to include only "All Or Nothing At All" from the Harry James sessions, as that was FS's only hit with the James band, which occurred four years after the fact, and it took a 1943 musicians' union strike to make that possible. But only two cuts from the TD era - "I'll Never Smile Again" and "Street Of Dreams"? At least a few more TD cuts, such as "I'll Be Seeing You," "There Are Such Things," and "Be Careful, It's My Heart," could have been included. Twelve cuts from the Columbia solo era follow, and that's not being too generous either. Sony Music, which owns the James, RCA, and Columbia catalogs, was being rather stingy. Perhaps they want you to purchase one of THEIR Sinatra collections.The rest of Disc 1 consists of Capitol material. Disc 2 is all Capitol. Disc 3 is evenly divided between Capitol and Reprise material. Disc 4 is all Reprise. In some cases, the best version of a song (e.g., "Night And Day" and "The Song Is You") was not chosen. UMe, of course, owns the Capitol material; the Reprise tracks are controlled by the Sinatra Estate, which acquired them from Warner Music Group/Rhino Records.This set does have one bonus track - an unissued rehearsal take of "Surrey With The Fringe On Top," from the 1979 TRILOGY sessions. The single-CD version of ULTIMATE SINATRA has an alternate take of "Just In Time," from the 1958 COME DANCE WITH ME! sessions, which is not on the box set. The Ultimate Sinatra 2-CD Limited Edition 2015 TARGET EXCLUSIVE has a 15-track bonus CD (13 songs, excluding the intro and closing bows) with selections from FS's Australian concert at Sydney Stadium, recorded December 2, 1961. The Australian version of ULTIMATE SINATRA has the full concert; I'm sure that Target wanted the full version as well, but UMe probably told them, "Sorry, that's reserved for the Aussies, but we'll let you have half of it." You can find the Australian version on Amazon.co.uk. Amazon's Australian site does not sell music. However, you may end up paying more for that version that you would for this box set, so only hard-core Sinatra collectors need bother.Personally, I would have made this a six-CD set - a full CD of James/Dorsey material, one full disc of Columbia selections, and two discs each for Capitol and Reprise. The softcover book is very nice, with great pictures and interesting comments from Sinatra and the other participants, but the track listing should have been annotated with the original single and/or album release that each song appeared on, instead of just the recording date. Hard-core Sinatraphiles already have this information, but it would be useful for more casual fans and Sinatra newbies.For those who want to dig deeper into the Sinatra oeuvre:The Harry James recordings are available on a single CD (The Complete Recordings Nineteen Thirty-Nine), a 21-track CD with the 10 master takes, four alternates, and seven radio broadcasts.There are many collections of the TD material available, but the best one is the 1994 RCA/BMG 5-CD set "The Song Is You".For Columbia-era material, I recommend the four-CD collection The Best of the Columbia Years 1943-1952. Sony also offers a later CD box set, Voice in Time 1939-1952, that covers the James, Dorsey, and solo Columbia eras together in one fell swoop. That collection contains a full CD of James/Dorsey material, and three CDs of solo Columbia selections. If you want to spend really big bucks, a 12-CD box of Columbia material is also available.Capitol offers 1990's The Capitol Years, which I own in the original clothbound book edition, and 1996's The Complete Capitol Singles Collection, with some rare B-sides not found on the first collection. There are also two Capitol box sets of Frank's concept albums - one with CD bonus tracks, the other without - but you may be better off purchasing the individual CDs (the 1956 instrumental album, TONE POEMS OF COLOR - the first LP recorded at the then-new Capitol Tower, on which FS conducted an all-star orchestra - was originally a CONCEPTS box set exclusive, but was finally issued as an individual CD in 2002).Finally, FS's material for his own label is compiled on 1990's Frank Sinatra: The Reprise Collection. Reprise also offers another complete suitcase box, if money is no object. Other box sets cover his Las Vegas and London concerts and his movie recordings.These are only a fraction of the available Sinatra releases, including his Christmas recordings, live albums, and collaborations with The Rat Pack.There have been many great male pop singers over the decades - Frank's Rat Pack buddies (Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr.), Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Nat "King" Cole, Jack Leonard, Vaughan Monroe, Louis Armstrong, Dick Haymes, Billy Eckstine, Vic Damone, Bob Eberly and his brother Ray Eberle, Joe Williams, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, Mel Tormé, Tony Bennett (still going strong at 88), Jack Jones, and Robert Goulet, to name but a few, but, in his prime, no one was better that Francis Albert Sinatra. Michael Bublé is probably the closest thing to a 21st Century Sinatra, but he would be the first to tell you that he is no Frank.Four stars for ULTIMATE SINATRA (I wish I could give it five).

My daughter loved it. Double album Frank Sinatra’s best known songs.