Frank Sinatra - The Capitol Years (1954-1962) [21CD UK BoxSet] {1998 EMI Remaster} [re-up]

The Capitol Years is a 1998 box set by the American singer Frank Sinatra. This set was originally assembled by EMI, Capitol's sister company in the United Kingdom. The set contains 21 CDs featuring every album that Sinatra authorized for release between 1953 and 1961 (save for Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color and A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra), remastered in state-of-the-art 20-bit digital audio. Each CD contains an individual Sinatra Capitol LP (including singles compilations), but the bonus tracks from the American versions appear on a separate CD here as The Rare Sinatra. The sound quality on this box is arguably superior to American remasters, also produced in 1998 for eight of Sinatra's key albums in the United States.

While Capitol Records issued upgraded, 20-bit remastered editions of eight of Sinatra's key albums in the U.S. in 1998, EMI-U.K. put together this 21-CD box, containing every song that Sinatra authorized for release between 1953 and 1961, remastered in state-of-the-art 20-bit digital audio. Each CD contains an individual Sinatra Capitol LP (including singles compilations), but the bonus tracks from the American versions appear on a separate CD here (The Rare Sinatra), which means that some of these discs run only 30 minutes or so. What will really confuse dedicated fans is that the sound on this box is superior to the American remasters. On Songs for Young Lovers, for example, Sinatra simply sounds much closer than he does on the Capitol CD, and Swing Easy is even better. In the Wee Small Hours is very slightly more uneven, at least the title track, but everything else is superior. Songs for Swingin' Lovers is where the box really departs from the 1998 American remasters – Sinatra sounds about twice as close, and the sound is significantly richer. A Swingin' Affair blows its American equivalent out of the water. Only the Lonely sets new heights for intimate and vivid sound, which Come Dance With Me matches – and the U.K. box has the right version of "Day In – Day Out," in contrast to the American disc. The enveloping, sumptuous texture of Nice 'n' Easy sets the bar still higher, and Come Swing With Me matches that standard. Sinatra's Capitol library will likely never sound better, and the only complaint lies with the packaging – the booklet, which came with an earlier LP version of this material, is meaningless; still, it's hard to argue with anything that sounds this good.

Writing as an American "Sinatraphile", I would like to emphasize what a fabulous job the British branch of CAPITOL ( EMI ) has done in documenting Frank Sinatra's famous CAPITOL recordings ( 1953-1961 ). The remastering is uniformly superior to the American versions (even the recent 20 BIT remastered ones! ). Also, of vital importance: the original album content has been maintained WITHOUT bonus cuts. In the U.S. versions, bonus cuts that were never originally part of the album often have the effect of ruining the mood that Sinatra very carefully programmed for such recordings as "WEE SMALL HOURS", "ONLY THE LONELY",etc. The only cases where such bonus cuts actually work are on the albums "CLOSE TO YOU" and "SINATRA'S SWINGIN' SESSION", where, due to time constraints on the original LP's, songs that SHOULD have been on the album were left off. In "THE CAPITOL YEARS" box set such bonus cuts are either released on a disc called the "RARE SINATRA" or on one of the singles compilation albums, which leads to yet another point in favor of the British release. All of the "best of" ( singles ) albums such as "THIS IS SINATRA" have been included. The U.S. box set currently available, entitled "CONCEPTS", comes in a specially designed "fancy" box and only contains the "concept" albums! The only points in favor of the U.S. versions are that 1) It contains Sinatra's Christmas album and the Sinatra conducted instrumental album "Tone Poems of Color" AND, 2) The paltry color booklet that comes with the EMI set is a disgrace. Sinatra expert Will Friedwald's notes for the U.S. version are exceptional and EMI would have been smart to retain his services for this release. However, comments ( by another "expert", Pete Welding ) are printed on the back of each of the 21 CD's and anyone purchasing this set would doubtless be familiar with the music anyway. Finally, the British box set is actually less expensive than the U.S. version even though it contains more music and superior sound! Needless to say, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to all lovers of Frank Sinatra's music.

tracklist:
CD1: Songs For Young Lovers (1954)
01. The Girl Next Door
02. They Can't Take That Away From Me
03. Violets For Your Furs
04. Someone To Watch Over Me
05. My One And Only Love
06. Little Girl Blue
07. Like Someone In Love
08. A Foggy Day
09. It Worries Me
10. I Can Read Between The Lines
11. I Get A Kick Out Of You
12. My Funny Valentine



CD2: Swing Easy! (1954)
01. Jeepers Creepers
02. Taking A Chance On Love
03. Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams
04. Lean Baby
05. I Love You
06. I'm Going To Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter
07. Get Happy
08. All Of Me
09. How Could You Do A Thing Like That To Me
10. Why Should I Cry Over You
11. Sunday
12. Just One Of Those Things



CD3: In The Wee Small Hours (1955)
01. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
02. Mood Indigo
03. Glad To Be Unhappy
04. I Get Along Without You Very Well
05. Deep In A Dream
06. I See Your Face Before Me
07. Can't We Be Friends?
08. When Your Lover Has Gone
09. What Is This Thing Called Love
10. Last Night When We Were Young
11. I'll Be Around
12. Ill Wind
13. It Never Entered My Mind
14. Dancing On The Ceiling
15. I'll Never Be The Same
16. This Love Of Mine



CD4: This Is Sinatra! (1956)
01. I've Got The World On A S.tring
02. Three Coins In The Fountain
03. Love And Marriage
04. From Here To Eternity
05. South Of The Border
06. Rain
07. The Gal That Got Away
08. Young-At-Heart
09. Learnin' The Blues
10. My One And Only Love
11. Love Is The Tender Trap
12. Don't Worry 'bout Me



CD5: Songs for Swingin' Lovers (1956)
01. You Make Me Feel So Young
02. It Happened in Monterey
03. You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me
04. You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me
05. Too Marvelous for Words
06. Old Devil Moon
07. Pennies from Heaven
08. Love Is Here to Stay
09. I've Got You Under My Skin
10. I Thought About You
11. We'll Be Together Again
12. Makin' Whoopee
13. Swingin' Down the Lane
14. Anything Goes
15. How About You?



CD6: Close To You (1957)
01. Close To You
02. P.S. I Love You
03. Love Locked Out
04. Everything Happens To Me
05. It's Easy To Remember
06. Don't Like Goodbyes
07. With Every Breath I Take
08. Blame It On My Youth
09. It Could Happen To You
10. I've Had My Moments
11. I Couldn't Sleep A Wink Last Night
12. The End Of A Love Affair



CD7: A Swingin' Affair! (1957)
01. Night And Day
02. I Wish I Were In Love Again
03. I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'
04. I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plans
05. Nice Work If You Can Get It
06. Stars Fell On Alabama
07. No One Ever Tells You
08. I Won't Dance
09. Lonesome Road
10. At Long Last Love
11. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
12. I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
13. From This Moment On
14. If I Had You
15. Oh! Look At Me Now



CD8: Where Are You? (1957)
01. Where Are You?
02. The Night We Called It A Day
03. I Cover The Waterfront
04. Maybe You'll Be There
05. Laura
06. Lonely Town
07. Autumn Leaves
08. I'm A Fool To Want You
09. I Think Of You
10. Where Is The One?
11. There's No You
12. Baby, Won't You Please Come Home



CD9: Come Fly With Me (1958)
01. Come Fly With Me
02. Around The World
03. Isle Of Capri
04. Moonlight In Vermont
05. Autumn In New York
06. On The Road To Mandalay
07. Let's Get Away From It All
08. April In Paris
09. London By Night
10. Brazil
11. Blue Hawaii
12. It's Nice To Go Trav'ling



CD10: This is Sinatra (Volume Two) (1958)
01. Hey! Jealous Lover
02. Everybody Loves Somebody
03. Something Wonderful Happens In Summer
04. Half As Lovely Twice As True
05. You're Cheatin' Yourself
06. You'll Always Be The One I Love
07. You Forgot All The Words
08. How Little We Know
09. Time After Time
10. Crazy Love
11. Wait For Me ('Johnny Concho' theme)
12. If You Are But A Dream
13. So Long, My Love
14. It's The Same Old Dream
15. I Believe
16. Put Your Dreams Away



CD11: Only The Lonely (1958)
01. Only The Lonely
02. Angel Eyes
03. What's New
04. It's A Lonesome Old Town
05. Willow Weep For Me
06. Good-Bye
07. Blues In The Night
08. Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry
09. Ebb Tide
10. Spring Is Here
11. Gone With The Wind
12. One For My Baby



CD12: Come Dance with Me! (1959)
01. Come Dance With Me
02. Something's Gotta Give
03. Just In Time
04. Dancing In The Dark
05. Too Close For Comfort
06. I Could Have Danced All Night
07. Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week)
08. Day In–Day Out
09. Cheek To Cheek
10. Baubles, Bangles And Beads
11. The Song Is You
12. The Last Dance



CD13: No One Cares (1959)
01. When No One Cares
02. A Cottage For Sale
03. Stormy Weather
04. Where Do You Go?
05. I Don't Stand a Ghost Of Chance With You
06. Here's That Rainy Day
07. I Can't Get Started
08. Why Try To Change Me Now?
09. Just Friends
10. I'll Never Smile Again
11. None But the Lonely Heart
12. The One I Love (Belongs To Somebody Else)



CD14: Look To Your Heart (1959)
01. Look To Your Heart
02. Anytime, Anywhere
03. Not As A Stranger
04. Our Town
05. You, My Love
06. Same Old Saturday Night
07. Fairy Tale
08. The Impatient Years
09. I Could Have Told You
10. When I Stop Loving You
11. If I Had Three Wishes
12. I'm Gonna Live Till I Die



CD15: Nice 'N' Easy (1960)
01. Nice 'N' Easy
02. That Old Feeling
03. How Deep Is The Ocean
04. I've Got A Crush On You
05. You Go To My Head
06. Fools Rush In
07. Nevertheless
08. She's Funny That Way
09. Try A Little Tenderness
10. Embraceable You
11. Mam'selle
12. Dream



CD16: Come Swing With Me (1961)
01. Day By Day
02. Sentimental Journey
03. Almost Like Being In Love
04. Five Minutes More
05. American Beauty Rose
06. Yes Indeed!
07. On The Sunny Side Of The Street
08. Don't Take Your Love From Me
09. That Old Black Magic
10. Lover
11. Paper Doll
12. I've Heard That Song Before



CD17: All The Way (1961)
01. All The Way
02. High Hopes
03. Talk To Me
04. French Foreign Legion
05. To Love And Be Loved
06. River, Stay 'Way From My Door
07. Witchcraft
08. It's Over, It's Over, It's Over
09. Ol' MacDonald
10. This Was My Love
11. All My Tomorrows
12. Sleep Warm



CD18: Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!! (1961)
01. When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You)
02. Blue Moon
03. S'posin'
04. It All Depends On You
05. It's Only A Paper Moon
06. My Blue Heaven
07. Should I
08. September In The Rain
09. Always
10. I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me
11. I Concentrate On You
12. You Do Something To Me



CD19: Point Of No Return (1962)
01. When The World Was Young
02. I'll Remember April
03. September Song
04. A Million Dreams Ago
05. I'll See You Again
06. There Will Never Be Another You
07. Somewhere Along the Way
08. It's A Blue World
09. These Foolish Things Remind Me Of You
10. As Time Goes By
11. I'll Be Seeing You
12. Memories Of You



CD20: Sinatra Sings Of Love And Things (1962)
01. The Nearness Of You
02. Hidden Persuasion
03. The Moon Was Yellow
04. I Love Paris
05. Monique - Song from 'Kings Go Forth'
06. Chicago
07. Love Looks So Well On You
08. Sentimental Baby
09. Mr. Success
10. They Came To Cordura
11. I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues
12. Something Wonderful Happens In Summer



CD21: The Rare Sinatra
01. Day In, Day Out
02. I'm Walking Behind You
03. Don't Make A Beggar Of Me
04. Ya Better Stop
05. Take A Chance
06. Day In, Day Out
07. Memories Of You
08. If It's The Last Thing I Do
09. There's A Flaw In My Flue
10. Wait Till You See Her
11. Nothing In Common (Duet with Keely Smith)
12. Same Old Song And Dance
13. How Are Ya Fixed For Love (Duet with Keely Smith)
14. Where Or When
15. It All Depends On You
16. I Couldn't Care Less
17. The Song Is You
18. The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else