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A smart, thoughtfully assembled four-CD collection, A Voice in Time charts the early development of Francis Albert Sinatra -- the standard by which all other classic American pop vocalists are measured. His journey to board chairmanship is charted from his first recordings with the Harry James Band in 1939 through his Victor years with Tommy Dorsey and finally during his extraordinary Columbia years, when he was teamed primarily with conductor/arranger Alex Stordahl and fashioned an extraordinary body of work that, amazingly, got even better when he moved to Capitol in 1953. The titles of the four discs pretty much tell the story: Disc 1, "The Big Band Years: 1939-1942," featured a young, even tentative Sinatra fronting James's and Dorsey's bands. The young voice is smooth and plaintive, but Sinatra sings with an emotional distance that would disappear when he started his solo career with Columbia and became, in the words of Disc 2's title, "Teen Idol: 1943-1952." Which is not to suggest Disc 1 is lesser Sinatra: His readings of "If I Didn't Care," "I'll Be Seeing You," the jaunty Irving Berlin gem "Blue Skies," and Cole Porter's "Night and Day" are strictly first-rank swooning material. Once into Disc 2, and on to Disc 3 ("The Great American Songbook," which starts with "All of Me" and goes on to collect work penned largely for film and Broadway by giants on the order of Carmichael, Arlen, Mercer, Berlin, Porter, the Gershwins, Kern, Hammerstein, et al.) and Disc 4 ("The Sound of Things to Come"), Sinatra increasingly asserts his personality on the lyrics; his phrasing becomes at once more precise and more rhythmically acute, and his emotional involvement in the material achieves a depth of feeling and nuance rarely approached by any other recording artist, ever. In Stordahl he had a studio alter ego who could challenge his artistry with both big, brassy arrangements ("When You're Smiling") and lush, heart-wrenching, string-driven charts ("Hello, Young Lovers," which drew a performance from Sinatra that is breathtakingly restrained and composed, as sung by a character whose broken heart hasn't killed his yearning for or memory of love; the impossibly winsome romantic testimony "We Kiss in a Shadow"; and the soaring, tender billet doux "My Girl" -- sequenced in a jaw-dropping trifecta on Disc 4). At the end of the time frame covered by this set, Sinatra was only three years away from his epic concept album for Capitol, The Wee Small Hours, but in the years charted on these discs, Ol' Blue Eyes wrote the book on 20th-century classic pop vocalizing. Historians and lovers alike can luxuriate in the treasures herein and get to the rest in due course.
Condition:NEW. Brand New Factory Sealed
TRACK LISTINGS
Disc 1
1 All or Nothing at All - Harry James & His Orchestra (2:58)
2 From the Bottom of My Heart - Harry James & His Orchestra (3:08)
3 If I Didn't Care - Harry James & His Orchestra (3:30)
4 Moon Love - Harry James & His Orchestra (2:59)
5 East of the Sun (And West of the Moon) - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (3:19)
6 I'll Be Seeing You - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (3:04)
7 Say It - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (3:25)
8 Blue Skies - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (3:16)
9 I'll Never Smile Again - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (3:11)
10 Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread) - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (3:13)
11 This Love of Mine - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (3:43)
12 Oh, Look at Me Now! - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (3:17)
13 Just as Though You Were Here - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (3:14)
14 How About You? - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (2:55)
15 Imagination - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (3:15)
16 Frenesi - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (3:37)
17 Blue Moon - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (3:41)
18 Be Careful, It's My Heart - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (2:47)
19 The Song Is You - Axel Stordahl & His Orchestra (3:22)
20 Night and Day - Axel Stordahl (3:02)
Disc 2
1 No Love, No Nothin' (2:54)
2 Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night in the Week) (2:44)
3 Oh! What It Seemed to Be (2:52)
4 You'll Never Know - David Broekman & The Treasury Song Parade Orchesta (3:23)
5 I've Got a Crush on You (3:18)
6 The Brooklyn Bridge (2:37)
7 Five Minutes More (2:45)
8 (It Seems to Me) I've Heard That Song Before (3:02)
9 The Trolley Song (3:07)
10 Time After Time - Four Hits And A Miss (3:10)
11 Dream (When You're Feeling Blue) - Ken Lane Singers (3:03)
12 I Fall in Love Too Easily (3:17)
13 She's Funny That Way (3:21)
14 It's Been a Long, Long Time (3:01)
15 Dancing in the Dark - Bobby Tucker Singers (4:04)
16 I've Got You Under My Skin/Easy to Love (4:06)
17 Nancy (With the Laughing Face) (3:14)
18 Lover Come Back to Me (3:58)
19 Put Your Dreams Away (For Another Day) (3:10)
20 Again - Johnny Green & His Orchestra (2:09)
Disc 3
1 All of Me (2:41)
2 Sweet Lorraine (3:09)
3 Body and Soul (3:20)
4 All the Things You Are - Ken Lane Singers (3:03)
5 Embraceable You (2:54)
6 These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You) (3:09)
7 Stormy Weather - Ken Lane Singers (4:15)
8 Begin the Beguine (3:55)
9 There Will Never Be Another You - David Broekman & The Treasury Song Parade Orchesta (2:14)
10 As Time Goes By - David Broekman & The Treasury Song Parade Orchesta (2:33)
11 The Nearness of You (2:43)
12 Stella by Starlight (3:21)
13 I Get a Kick out of You - Vimms Vocalists (3:58)
14 That Old Black Magic (2:33)
15 One for My Baby (And One More for the Road) (3:06)
16 It Had to Be You (2:31)
17 What'll I Do? (3:06)
18 Laura (3:19)
19 September Song (3:07)
20 Ol' Man River (4:00)
Disc 4
1 The Birth of the Blues (3:28)
2 April in Paris - The Whippoorwills (2:44)
3 American Beauty Rose (2:36)
4 Lover (2:41)
5 The Continental (2:33)
6 Should I (Reveal) (2:25)
7 When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles with You) [From Meet Danny (2:31)
8 It All Depends on You (3:25)
9 Bye Bye Baby (2:39)
10 I Could Write a Book (2:44)
11 Autumn in New York (3:17)
12 If Only She'd Looked My Way (2:50)
13 Hello, Young Lovers (3:34)
14 We Kiss in a Shadow (3:37)
15 My Girl (2:26)
16 Love Me (3:10)
17 Farewell, Farewell to Love - Harry James & His Orchestra (2:55)
18 Walking in the Sunshine (2:43)
19 Why Try to Change Me Now (2:49)
20 I'm a Fool to Want You (2:56)
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