Who hasn’t heard of Frank Sinatra?  Frank Sinatra was probably the biggest star in recorded music short of Elvis Presley in the 1950’s – 1970’s.  Frank’s career started long before the seventies.  Born on December 12, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey to Italian immigrant parents, he grew up always wanting to sing like his idol, Bing Crosby.  He started singing professionally as a teenager.

After winning a talent show with a group of four singers, he started to get noticed.  He began his career singing with Harry James & his Orchestra but left less than a year later.  He then sang with Tommy Dorsey & his Orchestra, staying through 1942.  It was with Tommy Dorsey that he started to achieve national stardom.  The records sold well while Frank Sinatra sang in a young, naïve and often innocent style.  His star was quickly rising, and he left Tommy Dorsey in the fall of 1942. He was still only 26 years old.

Frank signed with Columbia Records in 1943 and after a few good years, fell out of favor on the music charts.  He turned to acting, taking anything, he could.  He co-starred in From Here To Eternity in 1953 and the critics loved it.  Now Frank was popular again.

Frank Sinatra signed with Capitol Records in 1953 and began working with Nelson Riddle & his Orchestra.  Most of Frank Sinatra’s albums in the 1950’s featured the Nelson Riddle Orchestra.  In 1957, he released an album with Gordon Jenkins & his Orchestra.  Frank continued to record with Nelson Riddle, but now would also use orchestras directed by Billy May, Axel Stordahl and Fred Waring in addition to Gordon Jenkins.  Frank Sinatra’s best Christmas songs come from this era.

In 1960, Frank left Capitol Records and started his own record label, Reprise Records.  He was even more adventurous with his arrangers and released many successful albums throughout the 60’s into the 80’s.  But none of his future Christmas output could match that of the 40’s and 50’s.

This Christmas compilation from Frank Sinatra combines his best Christmas songs from the latter half of his career.  There are 18 songs presented here, three of which were never released until this compilation.  Not to confuse, but these are different versions of songs he had released earlier but by different orchestra leaders.

The CD artwork is very good!  The front cover features a green sepia tone picture of Frank Sinatra smiling.  The back of the CD has a numerical track listing and any duets that are featured.

The CD cover comes out and is a stapled 16-page booklet.  Most of the pages give little anecdotes of the songs included.  Starting with page 11, there is a detailed listing of all the songs, taking 4 pages to complete.  Included is a numerical track listing, writer credits, orchestra leaders, recording dates and original release catalog numbers in addition to chart performance.  And a bonus is the album or source from where the song originated is also included.  A lot of details are listed here.

The back of the booklet shows a sepia tone picture of Frank Sinatra wearing a Santa Claus suit in front of a Christmas tree, swinging a golf club that we can only presume was a Christmas present.

There are many compilations of Frank Sinatra Christmas collections out there.  I have two, in addition to his Christmas record from 1957 and the Sinatra Family Christmas Album from 1968.  (Look for reviews of those CDs in this blog’s future.)  My advice would be to look for either Columbia, Capitol or Reprise releases.  That way you know you are getting the best of Frank’s Christmas recordings.

This Christmas compilation combines songs mostly from the 1960’s with a few from 1957, and a couple from 1975.  Half of the 18 songs are going to be a little unfamiliar to most people except for those that have a lot of Frank Sinatra Christmas music in their collections.  Many of those come from The Sinatra Family Christmas album from 1968.  This was an album that featured Frank performing with his children Nancy, Tina and Frank Jr., in addition to songs that feature them by themselves.  They also feature Nelson Riddle & his Orchestra with the Jimmy Joyce Singers.  Most of that album features songs that do not appear on many collections, so it is a treat to get some of those here.

5 of the 18 songs come from a Christmas album he did with Bing Crosby and Fred Waring And The Pennsylvanians in 1964.  Of these, the song We Wish You The Merriest is going to be the most familiar.  It is an upbeat, big band arrangement of what has become a Christmas classic.  The other duets with Bing Crosby are Go Tell It On The Mountain, The Christmas Song (from a TV special featuring The Midnight Strings), and a version of White Christmas, both from 1957.

Also included are two Christmas songs that Frank Sinatra recorded and released as a single in 1975.  The first of these is Christmas Memories.  I think many people will be familiar with this as it does show up on Christmas music compilations.  The other one is A Baby Like You, written by John Denver and featured on his Christmas album from 1975, Rocky Mountain Christmas.  Both show a maturity in Frank’s voice that didn’t exist in his earlier recordings.  These are some of the last Christmas songs Frank recorded.

This was a difficult CD to review because Frank Sinatra released so many Christmas albums throughout his career.  So, there are a lot of Frank Sinatra Christmas songs out there.  As I said earlier, I currently have two compilation CDs of Christmas music by Frank Sinatra.  I have this one, which are mostly Christmas songs from the 1960’s and I have Christmas Songs By Sinatra, released in 1994 which contains many of his Christmas songs from the 1940’s.  There are repeat titles between the collections, but because they were recorded in different decades with different orchestras, they are different songs.

There really isn’t a bad song on here.  Frank Sinatra was known for his Christmas recordings and is considered one of the Classic male singers of Christmas songs, along with Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis and Perry Como.  He appears in many, many compilations of Christmas music.  Having a good selection of Christmas songs by Frank Sinatra is a must if you want to have a balanced collection.  You should have at least one CD of only Frank Sinatra in your collection.  If you only want one CD that covers a large era of his Christmas output and prefer the 1960’s over the 1940’s, then this CD is the one for you.  18 wonderful Christmas songs that are well produced featuring the best of the orchestra leaders he worked with.

I give this CD :

*****