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CD Review: Frank Sinatra, “From the Heart”

Dw. Dunphy February 5, 2009 5

Frank Sinatra – From the Heart (2009, Legacy)
purchase this album (Amazon)

Valentine’s Day – depending on your walk of life, it’s either a splendid day of warm, romantic thoughts and a gimme so far as “gettin’ some tonight,” or it’s a Hallmark sham of an institution to remind us that all our friends are happily married and having kids, but we’re about to dip our Doritos into another vat of guacamole all alone. Since I’m flying solo this year, guess who’s fattening up on avocado?

You don’t have to be a heartless cynic to see the strings attached to this high holiday of chocolate-covered, heart-shaped, red crepe emotion. Take, for instance, Sony Legacy’s From The Heart collection. Eight CDs cut and pasted together to capitalize celebrate the spirit of l’amour, all representing a different demographic: Billie Holliday and Miles Davis if you love it jazzy, Babyface if you love it smooth and sensitive, The Isley Brothers if you don’t mind a little rugburn with your affection, Dolly Parton if you like doin’ the nasty while the livestock watches, and Air Supply if the woman in your life is actually a dude (sorry, cheap shot.)

But what to make of Frank Sinatra’s From the Heart? It doesn’t seem right to co-opt the Chairman of the Board for such a crass cash-in, and besides, we remember him more for his zingers and sad songs than for mushy love. “The Lady Is a Tramp”? How about “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)”? Worse, it’s the same album the label released last year under the umbrella of Beautiful Ballads & Love Songs, so not only are they messing around with Ol’ Blue Eyes, they’re regifting him too. Yet there is one saving grace to this: if you are not an aficionado and have been looking to get your feet wet, this is an affordable starter set that’s full of appeal.

Starting with a jivey take on Irving Berlin’s perennial “Blue Skies,” heading into Hoagy Carmichael’s gorgeous “Star Dust” and moving through some of the Great American Songbook’s most stellar examples, it’s amazing how anyone in the new millennium would dare attempt new versions. The standout is, as ever, “September Song” from the musical mind of Kurt Weill, complete with a gorgeous arrangement.

Is this CD the soundtrack to love, or just as rude as any other quickly slapped-together holiday tie-in? It’s a little of both, but the fact that it is a montage slapped together with gold and silver pieces elevates it way above what it probably deserves to be — a last minute gift item snagged at the 7-11 with the weird and wilted “bouquet” of roses in a plastic tube. If you’ve been wondering how to get into the wonderful world of Frank Sinatra, this is a relatively painless gateway.

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POSTED IN » CD Reviews, Music
About the author: Dw. Dunphy View all posts by
Dw. Dunphy is a writer, artist, musician, bon vivant, n'er do well, but neither a president nor client of the Hair Club for Men. He resides in New Jersey with his decades-old neuroses and debt.You can follow him at Facebook, Twitter, or hit him up on Google+. Or just hit him. Really hard. With bats. Until he asks for you to stop, but don't stop. If you stop, an angel doesn't get its wings.

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  • outsidecounsel

    There are ample gateways to Sinatra's work. Collections like this are actually something of a barrier to entry. Here's my thinking. Start with the premise that Sinatra's work on Capitol with Nelson Riddle (“Songs for Swingin' Lovers”, “In the Wee Small Hours”, “Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely”, “A Swingin' Affair”) may be one of the greatest sustained bursts of genius in popular music. (What can match it? I think the work Miles Davis was doing in 1956 for Prestige– “Workin'”, “Cookin'”, “Steamin'” and “Relaxin'”– then with Columbia, on “Round About Midnight” through “Kind of Blue”– fits into this category. The Sones string of releases starting with “Beggar's Banquet” and running through “Let It Bleed”, “Sticky Fingers” and culminating in “Exile On Main Street” does also. After those, what?) Anyone who is interested in Sinatra would be well advised to start with those albums, which were conceived of and produced as holistic statements. Starting off with a sampler set just sets you up for redundancies in your collection.

  • http://www.popdose.com DwDunphy

    You're right about the Nelson Riddle albums except in on important respect: From The Heart is going to be priced on the cheap and, for a new audience, the cost of those really great albums equal the cost of something new. More than likely they'll lose track and go for the new.

    This is not really a defense, mind you, because the cash-grab luridness of it all still demeans Sinatra… But a young person suddenly struck with the notion, “I wonder what my grandparents see in Frank Sinatra” could grab this CD for a fraction of the cost of, say, the new Kelly Clarkson album and find out.

  • icall31

    thanks!

  • outsidecounsel

    There are ample gateways to Sinatra's work. Collections like this are actually something of a barrier to entry. Here's my thinking. Start with the premise that Sinatra's work on Capitol with Nelson Riddle (“Songs for Swingin' Lovers”, “In the Wee Small Hours”, “Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely”, “A Swingin' Affair”) may be one of the greatest sustained bursts of genius in popular music. (What can match it? I think the work Miles Davis was doing in 1956 for Prestige– “Workin'”, “Cookin'”, “Steamin'” and “Relaxin'”– then with Columbia, on “Round About Midnight” through “Kind of Blue”– fits into this category. The Sones string of releases starting with “Beggar's Banquet” and running through “Let It Bleed”, “Sticky Fingers” and culminating in “Exile On Main Street” does also. After those, what?) Anyone who is interested in Sinatra would be well advised to start with those albums, which were conceived of and produced as holistic statements. Starting off with a sampler set just sets you up for redundancies in your collection.

  • http://www.popdose.com DwDunphy

    You're right about the Nelson Riddle albums except in on important respect: From The Heart is going to be priced on the cheap and, for a new audience, the cost of those really great albums equal the cost of something new. More than likely they'll lose track and go for the new.

    This is not really a defense, mind you, because the cash-grab luridness of it all still demeans Sinatra… But a young person suddenly struck with the notion, “I wonder what my grandparents see in Frank Sinatra” could grab this CD for a fraction of the cost of, say, the new Kelly Clarkson album and find out.