Sinatra / Capitol Sound Quality and General Discussion - "No One Cares" (1959 LP)*

Reading this thread made me put on the sacd of No One Cares. Love the album!!!! Such a smooth, relaxing listen. Sipping some whiskey while listening makes it perfect!!

 

Very nice exchange of opinions, gentlemen. And Matt you qualify your position well.

I just think that you underestimate the worth of N&E. Maybe it exhibits some vocal fatigue--but nothing quite so dramatic as we hear later on AA, IRT, S&SB, GSFGB, SS and especially Academy Award Winners.

And true, its comprised of songs he previously recorded for Columbia--but now he's recording them with RIDDLE and not Stordahl--and that just takes them to another level of art and sophistication. Plus, the singing conveys a knowing sexuality absent from the earlier versions.

Personally, I wouldn't mark any vocal fatigue worth criticizing until "Take Me" and "Getting Sentimental" on IRT (still terrific performances). All the previous albums, AFAIC, exhibit the classic Capitol Sinatra vocalizing, even the ones on Reprise. They're not as sweet or gentle as the vocals of '53-57, but I don't consider the darker, huskier more muscular vocals of '59-61 to signal a decline, especially including those on N&E.

 

A dry version of Nice n Easy would be great. Does it exist?

 

Thanks Matt. I will look for that version. That reverb really hurts the sound of this album for me.

I agree with your overall assessment of the Capital years and beyond. Beyond is good, but not as good.

 

I don't think so, but I wouldn't definitively characterize N&E that way--hence the "maybe."

Sinatra allegedly turned to Jenkins as an arranger circa '57 because he thought that such a change would compensate for some creeping deficiency he was perceiving in his vocals (Friedwald). And Kaplan documents serious concerns expressed by FS during the session for "Lonely Town" on WAY? that his voice was not up to snuff. He was apparently satisfied by the results, but he was worried about what he was hearing.

 

That's basically a compilation in all but name, hence the hodgepodge.

 

Nice choice, Matt. For me, its "How Deep...?" SO many musical ideas being swapped back and forth between him and Riddle in the vocals and the arrangement. They realized how so very far away Berlin's song actually was from the list of mere cliches it appeared to be.

Hey, is this a N&E or NOC thread? My bad!

 

I basically agree with Matt, re the back and forth. Years ago, I probably wouldn't have, and I believe I even wrote against such a thought years ago here, but with some perspective of years, I've changed. Without muddling things with the singles releases, from WEE SMALL HOURS to NO ONE CARES, Frank's albums are consistently 5 stars. NICE 'N' EASY should rate about 4-4.5 stars, in my opinion. That means fabulous, and ranks it between the first two Sinatra/Capitol albums to my sensibilities.

I have to add, even though many would criticize this kind of thinking, hearing the MoFi hybrid of NO ONE CARES really let me rate the album this high (even though I'm not a big fan of "None But the Lonely Heart", but not enough to down-rate the album). The album finally "spoke" to me with hearing it to really appreciate it's greatness more than I ever had before its release.

 

I love the vocals on NOC, Martin. Some pretty devastating performances there. But I can't get past the arrangements. The most over-wrought and indelicate set of charts that Jenkins ever wrote for FS. Trying to out-do Riddle's OTL was a big mistake, IMHO.

 

Can't agree with this.

Jenkins did a fantastic job on No One Cares, Where Are You and September. Three of Sinatra's best albums - and 3 of the best sonically also. IMO, he did out do Nelson Riddle. On all 3 albums. I'll take his work here, and his work with Nat Cole over Nelson Riddle's best, which has become a bit of a myth. To each their own as they say.

 

I don't mind the arrangements on the other Jenkins-Sinatra albums. Some are quite wonderful.

But NOC is over-kill with the strings. Thick, soupy, syrupy. Two words: "Stormy Weather."

As for Riddle: either Wee Small or OTL rank among the very greatest works of 20th century American art. Nothing that Jenkins did, with FS or with anybody else, rises to those heights.

 

I have been listening to the sacd of NOC a lot in the past week . It's growing in stature with me with every listen and I consider it on par with Where
Are You?!! Both fabulous to these old ears!

I don't possess the knowledge or experience with Sinatra's work that many here have so take my opinion with a grain of salt. But I enjoy the arrangements
that Jenkins provides on this album tremendously! Heck, I even like Stormy Weather! Ha!!

But that's what I love about Frank......we can have differing opinions on things...but it's all good!!

 

•Sinatra and Swingin' Brass - Some great Hefti moments; gawdawful sound quality??

Godawful really?Maybe a little too much reverb on Sinatra's voice but it's a great sounding LP, well my UK Original Stereo sounds great.

 

In your opinion. Everyone has one.

 

Point well taken. As Matt was saying regarding N&E, these comparisons are all relative to Sinatra's ridiculously high standards.

I'll take the Columbia "Stormy Weather" and "Why Try to Change," but thank goodness we have every other Sinatra vocal on NOC. (Especially "Rainy Day" and "Just Friends.") Its Capitol Era FS, after all!!!!

 

Here's to that. Jenkins versus Riddle: Some people like Tchaikovsky better than Mozart.

 

True. In fact I do!

 

Well, the same can be said of other albums like The World We Knew. And if we look at them as such, should that affect the way we look at a significant chunk of his Reprise Years? Just curious as to what y'all think.

Excellent post. I guess my argument is this: three of my favorite Sinatra albums came from the early Reprise era: Sinatra & Strings and The Concert Sinatra. That album and the Jobim album and SOMY and most of She Shot Me Down are equal to the works he made at Capitol. So, I don't see a traditional, gradual fall here. There are high peaks and ridiculously low valleys in the Reprise era.

But yeah, 1959 or 1960 is a turning point for him.

I often wonder what would've happened if he'd have just bought Verve. A shame that a guy like Norman Granz wouldn't have gelled with Sinatra.