Frank Sinatra was never content to stand behind the microphone and sing to a live audience. He developed a parallel career as a movie actor and embraced the new medium of television with a series of specials. A set of four DVDs has recently been released in honor of the centennial of the singer’s birth. “The Frank Sinatra Collection” includes two DVDs of his TV shows from the 1960s, one collection of ‘70s TV shows and a fourth, Concert for the Americas, documenting a 1982 amphitheater performance in the Dominican Republic.
The best of the TV discs, A Man and His Music and A Man and His Music Part II, are compilations from the ‘60s. Sinatra was in the late summer of his career, fully in control of his voice (which had gradually deepened with age), interjecting his trademark lyrical inventions and interpreting the material through body language as well as voice. He performed with characteristic swagger, yet was capable of hushed emotional restraint paired with Carlos Jobim on “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars.” Sharing the spotlight with Ella Fitzgerald, he waxed bluesy on “Ode to Billy Joe.”
For Sinatra and Friends (1977), he surrendered much of the show to such alleged pals as Loretta Lynn and Leslie Ugams; he greeted a shaggy looking John Denver warily, as if to say: “Who let the hippie in?” Sinatra tried to go disco on a rendition of “All or Nothing at All” and it sounded good—for about 30 seconds.
He was more comfortable being himself. Although he was now in the autumn of his years, and had lost vocal range, Sinatra remained a commanding presence on Concert for the Americas. The opening number, “I’ve Got the World on a String,” set the mood of totally assured confidence. The audience roared with approval.
