The earlier version was done with Frank’s arranger for much of the 1940s, Axel Stordahl, along with the Pied Pipers, Tommy Dorsey’s singing group from when Frank was a member of Dorsey’s organization.Ĭole Porter’s ‘What is This Thing Called Love?’ was written for the 1930 musical Wake Me Up And Dream.

It is one that Frank had recorded before, the first time way back in 1945, two weeks after World war 2 finally finished in the Pacific. The unreleased rehearsal of ‘The Surrey With The Fringe On Top’ recorded with Billy May was originally from the 1943 Rogers and Hammerstein musical, Oklahoma. Frank even found some very good standards that he hadn’t recorded before that included – ‘But Not For Me’, ‘I Had the Craziest Dream’, ‘More Than You Know’, ‘They All Laughed’, ‘It Had To Be You’ and ‘All of You’ (the latter two tracks are included on the deluxe Ultimate Sinatra), These particular sessions, which were for the ‘Past’ section of Trilogy, were appropriately the first sessions for the recording of what became a triple album.īilly May’s long association made him an ideal candidate for recording this section of the project Billy’s arrangements on each of the tracks that ended up on ‘Past’ are wonderful.

Sinatra and May were there to record tracks for the Trilogy, Past, Present and Future album project. It was on Wednesday 18 July 1979 that Frank was at Western Recorders studio in Hollywood with Billy May conducting the orchestra for the third of three consecutive evening sessions. The deluxe edition also features an 80-page booklet with a new essay by Sinatra historian and author Charles Pignone, as well as rare photos and quotes from Frank Sinatra and his children, Nancy, Tina and Frank Jr., as well as from Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Quincy Jones.Īside from the unreleased track included on the 4CD set there are some other previously unreleased songs included as bonus tracks that we’ve explored to put them into some kind of context. Ultimate Sinatra’s 4CD edition boasts 100 tracks celebrating 100 years (including a never before released bonus track. Ultimate Sinatra opens with ‘All Or Nothing At All,’ recorded with Harry James and his Orchestra on Augduring Sinatra’s first studio session. To celebrate this year’s centenary of Frank Sinatra there is a superb new set of releases under the name, Ultimate Sinatra that presents key recordings spanning the Chairman of the Board s recordings for Columbia, Capitol and Reprise, together for the first time.

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