Michael Fremer

When Frank left Capitol to start his own Reprise label, his old label made a push to reap the old catalogue's financial benefits. Frank fought back by recording in April of 1963 this album of big Capitol hits with arrangements by Nelson Riddle. Sinatra knew the tunes well, laying them all down live with orchestra in two days.

This mostly introspective, Jackie McLean led session featuring trombonist Grachan Moncur III (who contributes three of the four compositions), Roy Haynes, bassist Larry Ridley and Bobby Hutcherson, whose vibraphone add an otherworldly element to the mix, sounds more like something from an eerie “Twilight Zone” episode than what one normally expects or gets from the Blue Note franchise.

To those of us at a certain age and religious persuasion, there's something bizarre about Iggy and the Stooges playing  Kutsher's Country Club, once one of the Borscht Belt's premiere venues. Of course Kutsher's and the Borscht Belt aren't what they used to be but Iggy and the Stooges still are!

The late New York Times rock critic Robert Palmer once wrote a Billy Joel review that was so scathing, so mean, so nasty and couched in personal terms, that even I, a fellow Billy Joel detractor (perhaps even a "hater" back then), cringed with embarrassment.