Choose Your Friends Carefully

 

Frank Sinatra - Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits [K 44011 UK 1972 24-Bit FLAC]

Yep ....you are not seeing things, Frank gets a special guest slot on Needle Time. There is a story behind this record - about twenty years ago, I was best man at a friend's wedding near Seattle in Washington State. The newly weds decided they wanted to do something different and booked a karaoke DJ for the evening festivities. 

After a few too many beverages, I managed to do my worst and belt out a few classics - English Rose by The Jam and Friggin' In The Riggin' by The Sex Pistols from memory, much to the 'amusement' of my Pacific Northwestern hosts. Then the groom, to everybody's amazement, took to the stage and belted out a string of Frank classics, note perfect and put us all to shame.

A week or so later, back in the UK and in a charity shop, I picked up this 1972 pressing of the 1968 Greatest Hits collection for about 50 pence. A genuine bargain and a worthy memento of that evening in Seattle. This collection covers just Frankie's Reprise years, so older genuine classics like Come Fly With Me are excluded. The record is in remarkable condition and this rip is as it was captured, complete with those longer crackly sections between tracks we associate with old records.

In case you've gotten this far and were wondering why My Way is not included, it wasn't recorded to December 1968.

A1 Strangers In The Night
A2 Summer Wind
A3 It Was A Very Good Year
A4 Somewhere In Your Heart
A5 Forget Domani
A6 Somethin' Stupid
B1 That's Life
B2 Tell Her (You Love Her Each Day)
B3 The World We Knew (Over And Over)
B4 When Somebody Loves You
B5 This Town
B6 Softly As I Leave You