Top Artists – Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra and Count Basie – Sinatra At The Sands

More Frank Sinatra

  • These original Blue and Green Reprise Stereo pressings were doing just about everything right, with all FOUR sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them
  • Truly one of the greatest live albums of all time, recorded late at night in the big room at the Sands Hotel in Vegas
  • This is Basie and Sinatra in their natural habitat and in their prime, putting on the show of a lifetime
  • On the right system, this is about as close as you get to hearing Sinatra singing live in your listening room, with the added realism of a live Vegas show (particularly on sides one, two, and four)
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Basie and the orchestra are swinging and dynamic, inspiring a textured, dramatic, and thoroughly enjoyable performance from Sinatra … the definitive portrait of Frank Sinatra in the 60s.”

This double album presents Sinatra and Basie at the height of their powers, in a setting especially conducive to both men’s music, the big room at the Sands Hotel in Vegas. If you missed it — and I’m sure most all of us did — here’s your chance to go back in time and be seated with the beautiful people front row center. This two-disc all tube-mastered analog set is practically the only way you’ll ever be able to hear the greatest vocalist of his generation — in his prime, no less — fronting one of the swingingest big bands of the time.

The presence and immediacy here are staggering. Turn it up and Frank is right in front of you, putting on the performance of a lifetime.

The sound is big, open, rich, and full. The highs are extended and silky sweet. The bass is tight and punchy. And this copy gives you more life and energy than most, by a long shot. Very few records out there offer the kind of realistic, lifelike sound you get from this pressing.

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Stick with the Tri-Tone Stereo Originals on Swing Along with Me

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Frank Sinatra Available Now

When advising our fellow audiophiles about how to find the best sounding pressings, we tend to favor discussions about records in which the original is not the best over records in which the right reissue is not the best. (And there are practically discussions for when the modern reissue is the best. Just one so far!)

The same would be true for English bands whose records sound better when they are made in any country other than England, bands whose recordings you may think you know well, such as Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath.

You might say our record collecting philosophy revolves aroung the contrarian idea that rules were made to be broken.

But let’s face it, most record collecting rules hold up most of the time. That’s how they got to be rules.

In the case of Sinatra’s Swing Along with Me album from 1961, the second label reissues which came along later in the 60s are not merely a shadow of the originals. They’re nothing like the originals.

Side one was so gritty and hot (bright) that we couldn’t even be bothered to play side two. Trust me, you do not want to play a vintage Sinatra record that is gritty and hot.

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The 20 to 1 Ratio for Finding Your Personal Favorites

More Entries from Tom’s Audiophile Notebook

That guy you see pictured on the left has spent much of the last forty years wandering around used record stores looking for better records (ahem).

Before that he wandered around stores selling new records because he didn’t know how good old used records could be.

Here are some of the things he’s learned since he started collecting at the age of ten about sixty years ago. (First purchase: She Loves You on 45. It’s still in the collection, although it cracked long ago and is no longer playable.)

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently (and one that is still on its way to him):

Hey Tom, 

So I go on YouTube to refresh my memory and listen and James Taylor, that could be good, Toto, what a feel good album, brings back memories, Wish You Were Here, already have a pretty good copy, Sinatra-Basie, what’s that?

So I go to YouTube and first track HOLY CRAP! You know it’s good when you’re throwing a sound stage off your lap-top! Basie orchestra, perfect. Frank comes in swinging and man that guy was so freaking cool, people today have no idea how unbelievably cool he was, and so like 20 seconds if that I am SOLD!

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Letter of the Week – “I feel like a scotch right now.”

More of the Music of Frank Sinatra

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom,   

Thanks guys – sitting here listening to my A+++/A+++ Sinatra that I just opened. Wow, just as advertised it’s like Uncle Frank is right here in my listening room.

I feel like a scotch right now.

Love your service, your product and your integrity.

Rocco

Rocco,

Thanks for the kind words. We love to make discoveries of just these sorts of albums, and make them available on Hot Stamper pressings that we know for a fact sound good, because we cleaned and played them ourselves.

What could be better?

Thanks for your letter.

Best, TP

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Close to You on Mobile Fidelity Vinyl – Is This the Sound Audiophiles Were Clamoring For in ’83?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Frank Sinatra Available Now

In 2024 we did a shootout for the first of Frank’s many releases from 1957, Close to You. We were fortunate to have the Mobile Fidelity pressing from the ’80s box set to play against the mostly original pressings we had accumulated since our last shootout in 2020.

It takes a long time to find enough clean copies to get a shootout going. Four years is fairly typical these days I would imagine.

As you can see from our notes, side one of this MoFi was just awful. Can you blame us if we didn’t bother to play side two?

P.S. I Love You

  • Over-textured violin
  • Spitty, gritty vocals
  • Hollow and dry

Close To You

  • Very clean
  • Bass and vocals really lacking body and warmth

Our grade, had we given it one, would have had to have been a big fat F.

Is it the worst version of the album ever made?

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The Mono Pressings of Come Dance With Me Are Just Awful

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Frank Sinatra Available Now

We had two mono pressings, one on the first label, one on the second, and both were unacceptable, especially the reissue.

Side one of the early label pressing was big and tubey but the vocals were gritty. Side two was hot, crude and midrangy.

Which raises the question: what is the general sound of the mono pressing on the early label?

Answer: it has no sound, or more accurately, it has two very different sounds, and if we had ten of them we could probably say it has a lot more sounds than the ones we described. Our advice:Beware of small sample sizes, especially sample sizes of two.

The stereo pressings we listed recently had superb sound. The monos, however, just sounded like old records, and not very good ones at that. The typical record collection is full of them.

Only an old school audio system can hide the faults of a pressing such as this one. The world is full of those too, even though they might comprise all the latest and most expensive components.

The mono pressings are hopeless on today’s modern stereos, and for that reason we say stick with stereo. For other albums that don’t sound good in mono, click here.

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Letter of the Week – “Living breathing humans in my listening room. Which is absolutely spooky.”

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom,   

I have been extremely busy getting Hurricane impact windows and doors and then I have my Audiophile collection I’m selling on Ebay. I’m dying to do some write up on some of the mind blowing White hot stampers I have purchased from you.

One LP that comes to mind is the Frank Sinatra Live at the Sands. First few notes on side 4, I almost feel like jumping out of my listening chair to run into my daughter’s room and scream from the top of my lungs. Am I losing my mind or this is really happening? Living breathing humans in my listening room which is absolutely spooky.

I really don’t believe there is a single word in the dictionary to truly describe this masterpiece.

Thank you and the crew from Better records for allowing me to hear what records should really sound like, which is absolutely the real thing.

Naz

Sinatra At The Sands through Dahlquist DQ-10’s – My Neophyte Audiophile Mind Is Blown

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Frank Sinatra Available Now

Back in the early 70s this was actually the album that first introduced me to honest-to-goodness “audiophile” sound.  

I was at my local stereo store listening to speakers one day, and the salesman made a comment that the speakers we were listening to (the old Infinity Monitors with the Walsh tweeter) sounded “boxy.”

I confessed to him that I didn’t actually know what that meant or what it would sound like if it weren’t boxy. 

So he hooked up a pair of Dahlquist DQ-10s and put Sinatra at the Sands on. I was amazed at how the sound just floated in the room, free from the speakers, presenting an image that was as wide and deep as the showroom we were in. That speaker may have many flaws, but boxiness is definitely not one of them.

This description is pretty close to what I thought I heard all those years ago:

The presence and immediacy here are staggering. Turn it up and Frank is right between your speakers, putting on the performance of a lifetime. Very few records out there offer the kind of realistic, lifelike sound you get from this pressing.

This vintage stereo LP also has the MIDRANGE MAGIC that’s missing from the later reissues. As good as some of them can be, this one is dramatically more real sounding. It gives you the sense that Frank Sinatra is right in front of you.

He’s no longer a recording — he’s a living, breathing person. We call that “the breath of life,” and this record has it in spades. His voice is so rich, sweet, and free of any artificiality, you immediately find yourself lost in the music, because there’s no “sound” to distract you.

Or so I thought at the time.

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Frank Sinatra – Sinatra ’65

More Frank Sinatra

  • Sinatra 65 returns to the site for the first time in three years, here with big, bold, Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades from top to bottom
  • These are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “vox breathy and transparent”…”rich and detailed”…”big and tubey and spacious”…”great energy”…”rich and present”
  • This tri-color label Reprise pressing boasts clean, clear, full-bodied, lively and musical analog sound from first note to last
  • Forget whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl they’re making – the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this very special vintage pressing simply cannot be beat
  • 4 stars: “…Mr. S. surely swings as well as ever. Try him on ‘My Kind of Town’ – hear what lyric-reading is all about. Or ‘Anytime At All’ – for a lesson in bending notes to suit your exact mood. It’s perfectionist stuff. Vocal ‘feeling’ of the highest.” – Peter Jones, Record Mirror, October 23, 1965

Is the title a play on Capitol’s gazillion selling Beatles ’65? Only Frank really knows.

This original Green and Blue Reprise stereo pressing has the sound we look for — big, rich and tubey.

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Frank Sinatra – Sinatra’s Sinatra

More Frank Sinatra

More Nelson Riddle

  • Sinatra’s wonderful 1963 release finally returns with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound throughout
  • Forget the reissues – the stereo original we are offering here is the only way to go if rich, tubey, dynamic, musical sound is what you are after
  • Frank rerecorded some of his biggest hits in stereo for this album – the record is just one Sinatra Classic after another
  • “Some of his biggest hits and most famous songs are included in his picks, including “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “Young at Heart.””
  • Amazon 5 Stars: “Riddle’s arrangements are, as always, top-notch, and Sinatra is in fine, engaging form.”

Great bass and weight coupled with lots of space and correct tonality in the midrange add up to only one thing: Triple Plus or close to it sound on both sides!

Copies with rich lower mids and nice extension up top (to keep the strings from becoming shrill) did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren’t veiled or smeary of course. So many things can go wrong on a record! We know, we heard them all.

We know a fair bit about the man’s recordings at this point. As of today we’ve done commentaries for more than 21 different Sinatra shootouts, and that’s not even counting the ten or twenty other titles that either bombed or were sold off years ago. (more…)