Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. I've Got the World on a String [Take 10]
2. Lean Baby - Frank Sinatra, Axel Stordahl & His Orchestra
3. I Love You
4. South of the Border
5. From Here to Eternity
6. They Can't Take That Away from Me - Frank Sinatra
7. I Get a Kick Out of You
8. Young at Heart
9. Three Coins in the Fountain
10. All of Me
11. Taking a Chance on Love
12. Someone to Watch over Me - Nelson Riddle, Frank Sinatra
13. What Is This Thing Called Love? - Nelson Riddle, Frank Sinatra
14. In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
15. Learnin' the Blues
16. Our Town [From the TV Production Our Town]
17. Love and Marriage [From the TV Production Our Town]
18. (Love Is) The Tender Trap [From the Film The Tender Trap]
19. Weep They Will
20. I Thought About You
21. You Make Me Feel So Young - Nelson Riddle, Frank Sinatra
22. Memories of You
23. I've Got You Under My Skin
24. Too Marvelous for Words
25. Don't Like Goodbyes
26. (How Little It Matters) How Little We Know

Disc 2:

1. Hey! Jealous Lover
2. You're Sensational [Single Version]
3. Close to You
4. Stars Fell on Alabama
5. I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'
6. I Wish I Were in Love Again
7. Lady Is a Tramp
8. Night and Day
9. Lonesome Road
10. If I Had You
11. Where Are You? - Billy Jenkins, Frank Sinatra
12. I'm a Fool to Want You - Gordon Jenkins & His Orchestra, Frank Sinatra
13. Witchcraft - Nelson Riddle, Frank Sinatra
14. Something Wonderful Happens in Summer
15. All the Way [From the Film The Joker Is Wild]
16. Chicago [From the Film The Joker Is Wild]
17. Let's Get Away from It All - Billy May, Billy May, Frank Sinatra
18. Autumn in New York - Billy May, Billy May, Frank Sinatra
19. Come Fly with Me - Billy May, Billy May, Frank Sinatra
20. Everybody Loves Somebody
21. It's the Same Old Dream
22. Put Your Dreams Away (For Another Day) - Nelson Riddle, Frank Sinatra
23. Here Goes [#] - Billy May, Billy May, Frank Sinatra
24. Angel Eyes - Nelson Riddle, Frank Sinatra

Disc 3:

1. Ebb Tide - Nelson Riddle, Frank Sinatra
2. Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry - Nelson Riddle, Frank Sinatra
3. Only the Lonely - Nelson Riddle, Frank Sinatra
4. One for My Baby (And One More for the Road) [#] - Nelson Riddle, Frank Sinatra
5. To Love and Be Loved [Single Version]
6. I Couldn't Care Less [#]
7. Song Is You
8. Just in Time - Billy May, Billy May, Frank Sinatra
9. Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week) - Billy May, Billy May, Frank Sinatra
10. Come Dance with Me - Billy May, Billy May, Frank Sinatra
11. French Foreign Legion
12. One I Love (Belongs to Somebody Else) - Gordon Jenkins & His Orchestra, Frank Sinatra
13. Here's That Rainy Day - Gordon Jenkins & His Orchestra, Frank Sinatra
14. High Hopes [From the Film A Hole in the Head]
15. When No One Cares
16. I'll Never Smile Again
17. I've Got a Crush on You
18. Embraceable You - Nelson Riddle, Frank Sinatra
19. Nice 'N' Easy
20. I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me
21. On the Sunny Side of the Street - Billy May, Billy May, Frank Sinatra
22. I've Heard That Song Before
23. Almost Like Being in Love - Billy May, Billy May, Frank Sinatra
24. I'll Be Seeing You - Frank Sinatra, Axel Stordahl & His Orchestra
25. I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues - Skip Martin Orchestra, Frank Sinatra

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12095 in Music
• Released on: 1990-12-13
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set

Amazon.com

Franks Sinatra Photos

More from Ole Blue Eyes

Classic Sinatra	In the Wee Small Hours	Nice-n-Easy
Romance: Songs From the Heart	Songs for Swingin’ Lovers	Come Fly with Me

Amazon.com
Including Sinatra's finest recordings from the most consistently accomplished era of his career, The Capitol Years includes three discs and 75 songs worth of swinging standards and bittersweet saloon pop, the music Sinatra made after his career and personal life had crashed and singing was all he had left. His masterful baritone and remarkable phrasing here work in perfect combination with arrangements that swing and swell to the heartbeat of loves lost and found. It is these performances for which Sinatra will be forever remembered, for surely, no one has ever created music more beautiful than this. --David Cantwell

Customer Reviews

The Capitol Years
I strongly disagree with the reviewer below who recommended buying the individual CDs instead. This set is perfect for both the novice listener and the serious Sinatraphile. For someone who doesn't own any Sinatra, this set is a perfect overview of his best period, and includes all of his classic hits such as "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Witchcraft", etc. But for the serious Sinatra collector (which I am), this set is indispensable, because it includes tracks that are ONLY available on this compilation. I own all of the individual Capitol albums (even "Close to You" and "Tone Poems in Color", which are sadly no longer available), and I wouldn't trade this collection for any of them! In addition to numerous singles that weren't on the studio albums (but are available on the "Singles" collection, which I also own), it includes a version of "Memories of You" that was recorded during the "Songs for Swinging Lovers" sessions, but not included on the album. This version is FAR superior to the one on the later "Point of No Return" album- it's a Riddle arrangement vs. Alex Stordahl, after all! It also has a smoking Billy May arrangement of "Here Goes" that has never before been released. But the ultimate treat for Sinatra fans is the never-before-heard test tape of "One For My Baby", the justly famous tune that appeared on "Only the Lonely". Frank walked into the studio the day before the session (undoubtedly after staying out all night) and ran through the song with pianist Bill Miller, and thank God someone recorded and saved it! This is the ultimate version of a saloon song classic that will immediately give you chills when you hear it. Sinatra's voice has never been more raw and exposed, and the result is nothing short of a miracle. It is a perfect illustration of why we still listen to Sinatra, and will for generations to come.

Almost His Very Best Collection
I'll always be partial to this Capitol Years 3-CD box set which introduced me to Sinatra's greatness ten years ago. It was my first CD purchase---actually I bought the three cassettes first, and when the tapes were stolen from my car, my wife bought me the CD version for Christmas '92. Which prompted me to sit right down and write The Man a letter, telling him how I'd discovered his greatness "a little late in life." He replied immediately. (More about that in a moment.)

In reference to the "Songs for Swingin' Lovers" tracks (four) included here, I had closed my letter to him with these words:

"On a personal note: my absolute favorite song of yours, for reasons I can't really explain, is 'I Thought About You.' Maybe it's the deceptively simple, elegant tune by that genius who began life as Chester Babcock (Van Heusen). Or the brilliant lyric by the century's greatest lyricist (Mercer). Or the gem of an arrangement by my favorite American arranger (Riddle) with all those train sounds, that have you swinging down the track. Oh hell, let's face it---it's the singer! The song wouldn't be what it is without you. Merry Christmas 1992!"

Within two weeks I received a reply, on gold-embossed 'FS' stationery, with a beautiful, bright blue, fountain pen signature:

January 1993

Dear Mark,

Thank you very much for your letter of December 17. I am flattered by your kind words and greatly appreciate your interest in my music . . . It was so nice of you to take the time to write!

Here's wishing you and your family a very healthy and happy New Year! Keep listening!

All the best,
(signed)
Frank Sinatra

Understandably, I treated the advice to "Keep listening!" as a personal injunction, acquiring 36 of his best CDs, including---most recently, thanks to an Amazon.com seller---the obscure "Great Songs from Great Britain" (the only studio-recorded album Sinatra ever produced outside Hollywood/L.A).

Contrary to an opinion I once shared with many reviewers here, I'm convinced the 2-CD Reprise collection titled "The Very Best of Frank Sinatra" is superior, for many reasons. (Please see my review for that one.) I was convinced that "The Capitol Years" was the best place to start a Sinatra collection. But ten years, and 36 CDs later, I admit to a change of heart.

Still, this 3-CD collection has some unique virtues that have not been commented on: 'Only available here' for example, is the previously commercially unreleased Cahn/Van Heusen masterpiece "I Couldn't Care Less" featuring what this reviewer considers Nelson Riddle's single most beautiful ballad arrangement. Sinatra works his subtle magic with one of Sammy Cahn's very best lyrics ("Balmy breezes are blowing, the stars in the night are glowing, but I couldn't care less") while orchestra conjures up sounds of a summer night, with Riddle's strings ratcheting up through almost two octaves of semi-tones in the first eight bars of the instrumental bridge (release). Simply heavenly! And to think Sinatra and the musicians did this in one take.

By comparison the highly-touted version of "I've Got You Under My Skin" included here (I know it's sacrilege to say this, but it's not as good as the one on the 2-CD Reprise collection!) this version took 22 takes before the singer was pleased! The generally-factual liner notes still include a fair number of errors---including a really glaring one I pointed out to Sinatra in my letter: The very first cut on Disc One by one of his favorite song-writers ("I've Got the World on a String") fails to correctly identify the composer, Harold Arlen.

I single out "I Couldn't Care Less" because no other reviewer at Amazon.com (or even those who wrote the liner notes) commented on its special virtues. This 'one-take wonder' was briefly available, 30 years ago on a premium, mail-order-only album (Longines, 1973) but again, this is the only place you'll ever hear it.
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Two cuts earlier is the "unreleased alternate take" of the Arlen/Mercer classic "One for My Baby" with Sinatra alone in the studio, doing a rehearsal with pianist Bill Miller. Other reviewers here (and those who wrote the liner notes) were delighted apparently with this version, despite the singer's flubbing of the lyrics at the end of the bridge/release. I recommend you get the full, "Only the Lonely" CD and you'll know at once why Sinatra approved the take that he did---with Nelson Riddle's sublime strings rising like smoke behind singer and pianist for the final stanza of the chorus. Utter 'Perfection.'

So . . .if a new generation of fans treat his advice to "Keep Listening!" as seriously as I did, they'll agree that his best was 'yet to come' ---in the early Reprise years----and is preserved (at a more reasonable cost), in the double-CD "The Very Best of Frank Sinatra."

Lots of rare & unreleased stuff
There is no other box set you can buy, by anyone, that will have this much quality music on it. But the best reason to own it is to hear to the many unreleased tracks that are all over this set. Frank's outtakes are better than most people's released takes! You get the first take of the classic "One For My Baby"; a beautiful "Memories of You", "Here Goes", etc. This is no mere compilation, this is the definitive Sinatra boxed set. Since he didn't do any dreck while with Capitol, each disk is chock full of nothing but high quality songs and brilliant vocals. The liner notes won a grammy, and deservedly so. My only complaint is that some of the songs selected from various albums are questionable, and many others are missing. Where's "Around The World", "There's No You", and "Brazil"? One of those classics could easily have been substituted for "French Foreign Legion", for example. A four disk set would have been better, to give people a better idea of what each album was about, rather than just the hits and a couple lesser known ones per album. Of course, getting all the albums AND this set is recommended, because a boxed set can't do justice to the brilliance conceptual themes of many of his Capitol albums. And since this set has some astounding songs you can't get elsewhere, it's essential. Definitely my favorite boxed set; incomparable to most others except the similarly fantastic four-disk Reprise Collection, if you don't include disk four.