To avoid overlap, these listings include only individual CDs and boxed sets as they were originally released, not repackaged compilations devoted to particular songwriters, bandleaders or other themes.
* BOX: “Harry James and His Orchestra, Featuring Frank Sinatra: The Complete Recordings,” 1939 (LEG).The dawning of the most enduring recording career in pop music, on a single CD. The intensity Sinatra brings to “All or Nothing at All” and “From the Bottom of My Heart” serve warning to Bing Crosby that his reign as America’s pre-eminent crooner will soon be over.
* BOX: “The Song Is You,” the complete recordings with Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, in a 5-CD set, 1940-42 (RCA). Sinatra defined and refined his art in Dorsey’s band, emulating the long, sinuous and somewhat melancholy phrasings of Dorsey’s trombone.
* BOX: “The Columbia Years, The V-Discs,” a 2-CD set (LEG). This contains all of the V-Disc recordings Sinatra made for U.S. troops, which means it documents his swift artistic progress during the recording ban of the early 1940s.
* BOX: “The Columbia Years, 1943-1952, The Complete Recordings,” a 12-CD set (LEG). Sinatra’s career skyrocketed, then plummeted, during this period. This massive set covers it all, from the sumptuous phrases of “Close to You” in the top-of-the-charts early ’40s to the demeaning duet with a baying dog on “Mama Will Bark” in the down-in-the-dumps early ’50s.
“Swing Easy!” 1953 (CAP).
“Songs for Young Lovers,” 1954 (CAP).
* “In the Wee Small Hours” 1955 (CAP). The dark and melancholy mood that Sinatra sustains in this album, one of his best of the ’50s, brought to American pop music an emotional depth never heard before.
* “Songs for Swingin’ Lovers” 1956 (CAP). The title says it all, with Sinatra’s vocals riding an easy swing beat on such high-as-a-kite anthems as “You Make Me Feel So Young,” “It Happened in Monterey,” “Too Marvelous for Words” and the classic “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”
“High Society,” 1956 (CAP).
“Tone Poems of Color,” 1957 (CAP).
“This Is Sinatra,” 1957 (CAP).
“Close to You,” 1957 (CAP).
“A Swingin’ Affair,” 1957 (CAP).
“A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra,” 1957 (later reissued as “The Sinatra Christmas Album”) (CAP).
“Pal Joey,” 1957 (CAP).
“Where Are You?” 1957 (CAP).
“Come Fly With Me,” 1958 (CAP).”This Is Sinatra, Vol. 2,” 1958 (CAP).
“This Is Sinatra, Vol. 2,” 1958 (CAP)
* “(Frank Sinatra Sings For) Only the Lonely,” 1958 (CAP). If you had to pick the greatest Sinatra album of all time, this would be it. The emotional sorrow Sinatra brings forth is expressionistic, while the orchestral accompaniments (arranged by Nelson Riddle) are symphonies in themselves.
* “Come Dance With Me!” 1959 (CAP). Sinatra never sounded more euphoric than in this uptempo swinger, with Billy May’s glorious brass screaming behind him.
“Look to Your Heart,” 1959 (CAP).
“No One Cares,” 1959 (CAP).
“Can-Can,” 1960 (CAP).
* “Nice ‘N’ Easy,” 1960 (CAP). Neither bursting with energy nor singing the blues, Sinatra explores a gentle middle road between the two. His softly seductive reading of the title track and his unbelievably slow and profound “How Deep Is the Ocean?” are among the highlights.
“Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session,” 1960 (CAP).
“All the Way,” 1960 (CAP).
“Come Swing With Me!” 1961 (CAP).
* “Point of No Return,” 1961 (CAP). Sinatra reunites with his pre-Nelson Riddle arranger, Axel Stordahl, for profound, bathed-in-strings renditions of “I’ll Remember April,” “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “These Foolish Things.”
“Ring-a-Ding-Ding,” 1961 (REP).
“Swing Along With Me,” 1962 (retitled “Sinatra Swings,” REP).
“I Remember Tommy,” 1962 (REP).
“Sinatra and Strings,” 1962 (REP).
“Sinatra and Swingin’ Brass,” 1962 (REP).
“Sinatra Sings Great Songs From Great Britain,” 1962 (REP).
“Frank Sinatra Conducts Music From Pictures and Plays,” 1962 (REP).
“All Alone,” 1962 (REP).
“Sinatra and Basie,” 1963 (REP).
* “The Concert Sinatra,” 1963 (REP). Unlike any of Sinatra’s other albums, this one shows the singer reconceiving American pop songs for quasi-operatic settings. In tunes such as the epic “I Have Dreamed,” the soul-searching “Lost in the Stars” and the heroic “Soliloquy,” Sinatra performs on a larger scale than ever before or since.
“Musical Repertory Theatre,” 1963 (collection, with special recordings of “Finian’s Rainbow,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Kiss Me Kate” and “South Pacific,” REP).
“Sinatra’s Sinatra,” 1963 (REP).
“Frank Sinatra Sings `Days of Wine and Roses,’ `Moon River’ and Other Academy Award Winners,” 1964 (REP).
“America, I Hear You Singing,” 1964 (REP).
* “It Might as Well Be Swing,” 1964 (REP). The better of Sinatra’s two albums with Count Basie shows the singer adapting to the bandleader’s coy, stripped-down accompaniments. The recording, with arrangements by Quincy Jones, yields two Sinatra classics: “The Best Is Yet to Come” and “Fly Me to the Moon.”
“Robin and the Seven Hoods,” 1964 (REP).
“Softly As I Leave You,” 1964 (REP).
“Twelve Songs of Christmas,” 1964 (REP).
* “September of My Years,” 1965 (REP). The best of Sinatra’s autumnal albums, this one points to an artist beginning to take stock. In numbers such as “This Is All I Ask,” “It Was a Very Good Year,” the heartbreaking “Once Upon a Time” and the title track, Sinatra offers a distinctive mixture of regret and hope, sorrow and yearning.
“Sinatra ’65,” 1965 (REP).
“My Kind of Broadway,” 1965 (REP).
“A Man and His Music,” 1965 (REP).
“Strangers in the Night,” 1966 (REP).
* “Moonlight Sinatra,” 1966 (REP). More than just a gimmick, Sinatra’s exploration of all the things the moon inspires – including love and betrayal – provides deeply introspective accounts of “Moonlight Becomes You,” “Moonlight Serenade” and the bittersweet “I Wished on the Moon.”
* “Sinatra at the Sands,” 1966 (REP). Sinatra’s best live album captures the man’s ebullience (in tunes such as “Come Fly With Me” and “Fly Me to the Moon”), as well as his capacity for poetic reverie (“The Shadow of Your Smile” and “Street of Dreams”).
“That’s Life,” 1966 (REP).
* “Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim,” 1967 (REP). Though he never had sung in a Brazilian manner before, Sinatra’s first bossa nova recordings were remarkably idiomatic. Here is Sinatra easily embracing a musical culture that would seem foreign to him.
“Frank Sinatra,” 1967 (REP).
“Francis A., Edward K.,” 1968 (REP).
“Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits,” 1968 (REP).
“The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas,” 1968 (REP).
“Cycles,” 1968 (REP).
“My Way,” 1969 (REP).
“A Man Alone,” 1969 (REP).
“Watertown,” 1969 (REP).
“Sinatra and Company,” 1970 (REP).
“Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits, Vol. II,” 1971 (Reprise).
“Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back,” 1973 (REP).
“Some Nice Things I’ve Missed,” 1974 (REP).
“The Main Event,” 1974 (REP).
“Trilogy,” 1980 (REP).
“She Shot Me Down,” 1981 (REP).
“Sinatra and Syms,” 1983 (REP).
“L.A. Is My Lady,” 1984 (REP).
(NOTE: All of the aforementioned Reprise recordings are included in “The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings,” a 20-CD set that also features tracks never before released. In addition, “The Reprise Collection,” a four-CD set, features popular singles from the Reprise years.)
“Duets,” 1993 (CAP).
“Duets II,” 1994 (CAP).
“Sinatra and Sextet: Live in Paris,” 1994 (REP). Recorded live in Paris on June 5, 1962, this release was issued, belatedly, on the eve of the singer’s 80th birthday.
* “Sinatra 80th: Live in Concert,” 1995 (CAP). In truth, Sinatra’s last live album actually stitches together several concert performances from the final few years of his performing career. Therefore, the recording presents him live in several concerts, not one. Yet this is a crucial – and sonically honest – document of how the singer sounded at the very end. The voice may be more dry and grainy than in its prime, but still performs the old songs (“Where or When,” “Angel Eyes”) with a heroism that is difficult to resist.
* “Frank Sinatra With the Red Norvo Quintet: Live in Australia, 1959,” 1997 (BLUE NOTE/CAP). Another late entry in Sinatra’s discography weaves together performances from March 31 and April 1, 1959.
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* = Howard Reich’s favorite recordings
Key to label abbreviations
CAP = Capitol
LEG = Capitol/Legacy
COL = Columbia
REP = Reprise
