Song:Medley
DVD:Sinatra: The Classic Duets
At the end of Frank Sinatra's long music career, he recorded a very successful album of Duets in 1993. The obvious influence was Natalie Cole's very successful duet with her dad Nat King Cole. Apparently Sinatra selected the songs and the duet partners. The problem was producer Phil Ramone had Sinatra record his part and then have the partner record over his backing track. Among those to participate were Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand and Bono. Of course the problem was the album lacked spontaneity but it sold very well and was certified 3XPlatinum. Capitol released Duets II from leftovers of the first album. It was certified Platinum. These were Sinatra's final recordings before his 1998 death. In 2000, After re-releasing much of Sinatra's Capitol recordings, they were approached by PBS producer David Leaf about doing a collection of duets from Sinatra's 50s and 60s TV shows. Leaf produced a DVD of these duets that also aired on PBS and Capitol released a CD which is no longer available. The DVD is available Unlike the Duets CD, all of these performances were performed live. This medley with Dinah Shore is outstanding. But there are also duets with Louis Armstrong, Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby and three with Ella Fitzgerald. They should have recorded together but never did. There is also a duet of Witchcraft and Love Me Tender with Elvis Presley just after Elvis left the Army. So if you're a Frank Sinatra fan, you don't want to overlook this DVD. You might not even know it's out there. Highly recommended. Here is Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore performing a medley of songs from one of Sinatra's TV specials in the 60s.
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