Rating: NNNN
When Frank Sinatra left the Harry James band after six months to join the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1940, singers were still considered hired bit players. It took Sinatra and a few thousand screaming bobby-soxers to prove that singers could be the stars of the show. During his two-year stint with the hugely popular Dorsey band, Sinatra developed a more conversational delivery, with phrasing inspired by Dorsey’s trombone lines, and a fluid way of bending notes that would become his signature style of crooning. You can hear the 25-year-old upstart coming into his own on these 44 tracks, crisply remastered from vinyl sources. Regrettably, early versions of Night And Day, Without A Song, You’re Breaking My Heart and Devil May Care have been left off, yet there’s still a lot to love for fans of Young Blue Eyes.
