2015 is getting a lot more ring-a-ding-ding come April thanks to the release of Ultimate Sinatra.  On April 21, Capitol/UMe will continue the Frank Sinatra centennial celebration in style with new career-spanning collections drawing on the Chairman of the Board’s historic tenures with the RCA Victor, Columbia, Capitol and Reprise labels.  Available as a 25-track single CD, a 26-track digital album, a 24-track 180-gram double-vinyl set, and a deluxe, 101-track 4-CD or digital box set, Ultimate Sinatra is the first initiative in over twenty years to bring together tracks from these three key eras.  Both CD and digital editions also feature previously unreleased Sinatra recordings.

All editions of Ultimate Sinatra kick off with “All or Nothing At All,” recorded with Harry James and his Orchestra on August 31, 1939 during Sinatra’s first studio session.  The song remained a touchstone for Sinatra throughout his career, and he revisited it as a lush ballad in 1962, a breezy swinger in 1966 and even as a disco track in 1977.  The original, however, began Sinatra on the journey which would take him through nearly 100 big band recordings with both James and Tommy Dorsey’s Orchestras, and periods at Columbia (1943-1952), Capitol (1953-1962; 1993-1994), and the label he founded, Reprise Records (1960-1988).

The single-disc iteration features 25 tracks, capped off by 1980’s “(Theme From) New York, New York”) and, non-chronologically, “Put Your Dreams Away” (in an as-yet-unspecified recording; Sinatra commercially recorded it in 1945, 1957 and 1963).  It closes with a previously unreleased alternate version of Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s Bells Are Ringing showtune “Just in Time.”  (Sinatra recorded the song for 1959’s Come Dance with Me, with Billy May leading the orchestra.)    The standard digital version also adds Sinatra’s ode to that toddlin’ town, “Chicago.”  The 2-LP heavyweight double-vinyl set includes 24 songs with no bonus material.

The 4-CD version boasts 100 tracks to mark 100 years of Sinatra, plus a unique previously unreleased bonus track (a 1979 rehearsal take from 1980’s Trilogy LP of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” from Oklahoma!).  Over its four discs, it paints a fuller picture of Sinatra’s musical evolution.  The box goes back to the James and Dorsey eras with “All or Nothing at All” and “I’ll Never Smile Again,” and spotlights collaborations with renowned arrangers including May (“Come Fly with Me”), Axel Stordahl (“I’m a Fool to Want You”), Quincy Jones (“Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)”), Gordon Jenkins (“The Girl Next Door”), Neal Hefti (“At Long Last Love”), Robert Farnon (“The Very Thought of You”), Sy Oliver (“Without a Song”), Johnny Mandel (“In the Still of the Night”), Don Costa (“My Way”), Claus Ogerman (“The Girl from Ipanema”), Eumir Deodato (“Wave”), and of course, Nelson Riddle (“You Make Me Feel So Young”).  This deluxe box set edition also features an 80-page booklet with a new essay by Sinatra historian Charles Pignone, plus rare photos and quotes from Sinatra and his children, Nancy, Tina and Frank Jr., as well as Riddle, May, Jones, and other key collaborators.

Ultimate Sinatra arrives from Capitol/UMe on the heels of the acclaimed late 2014 release of Sinatra: London, a box set chronicling Sinatra’s musical love affair with that famous city.  It’s available on April 21 in all configurations, and you can pre-order below!

Frank Sinatra, Ultimate Sinatra [Standard CD, digital] (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. All Or Nothing At All
2. I’ll Never Smile Again
3. Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week)
4. Nancy (With The Laughing Face)
5. I’ve Got The World On A String
6. Young At Heart
7. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
8. Learnin’ The Blues
9. Love And Marriage
10. I’ve Got You Under My Skin
11. Witchcraft
12. All The Way
13. Come Fly With Me
14. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)
15. The Way You Look Tonight
16. My Kind Of Town
17. Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words)
18. It Was A Very Good Year
19. Strangers In The Night
20. Summer Wind
21. That’s Life
22. My Way
23. Theme From New York, New York
24. Put Your Dreams Away
25. Just In Time (Alternate Version) (Previously Unreleased Bonus Track)
26. Chicago (Digital-Only Bonus Track)

Frank Sinatra, Ultimate Sinatra [2-LP vinyl] (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Side A

1. All Or Nothing At All
2. I’ll Never Smile Again
3. Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week)
4. Nancy (With The Laughing Face)
5. I’ve Got The World On A String
6. Young At Heart
7. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning

Side B

1. Learnin’ The Blues
2. Love And Marriage
3. I’ve Got You Under My Skin
4. Witchcraft
5. All The Way

Side C

1. Come Fly With Me
2. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)
3. The Way You Look Tonight
4. My Kind Of Town
5. Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words)
6. It Was A Very Good Year

Side D

1. Strangers In The Night
2. Summer Wind
3. That’s Life
4. My Way
5. Theme From New York, New York
6. Put Your Dreams Away

Frank Sinatra, Ultimate Sinatra [4-CD Deluxe Edition, also available digitally] (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

CD 1

1. All Or Nothing At All
2. I’ll Never Smile Again
3. Street of Dreams
4. You’ll Never Know
5. If You Are But A Dream
6. Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week)
7. Nancy (With The Laughing Face)
8. Oh! What It Seemed To Be
9. Five Minutes More
10. Time After Time
11. Night And Day
12. The Song Is You
13. I’m A Fool To Want You
14. The Birth Of The Blues
15. Why Try To Change Me Now
16. I’ve Got The World On A String
17. Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me
18. My Funny Valentine
19. They Can’t Take That Away From Me
20. I Get A Kick Out Of You
21. Young At Heart
22. Last Night When We Were Young
23. Three Coins In The Fountain
24. Just One Of Those Things
25. All Of Me
26. Someone To Watch Over Me
27. I Get Along Without You Very Well

CD 2

1. This Love Of Mine
2. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
3. Learnin’ The Blues
4. Love And Marriage
5. (Love Is) The Tender Trap
6. Love Is Here To Stay
7. You Make Me Feel So Young
8. Memories Of You
9. I’ve Got You Under My Skin
10. Too Marvelous For Words
11. (How Little It Matters) How Little We Know
12. I Couldn’t Sleep A Wink Last Night
13. I Wish I Were In Love Again
14. The Lady Is A Tramp
15. From This Moment On
16. Laura
17. Where Are You?
18. Witchcraft
19. Bewitched
20. All The Way
21. Moonlight In Vermont
22. Come Fly With Me
23. Put Your Dreams Away
24. Angel Eyes
25. Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry

CD 3

1. Only The Lonely
2. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)
3. Something’s Gotta Give
4. Come Dance With Me
5. Here’s That Rainy Day
6. A Cottage For Sale
7. High Hopes
8. The Nearness Of You
9. I’ve Got A Crush On You
10. Nice ‘N’ Easy
11. When The World Was Young
12. In The Still Of The Night
13. The Second Time Around
14. Without A Song
15. Loved Walked In
16. Stardust
17. Come Rain Or Come Shine
18. The Girl Next Door
19. At Long Last Love
20. The Very Thought Of You
21. Pennies From Heaven
22. Ol’ Man River
23. I Have Dreamed
24. Luck Be A Lady

CD 4

1. The Way You Look Tonight
2. My Kind Of Town
3. The Best Is Yet To Come
4. Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words)
5. Softly, As I Leave You
6. It Was A Very Good Year
7. September Of My Years
8. Moonlight Serenade
9. Strangers In The Night
10. Summer Wind
11. That’s Life
12. I Concentrate On You
13. The Girl From Ipanema
14. Drinking Again
15. Somethin’ Stupid (with Nancy Sinatra)
16. The World We Knew (Over And Over)
17. Cycles
18. My Way
19. Wave
20. All My Tomorrows
21. Forget To Remember
22. It Had To Be You
23. All Of You
24. Theme From New York, New York
25. The Surrey With The Fringe On Top (Rehearsal) (Previously Unreleased Bonus Track)