Frank Sinatra The Classic Duets

DVD video of duo songs with famous singing partners: 1 Frank Sinatra Duet With Ella Fitzgerald– Moonlight In Vermont 2 Frank Sinatra Duet With Dinah Shore 2:08 3 Frank Sinatra Duet With Peggy Lee– Nice Work If You Can Get It 7:00 4 Frank Sinatra Duet With The Hi-Lo’s– I’ll Never Smile Again 9:18 5 Frank Sinatra Duet With Louis Armstrong– The Birth Of The Blues 6 Frank Sinatra Duet With Ethel Merman– You’re The Top 7 Frank Sinatra Duet With Whole Bunch Of Kids– High Hopes 11:26 8 Frank Sinatra Duet With Bing Crosby & Dean Martin– Together Wherever We Go 9 Frank Sinatra Duet With Bing Crosby– September Song 14:06 10 Frank Sinatra Duet With Shirley Jones– If I Loved You 15:54 11 Frank Sinatra Duet With Lena Horne– Medley 12 Frank Sinatra Duet With Louis Prima & Keely Smith– I Can’t Believe You’re In Love With Me 19:13 13 Frank Sinatra Duet With Nancy Sinatra– You Make Me Feel So Young (Old) 20:05 14 Frank Sinatra Duet With Elvis Presley– Love Me Tender 21:57 15 Frank Sinatra Duet With Sammy Davis Jr.– Me And My Shadow 24:10 16 Frank Sinatra Duet With Dean Martin– Medley 26:27 17 Frank Sinatra– Put Your Dreams Away 30:50 NTSC 4:3 was originally released in 2003. Frank Sinatra’s “Classic Duets“ features an incredible roster of many of the greatest and most influential jazz and pop singers of all time. Compiled from Sinatra TV specials that originally aired between 1957-1960, this highly collectible program includes complete musical performances and special interviews and commentary from the Sinatra family, Tina, Nancy, and Frank Sinatra Jr. (32:23). Review by Kim Morgan: From the very first duet between Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald (singing “Moonlight in Vermont“) Sinatra: The Classic Duets is absolutely indispensable for Sinatra fans. This collection, which highlights the chairman at his peak musical moments (between 1957 and 1960), is a veritable who of popular songs, and biggies pitch tunes with Ol’ Blue Eyes, making it look so very easy. To imagine any current popular performer swapping songs with the likes of Peggy Lee or Elvis Presley seems almost unimaginable--everything’s so canned and planned these days that Sinatra and pals appear positively genius. In this DVD collection culled from Sinatra TV specials and laced with commentary by Sinatra’s family (kid’s Frank Jr., Tina, and the boots-were-made-for-walking-a-licious Nancy), 18 performances are presented--all delightful, all moving, and dare I say, all brilliant. And with newly re-mastered sound and enhanced picture, some filmed or early taped duets are markedly improved. I now can refer to this DVD over every taped bit of film I dubbed while trying to capture Sinatra in all his on-camera charm. Pal Joey is captivating on-screen. His ease and charisma bleed through the screen with such intensity, you’ll catch yourself smiling from his obvious and rascally love for entertaining. His vocal talent is impeccable No matter how many purists want to tell you he’s simply easy listening, don’t listen. Sinatra is jazz. In the best sense and all the way. All the performances are memorable but of the 18, I’ll note the ones that stuck out most for me. The great Peggy Lee and Sinatra’s rendition of “Nice Work If You Can Get It“ begins very laid back and builds into a sexy, velvet number. Sinatra actually seems turned on my Lee (who wouldn’t be?) as they gently banter and sing. There are the crooners: Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Bing Crosby--sitting first on a scaffold (then lumbering to the ground) and singing “Together Wherever We Go“ like the three street-fighting tenors. Later, Frank will sing with Dean again, only a medley and with cigarettes and highballs (perfect). And adding to the Rat Pack, there’s Frank with Sammy Davis Jr. humorously taking, “Me and My Shadow“ to another dimension. Another terrific duet has Sinatra teamed with the rambunctious Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Frank mixes up their usual routine (Keely standing bored and bemused) as he continually hogs the mike, keeping Keely from singing. But one of the greatest moments combines royalty--The Chairman and The King (that would be Elvis Presley). In a TV Special welcoming young Elvis back from his famed army service, Sinatra and Presley swap two of their hits, in unison. Frank sings “Love Me Tender“ all punchy, Frank style, enunciating the “LOVE me tender, LOVE me true!“ while Elvis dreamily smoothes through “Witchcraft“ to a legion of screaming girls. It’s a beautiful moment where Elvis is painfully gorgeous and Frank’s met his separate equal. But Frank gets the best line. When Frank begins shrugging his shoulders to the music and the hip-gyrating Elvis attempts to do the same, Frank comments: “We work in the same ways only in different areas.“ And the additional color medley with Dinah Shore pops 1:01:23 #sinatra #franksinatra #duet #duets