1. Pennies From Heaven
A. Johnston, J. Burke (Joy Music Inc. ASCAP)
October 3, 1962 Los Angeles
Arranger: Neal Hefti
Count Basie And His Orchestra

Sinatra and Basie at long last! It worked terrifically, two fellows of similar syncopated bent. Sinatra and Basie together, even though seven of the ten songs were re-recordings. "Please Be Kind," a first and only, and "Pennies From Heaven," the second time around, are standouts, and Sinatra knew it: they were programmed as tracks one and two, Side One, on the long-awaited Sinatra-Basie album.

2. Me And My Shadow (with Sammy Davis Jr.)
D. Dreyer, A. Jolson, B. Rose (Bourne Co./Larry Spiler, Inc. ASCAP)
October 22, 1962 Los Angeles
Arranger: Billy May

With Sammy Davis. Their one record together, just the two of them. Filled with topical reference.

3. I Have Dreamed
R. Rodgers, O. Hammerstein II (Williamson Music, Inc. ASCAP)
February 19, 1963 Los Angeles
Arranger: Nelson Riddle

4. America The Beautiful (Previously Unreleased)
Bates/Ward (P.D.)
February 20, 1963 Los Angeles
Arranger: Nelson Riddle

5. California (Previously Unreleased)
S. Cahn, J. Van Heusen (Sergeant Music Co./Glorste Inc./Van Heusen Music Corp., admin. by WB Music Corp. ASCAP)
February 20, 1963 Los Angeles
Arranger: Nelson Riddle

6. Soliloquy
R. Rodgers, O. Hammerstein II (T. B. Harms Co. ASCAP)
February 21,1963 Los Angeles
Arranger: Nelson Riddle

''I never saw Frank so business-like and concentrated as he was for The Concert Sinatra," Nelson Riddle told me shortly before his death. And the singing is majestic throughout. "I Have Dreamed" is on most people's Top Five list of Sinatra performances. A Rodgers and Hammerstein song from The King And I, it is delivered operatically, passionately, even fiercely. Nelson's arrangement is regal.

The album was made at three sessions in February 1963. At the second, Sinatra recorded a Jimmy-Sammy song called "California," and "America The Beautiful," both very much in a grand concert spirit.

A 45 rpm was pressed but never distributed. The two songs have been officially unreleased until now.

Again Rodgers and Hammerstein, this time from Carousel, the great "Soliloquy" is given its finest reading by anybody anywhere. Nelson Riddle's dignified soul rings behind every passage.

To this day, Sinatra still performs "Soliloquy" in concert.

7. Luck Be A Lady
F. Loesser (Frank Music Corp. ASCAP)
July 25, 1963 Los Angeles
Arranger: Billy May

In 1963 Sinatra had an idea. Why not a repertory compilation of Reprise artists, like Bing Crosby, Keely Smith, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Rosemary Clooney doing entire Broadway scores? He selected Finian's Rainbow, South Pacific, Kiss Me Kate, and Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls, a choice that occasioned Sinatra's memorable '''Luck Be A Lady." "Why don't we slow this down a little?" Sinatra said to Billy May at the actual recording session, an inspired suggestion. (The South Pacific project holds a comic gem: Keely Smith, dueting with Sinatra on "The Twin Soliloquies," describing Frank Sinatra in Oscar Hammerstein's words, as "a cultured Frenchman.")

8. Here's To The Losers
R. Wells, J. Segal (E.H. Morris Co., Inc. ASCAP)
July 31, 1963 Los Angeles
Arranger: Marty Paich

Released on a pick-up album (that is, on a collection of things hanging around), "Here's To The Losers" is a hot swinger with a Sinatra theme. It offers one of only two arrangements that the gifted Marty Paich ever wrote for Sinatra.

9. The Way You Look Tonight
J. Kern, D. Fields (Polygram International ASCAP)
January 27, 1964 Los Angeles
Arranger: Nelson Riddle

Sinatra and Nelson swinging a Jerome Kern ballad for an album of Academy Award-winning songs.

In 1989, it showed up on a Michelob TV commercial, with Sinatra lip-synching a twenty-five year old record.

10. My Kind Of Town
S. Cahn, J. Van Heusen (Sergeant Music Co./Glorste Inc./Van Heusen Music Corp., admin. by WB Music Corp. ASCAP)
April 8, 1964 Los Angeles
Arranger: Billy May

Jimmy-Sammy writing for Rat Packesque movie, Robin and the Seven Hoods, and providing Sinatra with a great signature tune. Wonderfully melodic, visually exciting in concert, it was for 15 years his show-stopper and frequent show-ender. I have never heard him sing it poorly.

11. The Best Is Yet To Come
C. Coleman, C. Leigh (Notable Music/Carwin Music ASCAP)
June 9, 1964 Los Angeles
Arranger: Quincy Jones
Count Basie And His Orchestra

12. Fly Me To The Moon
B. Howard (Almanac Music Inc. ASCAP)
June 9, 1964 Los Angeles
Arranger: Quincy Jones
Count Basie And His Orchestra

"The Best Is Yet To Come": an excellent and truly original song by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh has never failed Sinatra on a concert stage. The vocal he put down in the studio is one of his warmest.

Bart Howard's "Fly Me To The Moon," from the same album as "The Best Is Yet To Come" (the second Sinatra-Basie package, with Quincy Jones arrangements), provides pianist Basie with plenty of space for his almost secret, yet compelling playing (at the time, our astronauts were flying high, and were awakened one morning by NASA in Houston with the resounding hello of Sinatra's recording).

13. September Song
K. Weill, M. Anderson (TRO-Hampshire/Chappell & Co. ASCAP)
April 13, 1965 Los Angeles
Arranger: Gordon Jenkins

14. It Was A Very Good Year
E. Drake (Reed ands Music Corp. ASCAP)
April 22, 1965 Los Angeles
Arranger: Gordon Jenkins

15. This Is All I Ask
G. Jenkins (Massey Music Co., Inc. ASCAP)
April 22, 1965 Los Angeles
Arranger: Gordon Jenkins

Sinatra's third record of "September Song," and a crucial title on what Sinatra might consider an autobiographical work. September Of My Years contains some of Sinatra's finest singing, and the unexpected hit tune, "It Was A Very Good Year." Gordon Jenkins' outpouring of violins cannot diminish the top level singing, and his own song, "This Is All I Ask," defines the album. It is one of several successful popular songs by Gordon Jenkins, whose arrangements for other singers, including Peggy Lee, Nat Cole, and Judy Garland played an important role in the American popular music of the 1950's.

16. I'll Only Miss Her When I Think Of Her
S. Cahn, J. Van Heusen (Warner Bros. Inc. ASCAP)
August 23, 1965 Los Angeles
Arranger: Torrie Zito

A Jimmy-Sammy song for a Broadway show, Skyscraper. Torrie Zito, ubiquitous as an arranger on Tony Bennett albums, wrote a beautiful chart, employing the well-known guitarist, Laurindo Almeida, to wander through the record with a slight Latin suggestion that, at song's end, pushes the singer to pick up on it.

17. Love And Marriage
S. Cahn, J. Van Heusen (Barton Music Corp. ASCAP)
October 11, 1965 Hollywood
Vocal recorded October 21, 1965
Arranger: Nelson Riddle

Re-recorded for a meandering double-record set of talk and tunes, "Love And Marriage" has re-surfaced as the theme for "Married With Children," a Sunday night sit-com. Suddenly, everywhere, there's Frank singing "Love And Marriage" for a moment or so. Often, passing through a living room or airport bar, I stop to listen.

18. Moonlight Serenade
G. Miller, M. Parish (Robbins Music Corp. ASCAP)
November 29, 1965 Los Angeles
Arranger: Nelson Riddle

19. I Wished On The Moon
D. Parker, R. Rainger (Famous Music Corp. ASCAP)
November 30, 1965 Los Angeles
Arranger: Nelson Riddle

20. Oh, You Crazy Moon
J. Burke, J. Van Heusen (Warner Bros. Inc./Music Sales Corp. ASCAP)
November 30, 1965 Los Angeles
Arranger: Nelson Riddle

What a goofy idea for an album: Moonlight Sinatra. Songs about the moon. But wait just a minute! With Nelson! And there are some great songs about the moon, after all. That's what I told myself when I first heard about the project. And lo and behold, an exquisite "Moonlight Serenade," its somewhat sappy lyric made wonderful by perfect phrasing, beautiful singing. A slight bossa nova tempo colors

"I Wished On The Moon." "Oh, You Crazy Moon" is the only swinger of the lot, and it's one of the very best Riddle-Sinatra collaborations.

As is the album. All of it.