Canter Bridge

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

How does a forty-something end up utterly enthralled with the Sinatra phenomenon, a matter he knew only by name but to which he had never paid much attention?

For one, he determines upon news of Mr. Sinatra’s death that he’d better become acquainted with this matter. Secondly, he buys a used copy of The Very Best of Frank Sinatra from an Amazon bookseller, then listens to it over and over and over again.

Now he begins to understand what the old fogies were talking about. Good grief, can this man sing!

But it’s a different kind of singing than the varieties I have known. It is smooth, not technically impressive, but somehow a matter of timing and feeling so preternaturally well-synchronized that they leave one feeling things. Deep things, things that Sinatra declaims with silky knowledge and an occasional wink when he sees that you get it.

The Sinatra Machine, both authorized and otherwise, has spun off gazillions of versions of Sinatra tunes that you simply must know. You could begin with any one of them.

But trust me, this stuff is so good that you might as well dive into the deep end right at the outset and purchase this two-disk anthology. Then you’ll understand.