Top Choice:

•The Rare Sinatra LP

Best CD:

•Frank Sinatra Sings the Select Sammy Cahn - mild fake stereo effect, mild noise reduction, but dry tapes.

Not as good:

•1987 Close to You - great tone; reverb added; not true mono (see note at right)

Avoid:

•Forever Frank LP - reverb added

•Great Romantic Memories LP - this is the 1987 CD, in jumbled order, cut to vinyl

•The Rare Sinatra CD - The only “true mono” (note the use of quotation marks) CD in the bunch, but with poor tone.  (A stereo machine was used during tape transfer, and the balance is slightly left-heavy.)

•2000/2002 Close to You - Norberg regalia on full display.

NOTES

•To my ears, no version really “nails it.”  I think the Walsh has the best overall tone, but with reverb added.  The UK 1998 CD has kind of a pinched, too-hard vocal tone (and similar shortcoming in the instrumental passage toward the middle of the song). The 1978 “Rare Sinatra” LP, while the least dynamic of the bunch, and still no award winner sonically, “does the least harm,” i guess, and is a pleasant listen, with zero fake stereo, added reverb, etc.

•If you have access to mid-side decoding and can extract just the mid element by itself, the 1987 CD can yield arguably the finest results of any release.