Frank Sinatra
Christmas Songs by Sinatra (Columbia/Legacy) Frank Sinatra
The Christmas Collection (Reprise) While Sinatra’s crooning Columbia years were more formative than definitive, this collection gives breath to Christmas during wartime with alternate takes, radio airchecks, and “V-Discs,” heavy-duty vinyl shipped to overseas military posts. Hearing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in this context makes its mawkishness forgivable. Sinatra’s yuletide sides for Reprise skewed lighter. The uncomfortable gaiety of Sinatra’s adult children singing “The Twelve Days of Christmas” induces toothaches. Nevertheless, Sinatra’s somber take on Jimmy Webb’s “Whatever Happened to Christmas” is a late career highlight. Sinatra is ailing but still commanding even on the posthumously orchestrated “Silent Night.”
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This article appears in December 24 • 2004.
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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.
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