Frank Sinatra - In Concert at Royal Festival Hall (1971) Review

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(More customer reviews)In 1994, before leaving for school, I caught the last fifteen minutes of this 1971 TV special and was really amazed of what I had heard. The memory was then tucked away until recently when I bought this DVD.
This might not be Sinatra at his best, but he opens with his standard trademarks (with the exception of George Harrison's "Something," sings some sad tunes, tries out some unusual or new songs, and finishes off with both an timeless and modern trademark of his.
His first six numbers were his trademark songs, plus the Beatles "Something." It was all good, with "I Got You Under My Skin" being his weakest of the night when he almost messes up the timing. He does mess up lines of a few songs, but as a first time listener, I really didn't notice it that much and the guy quickly jokes out of it. Not perfect, but I've seen worse from other performers.
The second half of his show was called "Songs for Losers" and the only one I really enjoyed of those three was "One for my Baby." "Didn't We" was okay, but I couldn't stand "I Get Along Without You Very Well" at all.
The final half of the show has Sinatra doing a new number called "I'll Drink The Wine." Since I didn't have time to just transcribe the "true meaning" of the song, I just enjoyed it for the tune. It was a very good tune. The song "I Have Dreamed" only brought back memories of me as a teenager turning on A&E in 1994 and seeing Sinatra singing this. The ending is pretty cool.
Then Sinatra does "My Kind of Town" and finishes off with a cool version of "My Way." It isn't perfect, but Sinatra doesn't joke his way out of this song, as he had done with the others. Instead he makes some great covers that a first time listener would accept as the true lyrics. For example, "make it clear" actually sounds better than "say it clear" and "I grew tall, through it all" just sounded so cool to me. Like it was meant to be sung that way. Another performer had the same way about him when he changed the words to "I stood tall, when I went bald."
This might not be Sinatra at his best, but if you can accept a guy that has a great talent, that goofs off a little bit, then this should be part of your collection, even if you are a first time Sinatra-fan.

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