Frank Sinatra - 16 Most Requested Songs

This 16-track sampler from Frank Sinatra's Columbia years overlaps Sings His Greatest Hits by five songs, but in many ways is a more interesting--and idiosyncratic--collection. It opens with "All or Nothing At All," the 1939 recording with Harry James and His Orchestra that was Sinatra's first chart hit (and which was re-released in 1943 under his own name). It also includes such infrequently anthologized cuts as the lovely "You'll Never Know," Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Soliloquy (Parts 1 & 2)," and the goofy novelty "The Coffee Song." The digital remastering sheds new sonic light on Axel Stordahl's lush arrangements, but it's Sinatra's voice that steals the show. --Dan Epstein