In 1945, Frank Sinatra recorded his first album, after a career previously devoted solely to single records. Over two sessions, he performed the eight songs included in The Voice of Frank Sinatra, which Columbia Records released as a four-disc set of 78-rpm records on March 4, 1946. The collection quickly topped the recently established Billboard album chart. The Voice of Frank Sinatra was a precursor to the "concept" albums Sinatra would pioneer at Capitol Records eight years later, a carefully chosen and arranged selection of songs creating a specific mood. In this case, arranger/conductor Axel Stordahl used a string quartet and a rhythm section, with occasional added instruments, to create settings for a group of classic ballads, all from the 1920s and '30s. Sinatra took the material very seriously, singing the love lyrics with utter seriousness. His singing and the classically influenced settings gave the songs unusual depth of meaning. Despite its initial popularity, The Voice of Frank Sinatra went out of print when the 12" LP era got underway in the mid-'50s. Columbia/Legacy has wisely brought it out of mothballs for this reissue in the CD era, giving the album the "bonus tracks" treatment, which, in this case, means more than doubling the length of the original 24-minute, eight-song album to 55 minutes and 18 tracks. The compilers have chosen well from similar recordings made by Sinatra in a group of 1947 sessions, including several that feature the same instrumentation and musical approach. To the Gershwin and Porter songs from the original album are added tunes by Berlin and Rodgers & Hart, among others. Six of the ten additions are previously unreleased takes of the songs that are nearly identical to the released masters (these are safeties, not faulty performances), and allow the compilers to present material in higher sound quality. The result is an even better version of what was already one of Sinatra's most impressive early packages, and a largely lost one at that. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Peter Ellis (Violin), David Sterkin (Viola), Olcott Vail (Violin), Fong Y. Lee (Packaging Manager), Howard Fritzson (Art Direction), William Spear (Viola), Matthew Kelly (Vault Research), Sidney Brecher (Viola), Charles Granata (Liner Notes), Edward Wallerstein (?), Matt Cavaluzzo (Transfers), George Kast (Violin), Johnny Blowers (Drums), Rubin Zarchy (Trumpet), Nat Polen (Drums), Charles Granata (Project Director), Julius Kinsler (Saxophone), Eric Kohler (Design), Bill Richards (Producer), Philip Stephens (Bass), Didier C. Deutsch (Liner Notes), Felix Slatkin (Violin), Vincent DeRosa (French Horn), William Clifton (Piano), Gene Powers (Violin), Anthony Sophos (Cello), Mischa Russell (Violin), George Jenkins (Trombone), Axel Stordahl (Conductor), Frank Siravo (Bass), Ray Hagan (Drums), Dave Hallett (Trombone), Morris King (Violin), Pullman Pederson (Trombone), Samuel Cytron (Violin), Ray Linn (Trumpet), Leonard Posner (Violin), Mark McIntyre (Piano), David Frisina (Violin), Patti Matheny (Artist Coordination), John Mayhew (Flute), Herbie Haymer (Saxophone), Mitch Miller (Oboe), Matty Golizio (Guitar), May Hogan Cambern (Harp), Cy Bernard (Cello), Harry Bluestone (Violin), Didier C. Deutsch (Compilation Producer), Gerald Vinci (Violin), Andreas Meyer (Compilation Producer), David Jeselson (Violin), William Hymanson (Viola), Andreas Meyer (Digital Mastering), Gerald Joyce (Violin), Stacey Boyle (Vault Research), Nick Pisani (Violin), Raoul Poliakin (Violin), Jack Sewell (Cello), Harold Coletta (Viola), Allan Reuss (Guitar), Frank Sinatra (Vocals), Axel Stordahl (Arranger), George Van Eps (Guitar), Johnny Guarnieri (Celeste), George Ricci (Cello), Alex Beller (Violin), Henry Beau (Saxophone), Fred Goerner (Cello), Steven Berkowitz (A&R), Mark McIntyre (Celeste), Johnny Guarnieri (Piano), Darren Salmieri (Artist Coordination), Julius Kinsler (Flute), Stacey Boyle (Sound Effects), Andreas Meyer (Reissue Producer), Didier C. Deutsch (Reissue Producer), Zelly Smirnoff (Violin), Andreas Meyer (Sonic Restoration), Werner Callies (Violin), Herman Alpert (Bass), Andreas Meyer (Transfers), Leonard Mach (Trumpet), Axel Stordahl (Director), Oreste Tomasso (Violin), Maurice Perlmutter (Viola), Charles Granata (Reissue Producer), John Ryan (Bass)
Original 78 rpm release cover also used on CD reissue
The Voice of Frank Sinatra is the first studio album by AmericansingerFrank Sinatra, released in 1946. It was released on Columbia Records, Set C-112, March 4, 1946. It was first issued as a set of four 78 rpm records totaling eight songs, and went to #1 on the fledgling Billboard chart. It stayed at the top for seven weeks in 1946, spending a total of eighteen weeks on the charts. The album chart consisted of just a Top Five until August 1948.
It also holds the distinction of being the first pop album catalogue item at 33⅓ rpm, when Columbia premiered long-playing vinyl records in 1948, ten-inch and twelve-inch format for classical music, ten-inch only for pop. The Voice was reissued as a 10" LP, catalogue number CL 6001 in 1948. It was also later issued as two 45 rpm EPs in 1952, a 12" LP with a changed running order including only five of the original tracks in 1955, and a compact disc with extra tracks in 2003.
Certain critics have claimed The Voice to be the first concept album. Beginning in 1939, however, singer Lee Wiley started releasing albums of 78s dedicated to the songs of a single writer, Cole Porter for example, a precursor to the Songbooks sets formulated by Norman Granz and Ella Fitzgerald in 1956. These may loosely be termed concept albums, although Sinatra with The Voice inaugurated his practice of having a common mood, theme, or instrumentation tying the songs together on a specific release.
The tracks were arranged and conducted by Axel Stordahl and his orchestra, on both dates consisting of a string quartet and four-piece rhythm section, augmented by flutist John Mayhew in July, and, ironically given the part he would play with Sinatra at Columbia in the early 1950s, oboist Mitch Miller in December. Sinatra would record most of these songs again at later stages in his career.
The cover depicted to the right is that of the 1948 reissue as a ten-inch long-player.
