Product Description

204 black-and-white and colour illustrations, 30 removable artifacts and a 60-minute CD. Created in conjunction with The Frank Sinatra Estate, The Sinatra Treasures tells the story of Sinatra's life with rare and never-before-published quotes from those he loved and those he worked with - and from the Chairman of the Board himself. More than 200 hundred black-and-white and full-colour images from several Sinatra archives as well as a script for one of his radio shows and a Sinatra family photo album provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Sinatra's world and talent. Also included is a new compilation CD of rare interviews and songs featuring such gems as a monologue onstage at the Sands Hotel and Sinatra singing a parody of 'High Hopes' for John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign. This celebration of the many elements of Frank Sinatra - as singer, as actor, as humanitarian, as friend - brings to life as never before the man who made the standards standard.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #505254 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Daily Express
A remarkable tribute to a remarkable talent'

Observer
'Includes more than 200 new images and they pack quite a punch'

About the Author
Charles Pigone is an archivist for the Sinatra family. He has produced and written liner notes for several Sinatra albums, including The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings boxed set, and was a consulting producer on the TV special 'Sinatra: The classic Duets'. Pigone has been president of the Sinatra Society of America, the largest Sinatra fan club in America, since 1984. He lives in Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

A BOOK TO TREASURE
With all the books there have been on Frank Sinatra, you would think that everything about this remarkable entertainer had been covered. Most of the books to date - and I've read quite a few of them - are more concerned with his private life, his four marriages and his alleged links with the Mafia ( which Sinatra himself vehemently denied and which not even the FBI were able to prove ). On the other hand, only a small handful of books have paid attention to the man's talent, which is the real reason for his fame.

While Sinatra was one of the most important singers of the 20th century, he was also the most inaccessable of all the great stars. Because he openly distrusted the media and rarely gave interviews, authors and would-be biographers could only base their research on interviews with people who had known him and on whatever information had been previously published. Hence, most of these books tended to go over the same old ground.

What THE SINATRA TREASURES gives us is a completely fresh look at Sinatra as seen through the eyes of his family, friends, musical colleagues and business associates. But more than that, it gives us the comments of the man himself ( which I'll come to in a moment).

Charles Pignone, who conceived,compiled and wrote this elaborately produced coffee table volume enjoys an advantage denied all other authors in that he knew Sinatra personally and is arguably the world's leading authority on the life and career of Frank Sinatra. But don't get the idea that this is a sycophantic book. While properly respectful of his subject, Pignone does not overdo the superlatives and writes in a straightforward style that gets to the facts without being flowery. Mainly, he sees himself as a conduit to the views and opinions of others from whom he obtained interviews exclusive to this book. Apart from Sinatra children - Nancy, Frank,Jr and Tina - we get individual information from musicians like Billy May, Bill Miller and Quincy Jones ( who, incidentally, also wrote one of the book's two forewords. The other is by Frank, Jr. )

In addition to these interviews - interesting enough in themselves - we get rare comments from Frank Sinatra himself and not just on the printed page but also on an exclusive 60-minute CD. And this is only part of what makes this publication so unique. Placed at various points throughout the book is a series of 30 removable artifacts comprising expensively replicated items from Sinatra's life and career. In my experience, this is a first in the annals of book publishing. Certainly no other book on Sinatra carries such a feature.

Certain readers may complain that the book does not go deeply enough into his domestic life ( there is no mention whatever of his last three wives ). But it does portray him as a devoted father and a generous friend. And because the book contains information denied all previous authors, the book does give us a welcome insight into the man behind the headlines, a man of exceptional talent who was able to use his fame and influence to raise over one billion dollars for charity.

I don't think this will be the last book on Sinatra nor do I want to give the impression that it's the ultimate book on Sinatra. But there is no other book like it and I think it brings us closer to understanding the man than any other previous book. I can see it adorning many coffee table around the world.

"He thought and sang like a horn."
Always fascinated by the great instrumentalists, especially horn players who never took an obvious breath while playing, Sinatra tried from his earliest days to emulate them, swimming laps and jogging, long before it became fashionable, to increase his lung capacity. His smooth delivery and classic phrasing, resulting from these efforts, are among his hallmarks.

Though facts like this may fill other books about Sinatra, this book is completely unique, more a family scrapbook than an ordinary book--a comprehensive, but extremely personal collection of material about the Chairman of the Board. Filled with artifacts--thirty or more replicas of memorabilia from Sinatra's life and career from the Sinatra Family Collection, all removable from transparent sleeves by the reader, it includes photographs, programs from concerts and performances at Las Vegas, movie posters, letters from Presidents, telegrams from admirers, and even replica tickets, all interspersed with interviews with his three children and comments by Quincy Jones and others who worked with him. "Reading" this book becomes a true participation in Sinatra's life.

In addition, an included CD contains radio performances from 1945, a recording of his repartee and fun with Bing Crosby, a radio interview from Australia as he talks about his career, excerpts from his Vegas shows, the adapted version of "High Hopes" which he sang as part of a fundraiser for John F. Kennedy when he ran for President, and numerous other special memories.

Worth every penny to the devoted Sinatra fan, this scrapbook is so carefully reproduced that every page and every insert looks and feels real. The selections on the CD make Sinatra come alive in a way that's different from what one hears on a record, a portrait of the man behind the music. If you enjoy the music of Frank Sinatra, do not miss this collection of treasures. Mary Whipple