May 7, 2021 – A collection of tracks from one of popular culture’s most captivating singers goes digital today with the release of Frank Sinatra:Reprise Rarities Volume 3 from Frank Sinatra Enterprises and UMe. Featuring 15 Reprise tracks, all making their digital debut, the collection follows Volume 1, released December 2020 in honor of Frank Sinatra’s birthday, and Volume 2, released in February 2021 for Valentine’s Day. Continuing the 60th-anniversary celebration of “The Chairman of the Board” founding Reprise Records with rarities available via all digital streaming platforms, Volume 3 presents recordings that showcase the sublime vocal stylings of Frank Sinatra. Available HERE, the third of five volumes of rarities features non-LP singles, alternate versions and bonus tracks from previous box sets.
Volume 3 features “The Game Is Over,” written by John Denver and arranged by Don Costa; it was recorded November 2, 1970, Sinatra’s last session before he “retired” in 1971. After Ol’ Blue Eyes was back he occasionally returned to the studio and two rarities from sessions recorded February 5, 1976 are piano-only versions of “Empty Tables” and “Send In The Clowns.” Both tracks feature Frank Sinatra's long-time pianist Bill Miller. Frank hired Bill in 1951 and, with the exception of a few years, Bill was with Frank until the end of his life. In fact, no other musician worked so closely and for so long with Frank Sinatra than Bill Miller.
Also with disco blazing up the charts in the late 1970s, Frank Sinatra recorded two songs in 1977 with disco-inspired arrangements by Joe Beck. These tracks, “Night and Day” and “All or Nothing At All” – both from February 16, 1977 – were Frank Sinatra’s only foray into the disco craze.
Hailed by The New York Times for an “extraordinary voice [that] elevated popular song into an art,” Sinatra realized a long-time dream by forming his own record label, Reprise, in 1960. At the time Sinatra’s business model was highly innovative in the recording industry; the very first of its kind, he pioneered the concept of having artists create and control their recordings.