Rat Pack: Live at the Sands
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Free Music Notes for Rat Pack: Live at the Sands
Free Music Review: This is the One
Hit: 5 Stars
"Ladies and Gentlemen - the Sands Hotel is proud to present, direct from the bar, Dean Martin!"
With this introduction begins one of the best live recorded discs to come out in years and the definitive Rat Pack CD. Captured in 1963, this disc allows the listener to sit in on one of the group's great performances at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. More than a CD, this is a time capsule of a bygone era - the golden twilight of a swingin' and much less serious time, before the assasination of JFK set the tone for what would be an extremely turbulent, troubled decade.
The "Rat Pack" was the name adopted by Frank Sinatra and his select circle of friends who performed and caroused with him in the early 1960s. While never an official title (the name was actually borrowed from a group of drinking buddies of Humphrey Bogart, which included actor David Niven, Judy Garland, Bogart's wife Lauren Bacall, and Sinatra himself, back in the Forties), the name stuck to Sinatra's gang, and nostalgia for the Rat Pack only seems to increase as time goes by.
The Rat Pack mythology was shaped during the filming of "Ocean's 11" in 1960. The five leading men - Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop - filmed during the day and then gathered onstage at the Sands Hotel at night. These "Summit Meetings" as Sinatra called them, not only galvanized Las Vegas as thousands of visitors poured into the gambling mecca without a prayer of getting a room reservation, but also made headlines and piqued imaginations as news reverberated around the world.
It was a moment in time, in history, never to be repeated."There they were," writes Bill Zehme in his liner notes to THE RAT PACK LIVE AT THE SANDS, "twice nightly, without fail, tearing it up together through the dinner show at eight and back again at midnight, primed for even greater mayhem and off-color foolery."
The audio quality of this CD is fantastic and the music and dialogue sound great. The guys are absolutely irreverant, witty, and have a great time with the audience and eachother. Stand-up, impressions, music, cocktails - everybody is having a blast, the Rat Pack included, and it comes through loud and clear on this CD. As entertainers, Frank, Deano, and Sammy are absolutely on top of their game.
There are other Rat Pack CDs out there - a lot in fact, but NONE that truly capture their very essence of what they were like this one. Listen and prepare to be taken back and find out what it was all about.
Free Music Review: Politically incorrect and too fun
Hit: 5 Stars
'If you want to hear me sing serious, buy an album,' Dean says during his lighthearted stumbling through his first set. That sums up this album -- a tremendous good time, with some great music between the booze humor and in-jokes. More than any other recording, this captures the evening.The initial set belongs to Dean Martin, probably the real heir to the Crosby style of singing, but with an attitude. The 'Drink to Me/I Love Vegas' medley is especially entertaining, with contrived lyrics set to Cole Porter's classic 'I Love Paris.' Dean had a gift for being able to laugh at himself and to ad-lib; his performance throughout the album points to his talents as a singer and wiseguy.
Sinatra's set, introduced by the 'Ring a Ding Ding' fanfare that introduced his first Reprise album a couple of years earlier, is notable in that even during an obviously light program Sinatra really delivers on some great songs. 'My Heart Stood Still' and 'I Have Dreamed' (from the Concert Sinatra album also recorded in 1963) are not casual cocktail numbers, and despite the setting these versions are superb. 'Please Be Kind' swings nicely. 'Luck Be a Lady' is raucous and excellent, although I admit to preferring the recording FS made for his 'Guys and Dolls' project around the same time.
After Sammy Davis Jr.'s 'The Lady is a Tramp', Frank and Dean use his next number, impressions on how singers other than Frank might have performed 'All the Way', as a platform for in-jokes and commentary. Politically incorrect in extreme -- with plenty of remarks about Jews, blacks and Italians -- but an artifact of the era. Also, it doesn't hurt to laugh at our differences once in a while, and Live at the Sands lets us do this. In contrast with the contrived and glossy interactions of modern sitcoms, the trio seems authentic and it works.
Frank and Dean close with another pair of songs from the 'Guys and Dolls' album, both of which lend themselves to the Copa Room atmosphere with punch and irreverence.
This is a perfect time capsule album. While not all the singing is what you might prefer on a serious album, the performances at The Sand weren't about that. Recording quality is excellent, so the gags and the stumbles all come through as though we are sitting in the front row of tables, maybe somewhere next to Lucille Ball and the other stars in attendance. If the humor was just starting to become stale and slightly offensive in 1963, it allowed us to laugh at ourselves then and now.
Free Music Review: "The 'Pack' In Their Playground"
Hit: 5 Stars
Early September 1963...the marquee at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas reads:DEAN MARTIN
Maybe Frank! Maybe Sammy!
On this new CD (recorded September 7th) there's no "maybes" about it....
Dean, Frank and Sammy give a performance that sums up early 60's cocktail lounge cool...
Dino's opening (the same opening he'd been doing for years) includes "Volare" "On An Evening In Roma" and "I Love Vegas (Paris)"..
Sinatra's set includes material from the "Sinatra-Basie" and "Concert Sinatra" albums plus a beautiful, tender rendition of "Call Me Irresponsible" (then, as Sinatra points out, only 6 months old); interestingly Sinatra's performances of "Only Have Eyes For You" and "Please Be Kind" on this tape far outswing the renditions on the Basie LP.
Sammy does "Lady Is A Tramp," and follows with an impressions-laden "All The Way".
The rest of the disc is classic Rat Pack clowning laced with tons of politically incorrect one liners (Imagine ANYONE saying to Frank and Dean in those days "Hey guys, you know some of that stuff is POLITCIALLY INCORRECT!")...
Dean: "Did you ever see a Jew-Jitsu?"
Dean (to Sammy) "You can sing with me..you can dance with me...you can go to the steam room with me....but just don't TOUCH me!"
Keep in mind this was just weeks after Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech.
It's also interesting to note that this performance occurs just 2 months before the Kennedy assassination and right in the midst of the lurid Sinatra headlines surrounding Sam Giancana and the Cal Neva lodge (weeks later Sinatra would have his Gaming license lifted)...among the celebrities introduced from the audience: "Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Sands!"
The sound quality of the disc is superb, recorded in true stereo, (Sinatra had Reprise tape it for a possible LP called "The Summit"...the album was never released and the tapes buried).
"Live At The Sands" captures the Rat Pack's last gasp...Dallas and the subsequent turmoil of the 60's made much of their material irrelevant, but it shows the country's leading adult swingers at the peak of their powers in the town they made their playground.
The pseudo-hip liner notes are by Bill Zehme who wrote the 1998 Sinatra book "The Way You Wear Your Hat"
Free Music Review: The Best Rat Pack Collection Available.
Hit: 5 Stars
I have several Rat Pack cds in my collection, but this one is by far my favorite. The Boys are truly in their element here, at the legendary Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, performing great songs and showing off their hilariously un-PC humor to riotous reactions from the crowd.
Dean Martin begins the show performing his usual faux-drunk routine, altering lyrics to popular songs such as "I Love Paris" to show off his love for booze and Sin City, all the while remaining charming and endearing. Dean openly admitted he didn't have a great voice, but he had such charisma, energy and dedication that he was able to carry himself solely on those attributes. His love of his craft shows here, as Dean comes across as nothing less than a top of the line performer.
"The Leader," as he was so often called, is up next, and Frank is absolutely dynamite. His voice is in excellent shape as he fires through six all time Sinatra classics, including a beautiful "Call Me Irresponsible," a blistering "Please Be Kind" and a wild "Luck Be A Lady."
After Frank's set finishes, Dean comes back out to shake things up, and the two engage in a hilarious srven minute monologue in which they (unsuccessfully) to discover the reason behind Dean's drinking and then perform a medley of standards with new lyrics that will have you in stitches.
Sammy then comes out, and after some priceless ribbing (mostly on his racial background, but in a manner that comes across as genuinely funny rather than inherently racist), performs a turbo charged "The Lady Is A Tramp" and then perform "All The Way" in a variety of other vocalists' styles, including a hilarious Tony Bennett routine.
After some more jokes, Dean and Frank come back out and do duets on "Guys And Dolls" and "The Oldest Established," both of which exude energy and style. After introducing a few celebrity audience members, they reprise "The Oldes Established" before ring-a-ding dingin' their way out of there.
This show boasts excellent sound quality and great liner notes. It is a must have for all connoseuirs of Frank and the boys.
Free Music Review: "You cant go wrong with this recording."
Hit: 5 Stars
Obviously cashing in on Steven Soderbergh's remake of the 1968 rat-pack film Ocean's Eleven, many might see The Rat Pack Live At The Sands as yet another compilation of the `Greatest Hits' of Sinatra, Martin and Davis Jr., but we're here to tell you different. It's bigger than that; it's better than that; it's probably the best live album we've ever heard. Acting as a combination between some of the greatest jazz hits recorded, and some of the funniest comic monologues ever thought up, the album is split up into different sections for each performer, with Martin noticeably dominating the CD. Playing out similar jokes as the previous release The Summit in Concert, the difference in this is that, what the previous album lacked in music, it made up in humor, while this puts the best of both worlds into a 75-minute compilation. Opening with Dino coming on stage and straight away playing on his rumors of alcoholism by singing "Drinking to me only/That's all I aks...ask/And I will drink to you", the album then kicks in with a medley of some of his best remembered tunes, with hilarious changes in the lyrics and in-between monologues playing out as amusing anecdotes. Sinatra's contribution follows, a serious section of six tunes with ol' Blue Eyes hitting ever note perfectly, most notably on "I Only Have Eyes For You" and "Luck Be A Lady". The album proceeds to jump between drunken ramblings from Frankie and Dean, with an eight-minute medley that sounds eerily reminiscent of "Well Did You Evah?" from High Society, to Sammy Davis' straightedge performance of "The Lady Is A Tramp", and back again. But the best is saved for last, with the whole rat pack contributing at the end of the CD to some short-but-sweet repartee and tunes that will surely have you rolling on the floor. In the end, if you're looking for some great jazz hits, Live At The Sands is the not the ideal choice, but if all you want is pure entertainment (which, ironically, is what critics are calling the new Ocean's Eleven), then you can't go wrong with this recording.