MAIN EVENT - LIVE

Personnel: Frank Sinatra (vocals); Woody Herman & The Young Thundering Herd. Recorded at New York's Madison Square Garden on October 13, 1974. Audio Remasterer: Lee Herschberg. Recording information: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY (10/13/1974). In 1970, Frank Sinatra announced a retirement that thankfully didn't stick; he released the comeback album OL' BLUE EYES IS BACK in '73 and undertook an extensive tour the following year, from whose Madison Square Garden concert this album is taken. From the fanfare-heavy Howard Cosell introduction to the emotion apparent in Sinatra's own between-song comments, it's plain that the title of this album is quite literal. By this time in Sinatra's life, his vocal chops had deteriorated a bit. Still, though he wasn't able to hit as many notes for as long, he made up for it with an increasingly jazzy phrasing and a richness of character that makes it clear why he also had a successful film career. While many of the songs Sinatra tackles here had been staples of his repertoire for ages ("I Get a Kick out of You," "I've Got You Under My Skin"), he acknowledges the passing of time by taking on a couple of more contemporary tunes, such as Jim Croce's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and Stevie Wonder's "You are the Sunshine of My Life"). Instead of trying to sound "hip" on the newer songs, he bends them to fit his style, and sounds just as comfortable with them as with anything else. He closes with "My Way," which he introduces as "the National Anthem." Judging from the reading he gives the song, that's a pretty fair description.