Accompanying the 2013 Deluxe Edition reissue of Frank Sinatra's
Duets is
The Best of Duets, a 14-track compilation that rounds up highlights from that 1993 album and its 1994 sequel, adding his duet with
Luciano Pavarotti on "My Way," a cut previously unreleased in the U.S. (but available on various international editions of the first
Duets). As these two albums are cut from the same cloth -- they were assembled from the same long-distance sessions helmed by
Phil Ramone -- they compile nicely, and this collection also benefits by emphasizing vocalists familiar with the Great American Songbook over pop
ock novelties. To be sure, such attention-grabbers as
Bono and
Chrissie Hynde are here (the latter providing one of the liveliest cuts), but this focuses on
Barbra Streisand,
Luther Vandross,
Lena Horne,
Tony Bennett,
Aretha Franklin, and Frank Sinatra, Jr, which does mean this music doesn't seem quite as desperate to please all demographics as it did on the original album. Nothing changes how the
Duets project remains a not-entirely essential coda to Sinatra's career, but anybody wanting to sample this swan song would do as well listening to this compilation as they would listening to the actual albums. [A 20th Anniversary Edition was released in 2013.]
![Best of Duets [20th Anniversay]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0602537544936_p0_v2_s550x406.jpg)
![Best of Duets [20th Anniversay]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0602537544936_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg)
