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- Verified Buyer
'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.
