Marking the release of the remake of Ocean's Eleven, the 1960 Las Vegas caper film starring Frank Sinatra and members of his Rat Pack of friends, Capitol Records issued two Rat Pack albums: a compilation of studio recordings featuring Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr. and this previously unreleased live recording. Between 1960 and 1965 (and briefly in 1988), the three singers performed together off and on, and their stage act has been captured in various media. There is film of their performances in 1960 in Las Vegas during the making of Ocean's Eleven, a recording of their show at a nightclub near Chicago in the fall of 1962 legitimately released in 1999 as The Summit: In Concert, and a videotape of a closed-circuit benefit performance from 1965. In September 1963, preparing for another group film, Robin and the Seven Hoods, the three got together during a Martin engagement at the Sands in Las Vegas, and Sinatra had his record label, Reprise, record the proceedings, but ultimately decided against releasing an album at the time. This is that recording, and much of it will sound familiar to anyone who has encountered other Rat Pack shows. In his liner notes, Bill Zehme quotes Bill Miller, Sinatra's accompanist, as saying that "maybe 30 percent of the act was ad libbed." Miller added, "Usually by Dean," and that sounds right. As usual, Martin begins with comic rewrites of standards, in particular a version of Cole Porter's "I Love Paris" rendered as "I Love Vegas." Sinatra follows with a straight six-song set, and then he and Martin joke it up for a while before giving way to a brief set by Davis. Many of the jokes are repeated from previous performances, but some are new. The key, of course, is the trio's camaraderie, which remains a delight.
© William Ruhlmann /TiVo