Frank Sinatra's Robin & The Seven Hoods

Frank Sinatra's Robin & The Seven Hoods Review

By 1964, with the Beatles' fame exploding all around them, the heyday of Frank Sinatra's fabled Rat Pack was just about over. But if they were daunted by middle age, the rapid encroachment of rock & roll, or simply the volatile presence of each other, there's no trace of it in their rollicking musical spoof of Robin Hood, the Warner Bros. gangster flicks of the 30's and 40's, and--crucially--themselves. Perhaps inspired by their irreverent, recently recorded Broadway romps for Sinatra's Reprise label (Guys and Dolls, Finian's Rainbow, Kiss Me, Kate, and South Pacific), the Pack (including, as it did on Guys and Dolls, guest Rat Bing Crosby) took the freewheeling nature of those records to the big screen and to this original score for the motion picture. The seven musical "hoods" here are Sinatra, Crosby, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., songwriters Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, and composer/conductor Nelson Riddle. All showcase their resumés well, from Sinatra's rendition of the familiar "My Kind of Town" (also included as a bonus track is a previously unreleased alternate version) to Davis's show-stopping ode to cold-blooded murder, "Bang! Bang!" And lest anyone take the proceedings too seriously, they hand off "All for One and One for All" to that somewhat less than noted crooner Peter Falk and let Crosby preach the Gospel of "Don't Be a Do-Badder" and "Mr. Booze" as--wait for it--a temperance lecturer! With the original album long out of print and here making its debut on CD, this edition restores the Rat Pack's lively film swan song to its full sonic glory. --Jerry McCulley