The Best Of Sammy Davis Jr. Live (Eagle Vision Classics)
Picture: C Sound: C+ Extras: D Concert: B
Despite
renewed interest in The Rat Pack, the legend of Frank Sinatra in swing and even
a Martin Scorsese Dean Martin project hopefully going in front of the camera
(soon we hope), Sammy Davis Jr. has been left behind too much as the individual
great performer he was. A secret of the
Rat Pack is that they were all exceptional performers on their own and Davis
was no exception. Finally, a good later
example of the artist at the peak of his powers is finally on DVD in The Best Of Sammy Davis Jr. Live from Eagle
Vision Classics.
It may
last only an hour, but what he achieves with the following songs shames most
performers today, many of whom are not as good as they think:
1) Where Or When
2) New York New York
3) What I Did For Love
4) The Candy Man
5) Singing In The Rain
6) What Kind Of Fool Am I
7) The Lady Is A Tramp
8) Improvisation/I’ve Got You Under My Skin
9) I’ve Gotta Be Me
10) For Once In My Life
11) As Time Goes By
12) Mr. Bojangles
Those
posers ought to see this. Even when some
songs are not the best version I have heard (What I Did For Love) or would seem unlikely for him to cover (Singing In The Rain), he manages to fuse
them with his style and make them work for the audience. Of course, he sings his only #1 Pop hit The Candy Man from the original Willy
Wonka film, though he did not sing for it.
Instead, with the film a family favorite by 1972, he simply sang over
the children’s choir singing the song and never had a hit again up to his death
in 1990.
But he
can do more than sing and do impersonations and communicate with the audience
like few others. He was more than just
one of the greatest and most graceful, advanced tap dancers of all time. He was one of THE all-around entertainers of
the 20th Century and of all time.
This concert is from Germany in 1985, where his talents were being
highly respected and shows what a legend is really made of. Anyone who is serious about music and
performance needs to consider this performance a must-see.
The 1.33
X 1 image is very soft and whether it is shot in NTSC or PAL analog tape, this
shows its age and is at least one generation down. The sound is here in Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby
2.0 and DTS 5.1, but the sound is barely stereo to begin with and the 5.1
upgrades only produce harshness and distortion.
There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
