Main Event
Recorded live at New York's Madison Square Garden, this 1974 album provides ample testament to Sinatra's Mt. Rushmore-sized status as an American icon: This isn't the performer singing here, but the legend. (The introduction, by famously obnoxious sports commentator Howard Cosell, is hardly intended to minimize the sense of occasion.) From "The Lady Is a Tramp" to "My Way," every one of the Chairman of the Board's vocal inflections seems calculated to convey maximum Sinatra-ness; if he occasionally lapses into self-parody ("Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"), and his voice has lost a few steps, at least it sounds like he's having a good time.--Dan Epstein