Portrait of Sinatra: Columbia Classics
A best-of pared down from so many other Columbia boxes and cardboard  tombstones, this 36-track, double-disc collection showcases a boy whose voice  and heart had yet to break, revealing the man within. Sinatra would re-record  most of these tracks for Capitol and Reprise, and the later performances were at  once weary and wise. here, Francis Albert is still copping Crosby moves and  singing over the screaming teenaged girls, his voice as reed-thin as his body.  The Columbia recordings--including "All or Nothing at All,"  "Night and Day," "Body and Soul," "Someone to Watch  Over Me," and myriad other standards he'd make his own until his death--are  cool, but not nearly as warm as his later records. Buy it to find out what he  wasn't, then marvel at what he would become.--Robert Wilonsky