As a marketing concept,
Frank Sinatra
's comeback album
Duets
was a complete success. A collection of
Sinatra
standards produced by
Phil Ramone
, the record wasn't a duets album in the conventional sense --
never recorded in the studio with his partners. Instead, the other singers recorded their tracks separately, sometimes in different studios, and the two tracks were pasted together. In the case of several duet partners, including
Bono
and
Barbara Streisand
, this means they rely on camp as a way of making their performances interesting.
was a gigantic hit, rising to number two on the pop charts and selling over two million copies, becoming
's single most commercially successful record. The album was promoted as a piece of nostalgia, primarily to baby boomers but also to Generation X as a piece of kitsch.
"One for My Baby (And One More for the Road),"
essentially a solo performance introduced by an instrumental from saxophonist
Kenny G
, is a track in which the real emotional core of
's music is on display. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine