<P> As happens with many singers, Sinatra suffered at least one period of major vocal difficulty, which he remedied with the help of Metropolitan Opera baritone Robert Merrill . </P> <P> As a song - stylist, Sinatra's jazz - infused approach to singing seemed to occur with the end of the "Big Band" era and ushering in of an era that favored the vocalist and made him / her the focus, not the bandleader and his band . </P> <P> Sinatra also possessed an outstanding vocal range . According to music critic Henry Pleasants "The voice itself was a typical Italian light baritone with a two octave range from G to G, declining, as it darkened in later years, to F to F and with greater potential at the top than he was commonly disposed to exploit . He could and sometimes did depress the larynx and' cover' as classical singers do, to sustain a full rounded tone in moving up the scale . On his recording' Day by Day,' for example he gives out with full - voiced, admirably focused D's and E's and even lands a briefly held but confident high G just before the end ." His early recordings found him singing in near - tenor range, hitting a high F on "All or Nothing At All" (1939) or "Where's My Bess" (1946), whilst being equally adept in the lower register, the low E on his 1962 recording of "Ol' Man River" being a prime example of such . His phrasing was also impeccable, getting to the heart of a song by emphasizing words and lines in ways that made a song more personal, whilst his ability to hold notes, sing above or behind the beat and rest on a note were hallmarks of a singer fully in command of his instrument . </P> <P> Between 1946 and 1983 Sinatra conducted seven albums and occasionally conducted live orchestras on stage . His first recordings on which he wielded the baton were instigated by producer Mitch Miller, who approached Columbia boss Maine Sachs to request that Sinatra conduct some of the work of Alec Wilder, later released as Frank Sinatra Conducts The Music Of Alec Wilder . In 1956 Sinatra recorded the first album in the Capitol Records tower, not as a vocalist, but as a conductor on the album Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color . In 1957 and 1959 he conducted albums for Peggy Lee--The Man I Love--and Dean Martin--Sleep Warm--the latter, charting inside Billboard's Top 40 . A lesser - known project for his own label, Reprise, entitled Frank Sinatra Conducts Music from Pictures and Plays remains relatively obscure, and it was 20 years before Sinatra conducted in a studio again, for Sylvia Syms on the album Syms by Sinatra, which featured the final arrangements of Don Costa . The following year Sinatra conducted for trumpeter Charles Turner on the album What's New? . </P>

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