Despite the excellent 78s and albums Frank Sinatra made for Columbia (before) and Reprise (after), the vocalist’s tenure with Capitol Records from 1953 to 1962 undoubtedly marks the high point of his stellar singing career.

It is this ‘imperial phase’, comprising more than 300 songs – most of them included on a groundbreaking series of ‘concept albums’ beginning with Songs For Young Lovers and ending with Point of No Return – that this lavishly-packaged multi-disc collection (a bargain on CD, pricey on LP) commemorates.

On 13 March 1953, Sinatra met with Capitol Records vice-president Alan Livingston and signed a seven-year recording contract. His first session for Capitol took place shortly afterwards at KHJ studios in Los Angeles, with Axel Stordahl conducting.

This session produced four recordings, including ‘I’m Walking Behind You’, Sinatra’s first Capitol single – strangely, given its historical significance, not included here. And this is the one fault of this collection: the song selection seems sometimes capricious and illogical, and we aren’t told why the 44 tunes here are chosen; we’re consequently given a collection comprising bangers and deep cuts (including some previously unreleased material, offering insight into Sinatra’s thought processes and working methods), with no over-arching curatorial concept.

Given that the Capitol years are arguably among the most important recordings in history, the material itself is unimpeachable, and the song choices probably don’t really matter at the end of the day; just sit back and enjoy this priceless music, with its state-of-the-art arrangements from Riddle, May and others, as well as Sinatra’s exquisite phrasing. Frank was of course almost as good a thespian as he was a singer, and it’s his actorly ability to inhabit his songs, to profoundly understand his texts, that make his readings of the Great American Songbook definitive.