This column is for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr fans.

A relatively new CD (1999) entitled The Summit in Concert has been released. It retails for more than $30 from Collector's Choice Music, but I cheated and got a used copy for less than $20 from Tower Records. It is a single CD running around 70 minutes.

Taped in Wheeling, Illinois at a relatively small super club, it features wonderful liner notes which enable the listener to fully appreciate the humor interspersing the songs. It was recorded during the era of segregation in the US and many of the jokes revolve around this issue. Supposedly, the artists were not paid for their performances due to Sinatra needing to pay Chicago mobster Sam Giancana back for helping Kennedy win a crucial primary in the Presidential race. Sammy Davis, Jr does impressions as well as sing and clown around with Martin and Sinatra, and together they close the show with a rousing version of Birth of the Blues. It is a very entertaining CD (although I would have hated to pay $30 for it).

The second CD I want to review is actually a boxed set of three by Dean Martin entitled Everybody Loves Somebody. It is a 2000 release which I bought from Tower Records at a wonderful bargain price; using my bizrate sign-in, I got the full set of three for roughly $13! But be forewarned - there is at least one other album out there with the same title.