Old Man River remains one of my favorite Sinatra tunes, even after having heard it hundreds of times in several different versions. This song was one of the hallmark performances critics pointed to when they talked about Sinatra’s breath control, which can be easily seen and heard by clicking play to watch this video. Sinatra did this song best when he was young. A good example is this particular performance which comes as the finale to Sinatra’s early film, Till the Clouds Roll By. I believe it was 1942 or 1943, during his bobby-soxer period. Get a load of that head of hair!
Interestingly, the copyright on this film was never renewed and it is now in the public domain.