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The back catalogue is being transferred to digital at the rate of about four reels a year, on borrowed equipment. This is what is done so far.
The Tendertone Swing
Titles marked as still on tape have not been transferred yet. They come out of the box in the order they were put in, which is not the order anybody would choose.
Transfers are made from the best surviving source and are not equalised or corrected for speed. Where the original ran fast, it still does.
“The Tendertone Swing”
Every engagement since April 1994 has opened with the same three minutes, and Frankie is singing from the first bar of it. Barry Sloane wrote the tune in the car park of the Golden Fleece in an afternoon and never took a credit for it; the words were finished the same night, on the drive back to Preston. It has never been shortened.
“Some acts wait for a room to settle. We sing at it until it does. By the last chorus everybody has found a chair, and the ones who haven’t have gone.” Frankie Velvet · Australian Cabaret Review, 1997
It has been recorded four times.
| 1993 | Velvet by Candlelight | 132 bpm |
| 1995 | Do You Know the Way to Santa Fe? | 128 bpm |
| 2005 | The Comeback Buffet | 121 bpm |
| 2024 | Still Tender: Live at the Astoria | 114 bpm |
Records and CDs are sold at engagements from a card table to the left of the stage, by whoever is not needed for the first number.