STILL HIS WAY

Kitty Kelley’s unauthorized bio “His Way” may paint Frank Sinatra as a monster--but it sure isn’t hurting his record sales.

Since it was released Sept. 22, retail sales of Sinatra records, cassettes and compact discs have jumped as much as 40%, according to an Outtakes survey of 23 record stores across the country.

Kelley told us, “If my book is stimulating the sale of these Sinatra albums that I love so much, I could be paid no greater compliment.”

Said Steve Boski of the huge Tower Records Greenwich Village store, “People have read this book and rushed in here to pick the Sinatra shelf clean.” L.A. stores report similar sprees and in other cities sales have jumped from 5% to 40%. In Chicago, clerks at the Record Shack and the Record Store say they’ve sold more Sinatra records in the last five weeks than in all the rest of the year.

There’s no shortage of Sinatra product in record stores: there are nearly 100 LPs available, including nearly a dozen bootlegs (this makes Frankie the all-time champ, since Elvis peaked with 60, Bing Crosby with 40 and Streisand with 35).

Reprise recently released nine Sinatra compact discs--his first--and E.M.I.-Britain has shipped hundreds of boxed sets of 20 of Sinatra’s treasured Capitol LPs for the American market. And CBS Records’ new three-album set, “The Voice,” already has shipped 100,000-plus copies, and some CBS spokesmen predicted another 100,000 could be moved by the end of January. “Much of this is due, we think, to the Kitty Kelley book,” said a CBS marketing rep.

Is it all a marketing coincidence--or Kelley’s book?

“We’ve been putting our CD package together for about two years,” said a Reprise spokesman, “and it took CBS just as long to come up with the new boxed set. Kitty’s book has only been out since Sept. 22.”

But a CBS rep in New York sang a different tune: “I think the advance publicity of the book gave us a head wind for our boxed set.” Added a CBS marketing analyst, “I think what heated up the demand was the lawsuit Sinatra filed against Kelley (which tried unsuccessfully to stymie publication of the book).”

With Christmas coming, sales of Sinatra albums will undoubtedly continue to climb. As Kelly herself said to us, “You’ve got to remember that Sinatra’s soaring talent transcends everything--even his life.”

Even her book.