In the Wee Small Hours (Gatefold LP)

 
In the Wee Small Hours (Gatefold LP) cover
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Frank Sinatra
In the Wee Small Hours (Gatefold LP)

[ DOL / LP ]

Release Date: Friday 1 December 2017

Should this item be out of stock at the time of your order, we would expect to be able to supply it to you within 2 - 4 weeks.

The first of many artistic milestones in the long and illustrious collaboration of Frank Sinatra and arranger Nelson Riddle that began at Capitol Records, In the Wee Small Hours is a first in other notable ways, as well: it was the pair's first 12-inch LP; their first album devoted entirely to ballads; the first "concept album," a program of songs designed to be heard in a particular sequence that sustains a mood and suggests a story; the introduction of Sinatra's definitive "saloon singer" persona; and the first flowering of Sinatra's mature artistic sensibility. Oh, and it's a masterpiece, too. The cover portrait suggests the mood of late-night desolation almost as effectively as the music, with Sinatra in the corner, smoking a solitary cigarette on deserted street illuminated only by the a foggy, blue-green glow of lamplight. Loneliness, thy name is Frank! They say that memories of Ava Gardner caused him to break down after finishing this aching version of "When Your Lover Has Gone." Riddle's clarinet theme for "What Is this Thing Called Love?" is as haunting as Cole Porter's melody itself. And if there's a more devastating evocation of solitude than "It Never Entered My Mind"... well it must be on Only the Lonely. With songs like "I'll Be Around" and "Dancing on the Ceiling" to suggest at least the hope of hope, Wee Small Hours may flirt with despair, but never succumbs to it. It's the kind of comforting company that misery likes best. --Jim Emerson

Tracks:

A1. In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
A2. Mood Indigo
A3. Glad to Be Unhappy
A4. I Get Along Without You Very Well
A5. Deep in a Dream
A6. I See Your Face Before Me
A7. Can't We Be Friends?
A8. When Your Lover Has Gone
B1. What Is This Thing Called Love
B2. Last Night When We Were Young
B3. I'll Be Around
B4. Ill Wind
B5. It Never Entered My Mind
B6. Dancing on the Ceiling
B7. I'll Never Be the Same
B8. This Love of Mine