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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Look past the tacky, sad-clown velvet painting on the cover (a Grammy winner for album design in 1959!); there's nothing cheap or sentimental about this record-- the bleakest and blackest album of popular songs ever recorded, so quietly powerful it can leave you slumped in your chair with the ice cubes still rattling in your glass. Every single "suicide song" (as Sinatra liked to call them) on Only the Lonely is a stunner that will take your breath away. Nelson Riddle's arrangements are like shadows, almost colourless and motionless, so that all you hear is the ache in the singer's voice. "Angel Eyes" and "One for My Baby" each deserve an album to themselves--so exquisitely moving that at the end of three minutes, you feel like you've just heard a lifetime of loneliness. The only regret--and it's a big one--is that this flawless masterpiece doesn't include Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life", which truly belongs here; Sinatra put it into an already overcrowded recording schedule and, when fatigue and the difficulty of the song defeated him after a couple takes, he gave up and never attempted it again. We get the chillingly lovely "Willow Weep for Me" instead, so it's hard to complain--but that just adds to the pang of loss that this album expresses so vividly. Drink up! --Jim Emerson
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you only ever buy one album by frank...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely (Audio CD)
Make it this one! This late Capitol album sees the Chairman of the Board in fine voice - arguably the best it has been and will ever be - coupled with long term arranger Nelson Riddle. From the opening track - Only the Lonely (a new piece written specially for the album by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen) - to the final clamactic chord on the previously unissued "Where or When", Sinatra shows the listener many stages of sadness. In the plaintive opening track, he is the detached narrator, preparing you for the rest of the album. In the poignant "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry", Sinatra is in emotional turmoil concerning a present love or loss. And in the climax of the album (or anti-climax, depending on how you look at it), the sobering "One For My Baby", Sinatra is a battered and beaten voice of experience. Utilising an enormous ensemble, larger than that on "The Concert Sinatra", "Only the Lonely" is a treasure you will keep for as long as you live, a far cry from the horrific soft-rock attempts of the late sixties and seventies by Sinatra. The mastering and production is crystal clear on this disc, as is the playing. Riddle's orchestrations are masterpieces in their own right, many possessing a Stravinskian, certainly symphonic quality. And the misery and suffering of the singer, on this wonderful album, will haunt you whenever you are listening. This is a true companion to have, and one that demonstrates the most underrated, under publicised part of Sinatra - his singing. Whenever anyone asks you why Robbie Williams can never measure up to the sheer force of Frank's talent, just show them this CD!
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sinatra's Greatest Concept Album,
By A Customer
This review is from: Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely (Audio CD)
This is widely regarded as a recording masterpiece and rightfully so. Frank always went for the suicide song and here he embraces it. Nelson Riddle's arrangements are beautiful but restrained, with The Man himself at the forefront, giving this entire recording an intimate feel as though your setting next to him in a smoky bar on the corner while he tells you these sad stories of love lost.From the start of this album and "Only the Lonely" we know what this is about and who it's for. Girls may love Sinatra but this is for all us guys who love them, who love them hard and with everything, and lose. It was something Sinatra knew well and he was never more perfect and eloquent in his tone and phrasing than right here. The sadness and longing as Frank drowns along with us is masterful and the continuity of the album itself is amazing. One great song is followed by another as Sinatra sings all the things we feel. The more upbeat "Come Fly With Me" stuff from other concept albums was great but by the end of this recording we feel as if we actually know Frank. After all, it's past midnight in this smoky bar and we've been swapping our tales of woe for hours. "One For My Baby, and One More For the Road" is my personal favorite though you could pick just about any cut and not go wrong. This is truly an intimate and personal recording by the greatest artist of our century. Sinatra knew heartache and made it seem ok to be all messed up about a girl, wondering if love would ever come down the road again. If you don't own this Sinatra recording yet, you are missing something really special that passed this way. So set 'em up Joe, I"ve got a Little Story to Tell....
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful album,
By
This review is from: Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely (Audio CD)
Here the theme of this ablum is a man resigned to the fact that he is alone and feels that he cannot change or move on from a failed romance, you could say that the overall character wallows in his daydreams. Nearly every facet of this kind of loneliness has been thoughtfully assemblaged, with Nelson Riddle perpetuating an almost relentless backdrop for Sinatra to croon through. (For those of you who like trivia, "I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry" is originally from a 1940's musical by Julie Styne and Sammy Cahn called "Glad To See You"). Aside from the epic title song my favourite is "It's A Lonesome Old Town" where Riddle is very clever at making us believe that the lonesome chap has tried to drown his sorrows. I really like the cover artwork, front and back, so typical or its era, and although dated it harkens back to the days when thought was applied to covers. If you think you've got it bad with your lover gone you'll take comfort in the sympathetic ear of these songs. One of Sinatra's best ballad collections.
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