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Track Listings
| 1. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning |
| 2. Glad To Be Unhappy |
| 3. I Get Along Without You Very Well |
| 4. Deep In A Dream |
| 5. I See Your Face Before Me |
| 6. Can't We Be Friends |
| 7. When Your Lover Has Gone |
| 8. What Is This Thing Called Love |
| 9. I'll Be Around |
| 10. Ill Wind |
| 11. It Never Entered My Mind |
| 12. I'll Never Be The Same |
| 13. This Love Of Mine |
| 14. Last Night When We Were Young |
| 15. Dancing On The Ceiling |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
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 programme 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
CD Description
Recorded in 1955, this superbly arranged and sung set of slow ballads can lay claim to being the world's first "conceptalbum". Of course, in classical music, song cycles had beenaround since Schubert, but a whole set of pop tunes arranged around a central theme or mood was something new in popular music. With the advent of the LP in 1953, commercial pop music was beginning to take itself seriously. As to be expected, Frank Sinatra did it first and best.
Sinatra is in utter command of this material--vocally relaxed yet focused onconveying what these hand-picked "torch" songs still have to say to the modern listener. Throughout he projects his signature manly vulnerability without seeming maudlin or even sentimental. The singer is helped immeasurably in this task by Nelson Riddle's deftly scored chamber arrangements which include brilliant use of celeste and guitar on several tracks(cf. Alec Wilder's "I'll Be Around", Kay Swift's "Can't We Be Friends".) A must for any listener even remotely interested in the Great American Songbook.
Sinatra is in utter command of this material--vocally relaxed yet focused onconveying what these hand-picked "torch" songs still have to say to the modern listener. Throughout he projects his signature manly vulnerability without seeming maudlin or even sentimental. The singer is helped immeasurably in this task by Nelson Riddle's deftly scored chamber arrangements which include brilliant use of celeste and guitar on several tracks(cf. Alec Wilder's "I'll Be Around", Kay Swift's "Can't We Be Friends".) A must for any listener even remotely interested in the Great American Songbook.
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71% buy the item featured on this page: In The Wee Small Hours £4.98 |
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8% buy Frank Sinatra: Three Classic Albums and More (In The Wee Small Hours / Close To You / A Swingin Affair) £3.98 |
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8% buy Songs for Swingin' Lovers! £6.18 |
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7% buy The Platinum Collection (3CD) £7.98 |
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