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 enlarge | Artist: Frank Sinatra
Label: Capitol
Category: Music
List Price: $17.98
Buy New: $13.99
You Save: $3.99 (22%)
New (38) Used (31) from $3.99
Rating:  82 reviews
Sales Rank: 5591
Format: Original Recording Reissued, Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 94755
UPC: 724349475526
EAN: 0724349475526
ASIN: B000006OHD
Release Date: May 26, 1998
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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| Customer Reviews:
Nobody Knows You When You Are Down And Out September 21, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The story of this album is well known, Frank Sinatra was in a relationship with actress Ava Gardner that didn't work out and when they broke up he was very depressed and decided to make an album that reflected his sentiments. "In the Wee Small Hours" that's the time you miss her most of all!. And it's quite interesting that a playboy like Frank would come up with such a deep, self reflective and sentimental album while many of his most famous efforts were swing albums about late night hookups, travelling and feel good time and even many rather bravado anthems, but "In the Wee Small Hours" is diffrent in any way where Frank sounds like a broken and depressed man throughout the record. What's more interesting about this 1954 album is that it's grounbreaking for the development of albums as we know them today, let alone concept albums. It's considered the first album that was recorded as an entity and not as a collection of singles that most albums had at the time, and even 10 years later. All songs of this albums are part of a concept and they deal with exactly the same things - his sorrows of the loss of Ava Gardner. That itself was a relelation cause there had never been any album that dealt with the same thing throughout the recording.
With the help from arranger Nelson Riddle, Sinatra perfected the concept album. Here we have an album with 16 songs, some newly composed some cover versions. Like aformentioned, all of the songs are slow and somber and the arrangements work perfect on that line for what Sinatra is singing even if few arrangements are spectacular. "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" the opener was a new song and it's perhaps the best song of the album and sums up what's coming very well. Ellington's classic Jazz song "Mood Indigo" became a somber ballad. "I Get Along Without You Very Well" is about the man that tries to forget his ex but can't stop remembering during certain occasions while "Deep In a Dream" is how daydreaming capture the man's thought. Simuar issues goes on with "I See Your Face Before Me", "Can't We Be Friends" and the beautiful "What Is This Funny Thing Called Love" with an diffrent melody. No need to get into every song here cause by now you know what to expect.
Overall, this album is diffrent even if Sinatra recorded plenty of albums with ballads during his career. What makes it a extra-ordinary classic is the fact that it was groundbreaking for concept albums and that Sinatra shows his most sensitive side when he was most depressed and broken. This album works fine for certain occassions but it's not that kind of album you play every day. Personally, I'm perhaps more fond of Come Fly with Me recorded 3 years later cause it's more positive and meliodic with mostly uptempos. Still, there's no denying how unique this album is and how well it was recorded. A 5 star classic in whatever way you put it, but it's not for everyone nor to be played constantly. But it's Sinatra's most famous album with huge impact on music later on.
I Have Many Sinatra Albums - This Is My All-Time Favorite August 20, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Apparently Frank hand-picked each tune to reflect the deep blues he was experiencing over his breakup with Ava Gardner. As Pete Welding says in the four pages of liner notes: "Ava Gardner may have left scars, but as happens so often with great artists, personal pain has translated into artistic achievement ... a public that had at first been titillated, then offended, by the Gardner-Sinatra relationship was now ready to recognize its validity once they heard it expressed as poignantly and painfully as this."
From the pens of such as Duke Ellington, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, and David Mann & Bob Hilliard, co-composers of the title tune, these songs have been recorded many many times over the years by a varied array of artists. However, as of this album's first release on vinyl in 1955, each belongs to Francis Albert Sinatra for all time.
Loss at its most beautifully articulated August 18, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Anyone who says that Frank Sinatra was nothing but a soulless crooner who built a career out of nothing but squeaky-clean pop songs and good looks should be forced to listen to this album. Released in 1955, In the Wee Small Hours is one of the most poignant, evocative, and emotionally direct albums ever released. It's a cycle of songs that deal with loneliness, loss, and despair (probably inspired by Sinatra's doomed relationship with Ava Gardner), including many standards and classic American pop compositions. Frank's vocals are simply stunning in their emotional intensity, delivering lyric after lyric of pure cathartic anguish. Combine that with Nelson Riddle's sublime, dreamy arrangements, and you've got a collection of brilliant songs that never stray into weepy ballad territory, skillfully avoiding the traps and pitfalls that tend to snag other crooners. As for highlights? Well, all sixteen songs are fantastic, but I'm particularly fond of the bitter, self-deprecating "Glad To Be Unhappy," as well as the darkly optimistic "I'll Be Around." There's also the accurately titled "Deep In A Dream," the quiet misery of "Mood Indigo" and the title track, as well as "It Never Entered My Mind," which drips with a thousand regrets, small and large. All in all, it's a just-plain beautiful album, a masterpiece that should be heard by anybody who's ever felt the sharp stab of loneliness.
The Range Of Sinatra July 9, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Many may think he had an ordinary voice. This CD shows the emotional range of Sinatras music
My Top Sinatra album, Charlie! June 29, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I had to choose between this and so many other albums (Only The Lonely, Songs for Swingin' Lovers etc.) It's not like choosing between your children, it's like choosing between your nuts and your arms (to be absolutely male about it.) But Wee Small Hours wins out for this reason...I feel it. I've been there. I know what he is singing about. I hate the fact that I know it, but I know it nonetheless. I've had my own Ava Gardner... haven't we all? And if you put on this album, you hear it. And it really comes down to that. You will love this if you get it, and you won't get it unless you love it. Have you fallen head first? Have you felt like swinging on a star when you see her? Has it ended badly? Then listen to this disc. He says what you feel and think. It sucks, doesn't it? Frank knew all about it, and he put it on vinyl. I don't know of many singers that ever got this personal.... especially when they didn't write any of the songs.
BUY IT. If you don't like it... well, I have no words for you. It's a gamble you will have to make. But think of it this way... why do you know who Frank Sinatra is? There must be a good reason.
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