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List Price: $11.94 | | Label: Capitol
Salesrank: 4529
Released: May 26, 1998 |
| Our Price: $8.44 |
| Used Price: $5.98 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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In the Wee Small Hours Track Listing:
1. In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
2. Mood Indigo
3. Glad to Be Unhappy
4. I Get Along Without You Very Well
5. Deep in a Dream
6. I See Your Face Before Me
7. Can't We Be Friends?
8. When Your Lover Has Gone
9. What Is This Thing Called Love?
10. Last Night When We Were Young
11. I'll Be Around
12. Ill Wind
13. It Never Entered My Mind
14. Dancing on the Ceiling
15. I'll Never Be the Same
16. This Love of Mine
Editorial Review:
Franks Sinatra Photos
More from Ole Blue Eyes
Classic Sinatra | 
Duets | 
Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely |
Romance: Songs From the Heart | 
Sinatra 80th: All the Best | 
Come Dance with Me! |
Description of In the Wee Small Hours:
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
In the Wee Small Hours Reviews:
FLAWED-wrong songs 
2009-11-23 - THIS ALBUM IS FLAWED---
When Your Lover has Gone is MISSING.
Replaced with much worse song.
DO NOT PURCHASE
Still awesome after all these years (54) 
2009-07-04 - I was a 14 year old in love with Elvis when my Dad brought this lp home in 1955. Don't know why, but I played it and fell in love with Sinatra then and there. Didn't have a date? Went downstairs and put this lp on. Broke up with a boy, went downstairs and listened to this one. Got divorced, well, here comes Frank to comfort me. Been like that for 54 years. To me, this is his best, even over "Only the Lonely."
I saw Sinatra several times and he was awesome. But in lieu of seeing him (not possible now), listen to his singing. Singers studied his singing and he studied opera singers to learn how to breathe.
Henry Winkler once said in an interview that this is the best album to commit suicide by. Pretty close.
My man, now and forever.
(And my Dad wasn't a Sinatra fan, so I'm not sure why he bought the album but it became mine.)
A Better Sounding Version is Available 
2009-04-05 - As I get older, prejudices that used to prevent me from enjoying many different artists and genres of music are melting away. Case in point: I picked up a copy of the latest remaster of "In the Wee Small Hours" a few weeks ago, and now I'm hooked on Sinatra. Obsession followed, and I'm now trying to put together the best sounding collection of Sinatra I can afford, so I picked up the two Mobile Fidelity titles that are presently in print, and I'm buying the latest Capitol and Reprise remasters.
While I loved the music and singing, I was disappointed in the sound of "In the Wee Small Hours". It sounded like they were too heavy-handed with the noise reduction. In fact, the latest remasters of all the Capitol titles I've acquired so far sound like they have all been subjected to excessive noise reduction that has sapped the ambiance from the recordings in varying degrees. Some suffer more than others. The Reprise titles that I've acquired so far don't have this problem, and they sound great.
In the pursuit of audio nirvana, I purchased a used copy of the original CD release of In the Wee Small Hours and it was a welcome improvement over the remaster, although when I tried the same thing with a couple of other titles, I didn't get the same gratifying results. Maybe MFSL will attempt to remaster the remaining Capitol titles in the future, but at least for now, relief can be had in the original CD release.
The First Great Album 
2009-03-28 - In 1955 when, "In The Wee Small Hours", was realesed as an LP or long playing record it started a trend of great albums being realesed. In The Wee Small Hours is not only a masterpiece because its the first album of its kind its also the first album that contains songs which have feeling written into them. On the title track you can almost feel what he's singing about. This album is meant to have a place in any music lovers collection.
Nonpareil
2008-10-12 - Truly, the creative symbiosis that arises from the inspired songwriter, the talented arranger and the gifted interpreter is best exemplified in Sinatra's albums for Capitol Records of the late 1950s.
