About

Frank Sinatra’s seminal 1955 Capitol Records album In The Wee Small Hours is a melancholy masterpiece of lost love and heartbreak that was a pivotal album in the legendary vocalist’s career. Produced by Voyle Gilmore, the album embodied Sinatra’s artistic growth into a more mature singing style with stunning renditions of Great American Songbook standards given sublime arrangements by Nelson Riddle. 

Sinatra conceived of In The Wee Small Hours as a full-length album, rather than a collection of singles, creating one of the first-ever concept albums and becoming one of the first pop albums to be released as a 12-inch LP. The album was met with immediate critical and commercial success, reaching #2 on the Billboard charts and bolstering Sinatra’s career resurgence following his signing to Capitol Records in 1953 and his Academy Award win for his role in the film From Here to Eternity.

This mono Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at Record Technology Inc. (RTI), and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket featuring session photos by William Claxton & Ken Veeder.

About the Blue Note Tone Poet Series

The Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series was born out of Blue Note President Don Was’ admiration for the exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was brought Joe Harley, a.k.a. the “Tone Poet,” on board to curate and supervise a series of reissues from the Blue Note family of labels.

Extreme attention to detail has been paid to getting these right in every conceivable way, from the jacket graphics and printing quality to superior LP mastering (direct from the master tapes) by Kevin Gray to superb 180g audiophile LP pressings by Record Technology Inc. Every aspect of these Tone Poet releases is done to the highest possible standard. It means that you will never find a superior version. This is IT. — (via Label)

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Expanding on the concept of Songs for Young Lovers!, In the Wee Small Hours was a collection of ballads arranged by Nelson Riddle. The first 12" album recorded by Sinatra, Wee Small Hours was more focused and concentrated than his two earlier concept records. It's a blue, melancholy album, built around a spare rhythm section featuring a rhythm guitar, celesta, and Bill Miller's piano, with gently aching strings added every once and a while. 

Within that melancholy mood is one of Sinatra's most jazz-oriented performances - he restructures the melody and Miller's playing is bold throughout the record. Where Songs for Young Lovers! emphasized the romantic aspects of the songs, Sinatra sounds like a lonely, broken man on In the Wee Small Hours. Beginning with the newly written title song, the singer goes through a series of standards that are lonely and desolate.

In many ways, the album is a personal reflection of the heartbreak of his doomed love affair with actress Ava Gardner, and the standards that he sings form their own story when collected together. Sinatra's voice had deepened and worn to the point where his delivery seems ravished and heartfelt, as if he were living the songs. — (via AllMusic)

Vinyl tracklist:
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

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Label: Capitol Records 
Series: Blue Note Tone Poet Series
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Mono, 180g, Gatefold
Released: 2025 / Original: 1955
Genre: Jazz
Style: Swing, Ballad, Male Vocals

File under: Jazz // Male Vocals
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