In The Wee Small Hours
If this was the only number on the CD it would be more
than well worth it. He's at his absolute best.

Fantastic album!!
Great music, great composer, great singer! This album is certainly one of the best in his career! Blue, melancholic, his music lead us to a calm and peaceful world, where his melody touches our hearts and souls! Frank Sinatra rocks =)

When You've Loved and Lost...
"You know, it's just that people like this...you know... they get all they want so they don't really understand,you know...about a life like Frank's. I mean, you know when you've loved and lost the way Frank has, then you uh ...you know what life's about."

Frank At His Most Personal And Passionate.
"In The Wee Small Hours" is an album whose brilliance is hard to encompass in words. It was recorded at a deeply troubling time in his personal life, having split from the love of his life, Ava Gardner. Rather than drown his sorrow in booze and cigs, Frank decided to put his pain to good artistic use. He got together with arranger and musical blood brother Nelson Riddle and slected a list of songs dealing with heartbreak and lost love that allowed Frank to let him unleash his true feelings rather than keep them locked up. I suppose for Frank, singing was his way of punching a pillow or taking 10 deep breaths to calm down...or perhaps even suicide.

"In The Wee Small Hours" to this day remains Frank's most praised album by critics and fans alike. It is often regarded as the first concept album by many music aficianados, and it in many ways truly is. Each song on the album is connected through a similar theme: heartache. From the aching classic title track that starts off the album to the closing "This Love Of Mine", each song is here devastatingly devoid of joy, though at the same time manages not to get too depressing. The songs here merely put the listener in a melancholy, sympathetic mood, unlike say "Only The Lonely".

Some of Frank's most beautiful recordings are present on this 16 track masterpiece. In addition to the classic title track, the sadly ironic "Glad To Be Unhappy", the haunting "I Get Along Without You Very Well", thr rich, atmospheric "Deep In A Dream", the wistful "I'll Be Around" and the dreamy "Dancing On The Ceiling" are some of the best material Frank ever cut in his career. And "When Your Lover Has Gone" is delivered in a manner that is nothing short of heartbreaking. Frank was said to have broken down in tears after finishing the master take, and towards the end of the track, you can sense it.

The rest of the album is uniformly excellent, with not a single weak number in the bunch (though "Last Night When We Were Young" and "It Never Entered My Mind" were done better by Frank later on). The remastering job is superb as well, as are the liner notes by Pete Wielding. "In the Wee Small Hours" is a classic album that all music fans should own.

Nobody Knows You When You Are Down And Out
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.