Album: In The Wee Small Hours
Artist: Frank Sinatra
Born: Hoboken, New Jersey
Released: April 1955
Genre: Pop, Jazz
Influenced: Marvin Gaye, Tom Waits
That my musical tastes overlap, in some rare cases, with those of my Nan remains a source of great pleasure to me. One particular case is Ol' Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. A common thread through the three albums selected so far is heartbreak, whether that's loss of livelihood or romantic love, and In The Wee Small Hours is Sinatra at his most soulful, vulnerable and heartbroken. The music summons up the atmosphere of the title, the soundtrack of some poor lost soul listening to old records and smoking cigarettes into the early hours, with a heart full of longing. For Sinatra, it was the loss of one of the most beautiful women ever to walk the earth, Ava Gardner, that was the driving force for this album, so I can barely imagine the intensity of that heartbreak.
None of Sinatra's most popular songs, such as My Way, Fly Me To The Moon or I've Got You Under My Skin, are on In The Wee Small Hours but this lack of standout tracks makes the album better able to convey a unified mood, rather than act as a vehicle for Sinatra's latest hits. My personal favourites are the title track and What Is This Thing Called Love?, but as already mentioned this album is much more than the sum of its parts, and is best enjoyed in its entirety all alone late at night with a glass of whisky in your hand.
On a final note, when Sinatra died while I was a first-year student in halls, I decided upon hearing the news (in my highly inebriated state, the morning after the night before) to regale my neighbours with a special sing-a-long version of his hits at full voice out of my bedroom window. The fact I still have some good friends from that era remains a surprise to me.
Artist: Frank Sinatra
Born: Hoboken, New Jersey
Released: April 1955
Genre: Pop, Jazz
Influenced: Marvin Gaye, Tom Waits
That my musical tastes overlap, in some rare cases, with those of my Nan remains a source of great pleasure to me. One particular case is Ol' Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. A common thread through the three albums selected so far is heartbreak, whether that's loss of livelihood or romantic love, and In The Wee Small Hours is Sinatra at his most soulful, vulnerable and heartbroken. The music summons up the atmosphere of the title, the soundtrack of some poor lost soul listening to old records and smoking cigarettes into the early hours, with a heart full of longing. For Sinatra, it was the loss of one of the most beautiful women ever to walk the earth, Ava Gardner, that was the driving force for this album, so I can barely imagine the intensity of that heartbreak.
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| Ava getting to grips with deep sea fishing |
None of Sinatra's most popular songs, such as My Way, Fly Me To The Moon or I've Got You Under My Skin, are on In The Wee Small Hours but this lack of standout tracks makes the album better able to convey a unified mood, rather than act as a vehicle for Sinatra's latest hits. My personal favourites are the title track and What Is This Thing Called Love?, but as already mentioned this album is much more than the sum of its parts, and is best enjoyed in its entirety all alone late at night with a glass of whisky in your hand.
On a final note, when Sinatra died while I was a first-year student in halls, I decided upon hearing the news (in my highly inebriated state, the morning after the night before) to regale my neighbours with a special sing-a-long version of his hits at full voice out of my bedroom window. The fact I still have some good friends from that era remains a surprise to me.
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