1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die - #1 - FRANK SINATRA - IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS (1955)

FRANK SINATRA - IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS (1955)
Track Listing: (standout tracks in bold)
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

The first album to play in the epic 1001 albums is this low key Sinatra collection "In the Wee Small Hours" a collection of ballads arranged by Nelson Riddle. It's a blue, melancholy album, Sinatra sounds like a lonely, broken man. It truly is a depressing album. While admittedly not my kind of music for the most part - his singing is pretty good - and this is a good representation of the music that was put out in the 50's in the time "BE" - that being "before Elvis". In reading about the album I found that the sessions were 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.
After listening to this - it really does let you feel how shocking the arrival of Elvis onto the musical scene really was!

ABSOLUTE ROCK BIRTHDAYS FOR SEPTEMBER 14:
Steve Berlin from Los Lobos is 53;