Sinatra, Frank: In the Wee Small Hours (Blue Note Tone Poet) LP

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.