Frank Sinatra - In The Wee Small Hours

Frank Sinatra LPs cut for Capitol Records between 1953 and 1961 are a chronicle of singing that electrified fans.

"When he moved to Capitol in 1952, Sinatra was facing a crisis: dumped by Columbia, the swing era he was reared in already gone, his career seemed in tatters. It was "From Here to Eternity" and the advent of the long-playing record that saved him.

"In the Wee Small Hours took the daring step of running 16 slow ballads side by side, and the result was some of Sinatra's most profound and involved work. The songs were uniformly superb, and in his flawless delivery — every phrase articulated with noble precision, every legato shift and taking of breath finely judged — Sinatra paid them the highest due. When the material was as fine as Lorenz Hart's lyric for It Never Entered My Mind — "Once you told me I was mistaken / That I'd awaken with the sun / and order orange juice for one / It never entered my mind" — Sinatra told the tale with deceptive simplicity. But when it was "When Your Lover Has Gone," a whiskery jazz novelty even in 1955, he made it the loneliest prayer for comfort." — The Guardian