Frank Sinatra’s ‘In The Wee Small Hours’ To Join Blue Note’s Tone Poet Vinyl Series
The forthcoming reissue, due out November 17th, coincides with the album’s 70th anniversary.
Frank Sinatra‘s iconic 1955 album In The Wee Small Hours is joining Blue Note’s Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Series this year. The forthcoming reissue, due out November 17th, will coincide with the album’s 70th anniversary.
As with all Tone Poet records, the audiophile reissue was produced for release by Joe Harley with all-analog mastering by Kevin Gray, cut directly from the original master tapes. The album will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Record Technology Inc. and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket featuring session photos by William Claxton and Ken Veeder, plus an essay by Rita Kirwan.
A pivotal record in Sinatra’s formidable catalog, In The Wee Small Hours is considered one of the first-ever concept albums. Sinatra conceived the project as a full-length album rather than a collection of singles, and it became one of the first pop albums released on 12-inch LP format.
The album includes vocal renditions of a variety of Great American Songbook standards, including “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” “Mood Indigo,” “What Is This Thing Called Love?,” and “It Never Entered My Mind.” Produced by Voyle Gilmore, it featured arrangements by Nelson Riddle.
The 16-track album was met with immediate critical and commercial success upon its 1955 release, reaching number two on the Billboard charts. The warm reception bolstered Sinatra’s career resurgence following his signing to Capitol Records in 1953, and his Academy Award win for his role in From Here to Eternity.
The tracklisting spans classic compositions by legendary songwriters including Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, Harold Arlen, and Hoagy Carmichael. Side one opens with the title track and includes “Glad to Be Unhappy” and “I Get Along Without You Very Well.” Side two features “Last Night When We Were Young” and closes with “This Love of Mine,” co-written by Sinatra himself.
In The Wee Small Hours marks one of the first classic vocal albums in the Tone Poet series, which primarily focuses on instrumental jazz releases. The record joins reissues from the likes of Stanley Turrentine, Bobby Hutcherson, Hank Mobley and more.
Order the Blue Note Tone Poet edition of Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours now.
