Frank Sinatra - In The Wee Small Hours

This is Frank Sinatra's third Capitol studio album. It has been widely considered as the first concept album with themes such as loneliness and unrequited love. Despite Capitol Records' hesitance of releasing an album with such "dark" themes, it proved to be a commercial success. The album is also viewed as a personal record for Sinatra because of his troubled relationship with his wife at the time, actress Ava Gardner. Sinatra's album is also significant for being released as a 12" album. (Although it was first released in two-volume sets; as a 10" LP set with one 10" LP in each volume as well as a 45 rpm EP set with two 45 rpm EPs for each volume. The 12"s came soon after.) This made the album one of the first pop records to be issued as a 12". The reason for this was because Sinatra wanted his music to be taken more seriously and seen more as a collection of songs instead of just catchy individual songs put together. Before this, classical music was the usually the only music to be released in 12"s. The album has been included in many album lists over the years, such as its 101st ranking by Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2012 edition). Many music critics highly regard the album as one of Sinatra's greatest efforts. Musicians have also said the album is a favorite of theirs, such as Tom Waits, Marvin Gaye, and B.B. King. Previous [m=275698] Next [m=144114] EP's are contained here [r=2665994] [r=2667517] [m=331278] [m=389547] [m=455135] [m=474705] Jukebox [r=6571344]