Featured Compilation
- OCT 6, 2017
- 20 Songs
- The Classic Christmas Album · 1947
- Ultimate Christmas · 1991
- The Christmas Collection · 2004
- A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra (50th Anniversary Edition) · 1957
- The Classic Christmas Album · 1950
- A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra (50th Anniversary Edition) · 1957
- Nothing But the Best (Remastered) · 1964
- A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra (50th Anniversary Edition) · 1957
- Christmas Songs by Sinatra · 1950
- Nothing But the Best (Remastered) · 2008
Essential Albums
- In his reissue notes, Pete Welding called In the Wee Small Hours “the single finest collection of mood songs ever recorded” with an intimate narrative focus tailor-made for the early LP era. Sinatra was just a year into his prolific Capitol period on his ninth studio album, and Nelson Riddle’s arrangements—emotionally direct, never flowery or saccharine—framed his voice with subtlety as he delivered what would become definitive versions of these timeless songs by Alec Wilder, Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers, Duke Ellington, and more. Four of these—“Glad to Be Unhappy,” “Can’t We Be Friends,” “I’ll Be Around,” and “Dancing on the Ceiling”—featured a smaller ensemble within the band, giving the music room to breathe and highlighting the sublime taste of players like guitarist George Van Eps. Much like Ella Fitzgerald’s interpretive albums for Verve, Sinatra’s Capitol outings did a great deal to codify the Great American Songbook in the mid-20th century—In the Wee Small Hours chief among them.
- How did Frank sing Christmas classics? His way.
- Experience the singular thrill of Ol' Blue Eyes with this career retrospective.
- Resistance is futile. Fall for Frank all over again.
- Ol' Blue Eyes grows up.
- You've now got the best seat in the house to hear the magic that is Frank onstage.
- Together they turn show tunes into solid gold.
Singles & EPs
Live Albums
- 2006
Appears On
More To Hear
- The artist premieres her holiday track "come out and play."
About Frank Sinatra
Born in Hoboken, NJ, in 1915, Francis Albert Sinatra exercised an almost unparalleled sway on 20th-century popular music. Before there was Elvis or Madonna, he mastered the art of morphing his persona and his music, and in the process remained an iconic force for five decades. From 1942 (when he went solo after stints with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey) until his death in 1998, Sinatra adapted his approach to changing tastes yet always interpreted every song he tackled with phrasing that personalized and enhanced the meaning of the lyrics. His early, vulnerable crooning style elevated him to superstardom, arguably turning him into the first teen idol, with screaming bobby-soxers hanging on his every romantic turn of phrase, mixing tenderness and feminine vulnerability. He made the most of the post-WWII years by radiating a rugged insouciance—filling out his once-slender frame, using booze as a stage prop, and heightening his sexuality—that resonated with a newly affluent audience. By 1953 he completed the first of several reinventions, trading in youthful silkiness for introspection, an ambivalent delivery that afforded different interpretations to different listeners, and a darker timbre on a series of albums made with arranger Nelson Riddle. Toggling between celebrating urbane hedonism, rhapsodizing romantic desire, and meditating on loneliness, he exploited the new LP format—and pioneered the concept album with In the Wee Small Hours in 1955. In 1960 he launched his own label, Reprise, and began projecting a high-roller image aligned with Las Vegas high life. Even as he cut back on recording in the 1970s, he still scored hits such as the nostalgic “Theme from New York, New York” in 1980, and his influence remains profound, whether in the music of a disciple like Michael Bublé or in the business acumen of JAY Z.
- BORN
- December 12, 1915
- GENRE
- Pop