By: Tracking Angle

September 15th, 2025

Category:

News

"In the Wee Small Hours", Frank Sinatra's Seminal 1955 Capitol Album Drops November 14th Via Blue Note "Tone Poet" Series

AUDIOPHILE REISSUE PRODUCED FOR RELEASE BY JOE HARLEY WITH ALL-ANALOG MASTERING BY KEVIN GRAY CUT DIRECTLY FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES

(Press Release): Frank Sinatra’s seminal 1955 Capitol Records album In The Wee Small Hours will be reissued in Blue Note’s acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Series on November 14 marking the album’s 70th anniversary. Produced for release by Joe Harley, the new Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at Record Technology Inc. (RTI), and comes packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket featuring session photos by William Claxton and Ken Veeder, as well as an essay by Rita Kirwan.

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, creating one of the first-ever concept albums.

Sinatra conceived of In The Wee Small Hours as a full-length album, rather than a collection of singles, and it would become one of the first pop albums to be released on 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.

Side 1

1. In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning (Dave Mann-Bob Hilliard)

2. Mood Indigo (Duke Ellington-Irving Mills-Barney Bigard)

3. Glad to Be Unhappy (Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart)

4. I Get Along Without You Very Well (Hoagy Carmichael)

5. Deep in a Dream (Jimmy Van Heusen-Eddie DeLange)

6. I See Your Face Before Me (Arthur Schwartz-Howard Dietz)

7. Can't We Be Friends? (Kay Swift-Paul James)

8. When Your Lover Has Gone (E.A. Swan)

Side 2

1. What Is This Thing Called Love? (Cole Porter )

2. Last Night When We Were Young (Harold Arlen-E.Y. Harburg)

3. I'll Be Around (Alec Wilder)

4. Ill Wind (Harold Arlen-Ted Koehler)

5. It Never Entered My Mind (Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart)

6. Dancing on the Ceiling (Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart)

7. I'll Never Be the Same (Matty Malneck-Frank Signorelli- Gus Kahn)

8. This Love of Mine (Sol Parker-Henry Sanicola-Frank Sinatra)

Comments

2025-09-15 02:13:06 PM

Diogo wrote:

Finally!
2025-09-15 02:17:58 PM

Mark Decker wrote:

is this a prelude to more Sinatra in this series?
- 2025-09-15 06:26:45 PM
  
  Come on wrote:
  
  Sometimes my wallet says „thank god, that you don’t like all kinds of music“ ;-)
2025-09-15 02:24:33 PM

Scotty wrote:

Excited for this one no doubt! I thought some might like to hear more on the mastering process. Joe Harley shared this with me...

"Capitol ran two identical decks at that time. The tracks from one of them were used to assemble the final cutting master. The master was then used 100s of times for production. The tracks from the other deck were then put on what were called "phono reels", and aside from being used for some singles, were not touched after that for analog production. We assembled the phono reel tracks into side A/B of the album for the very first time earlier this year. The difference in fidelity is a bit shocking. Frank is in the room. It's like a veil has been lifted."
2025-09-16 02:52:55 PM

Remzo wrote:

For Frank fans, it's great that this LP is getting a Tone Poet release. But as a BN fan, I have mixed feelings about non-BN reissues in the TP series. Some genuine BN reissues in the TP series are unavailable in Europe, thanks to the TP Society series (Davis Cup and Here 'This, for example). Meanwhile, non-BN reissues in the TP series are freely available. Very strange. Hopefully, fellow enthusiasts in the US won't have to buy such non-BN reissues to save up for a genuine BN reissue in the Society series. Hopefully, Don Was will read this, although I'm not holding out hope. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the TP and Classic BN series; great music and great releases.