Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours (Top 500 Countdown Update)

This album definitely taps into Sinatra's strength which is singing slow, moody, expressive songs. It is a good album. But 11 years later he would record September of My Years which I believe is a much better album, Sinatra's best. In fact he does one song on each of these albums "Last Night When We Were Young" and I think from this song you can see the differences and why September is a better album. Sinatra has an incredibly expressive voice doing these slow ballads and one of the geniuses of September is that the arrangements keep the music sitting back and allow Sinatra's voice to set the mood, the pace, the emotion. If you listen to the two versions you'll find that the arrangement on In the Wee Small Hours allows the instruments to intrude on the wonderfully emotional performance instead of acting as a spotlight. In the Wee Small Hours is a strong album and certainly fun to listen to when you are feeling down and out, but I would skip it and buy September of My Years.