1,001 Albums [I] Must Hear before [I] Die: 1

In the Wee Small Hours - Frank Sinatra

I had just come home from a day of work, and I was tired. My girlfriend's friends were over, watching the new Special Edition release of the first Harry Potter movie, and, while I watched it with them for a short while (I do very much enjoy the Harry Potter movies), I was much too excited to get started listening to the 1,001 records that I apparently "must" listen to before I expire.

After watching the young wizard find out about his magical lineage and purchasing his first wand, I plugged some headphones into the laptop, still sitting on the couch, passively glancing at the TV from time to time, and hit play on album number one, "In the Wee Small Hours" by Old Blue Eyes himself, the Man from Bayone, Frank Sinatra.

I am certainly a Sinatra fan, he has one of my favorite voices of all time, and his melodic phrasing is probably the best of any musician ever, save, perhaps Miles Davis (although Miles admits to Sinatra being a huge influence on his phrasing and note choices), but this was an album whose existence I only a had passing knowledge of, and had never listened to before. By the time the opening track, "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", was over, I was even more excited about taking up this challenge.

Apparently, this record was recorded shortly after Ava Gardner and Sinatra split, so it is essentially a break-up record... but it does what a break up record should do. There's no whining or self-pity here - simply melancholy and a man coming to terms with his situation. It's sad, pretty much from start to end, but it's filled with a sadness which is bizarrely beautiful. At the end of it, you feel a sense of hope... and I felt even more excited to hear what the next thousand albums had to offer. Of the six albums I have listened to so far, this one is easily my favorite, and if you haven't ever heard it, I recommend you give it a listen.