For many Frank Sinatra fans, Only the Lonely (1958) is his best album. It’s moody and intense. Sinatra was at the top of his game. Nelson Riddle’s orchestra sounds fantastic on these new remastered CDs. I bought the European Edition because I read their mono version sounds incredible. After listening to it a couple of times, I agree!
There have been other “stereo” versions of Only the Lonely but I found them hard to listen to with the music swinging from one speaker to another. This new remastered stereo version eliminates that problem. But, being Old School, I prefer the new mono version. If you’re a Frank Sinatra fan, this is a must-buy. If you have a Sinatra fan on your Holiday Gift List, this wonderful 60th Anniversary Edition of Only the Lonely is the perfect choice. Do you have a favorite Frank Sinatra song? GRADE: A
TRACK LIST:
Disc: 1 (Original Mono):
1. Only The Lonely
2. Angel Eyes
3. What’s New?
4. It’s A Lonesome Old Town
5. Willow Weep For Me
6. Good-Bye
7. Blues In The Night
8. Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry
9. Ebb Tide
10. Spring Is Here
11. Gone With The Wind
12. One For My Baby
13. Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry (alt take – May 5, 1958)
14. Angel Eyes (alt take – May 5, 1958)
Disc 2 (Stereo, New 2018 mix from 3 track masters):
1. Only The Lonely
2. Angel Eyes
3. What’s New?
4. It’s A Lonesome Old Town
5. Willow Weep For Me
6. Good-Bye
7. Blues In The Night
8. Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry
9. Ebb Tide 10. Spring Is Here
11. Gone With The Wind
12. One For My Baby
13. Lush Life (session takes – May 29, 1958)
14. One For My Baby (test track – June 24, 1958)
My favorite is “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” and this album doesn’t have it! Ptui!
Bob, you’ll find “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” on ULTIMATE SINATRA.
My favorite is ” One For My Baby” and this album does have it. This is Sinatra’s best album. Always disliked his more popular stuff like “My Way”, “Strangers in the Night”, My Kind of Town (Chicago)”, and ” New York, New York”.
Steve, like you I’m more partial to Frank Sinatra’s songs from the 1950s. His voice started to decline in the late 1960s, but he kept on singing.
CALL OF THE CANYON
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPx6bO4JHlg
Dan, great choice! I don’t think I’ve ever heard “Call of the Canyon” before. What would we do without YouTube!
“In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” from IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS, #101 on Rolling Stone’s Greatest Albums list.
Jeff, I listen to IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS occasionally. Another great Sinatra album!
Sometime in the late 1970s, a friend’s mother (a wonderful person, but an inveterate hoarder and garage-sale shopper) called me and said she had something for me: at a yard sale, for about a quarter a pop, she’d found an entire collection of Sinatra’s Capital Records albums from the 1950s. They were in beautiful condition and I wore the phonograph needle out playing them (I guess I took time out from being a Disco Dolly once in a while). Like Jeff, my favorite of those albums was IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS, with its lovely blue cover and all those deliciously-downbeat love songs. I think “When Your Lover Has Gone” is one of the best—and most melancholy songs ever recorded.
Deb, like you I listen to Sinatra’s vinyl albums for years until I replaced them with CD versions. The notes of sadness Sinatra expresses on IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS chill me very time I listen to it. “When Your Lover Has Gone” always moves me, too.
Even though I’m a rocker at heart, or at least I was until rock more or less disappeared, Sinatra is and always will be my favorite. The Greatest. Favorite Sinatra song? Today it might be “Put Your Dreams Away”, tomorrow something else.
Michael, great answer! Sinatra sang dozens of great songs. Picking a favorite depends on the mood you’re in at the time.
I like most everything of his, but if I had to pick a couple of albums, I think it would be SWING EASY (Nelson Riddle, Capital Records 1954) and COME FLY WITH ME (Billy May, Capital Records, 1957).
Rick, I’ve enjoyed listening to both COME FLY WITH ME and SWING EASY. I love Nelson Riddle and his orchestra backing Sinatra.
Though as I say COME FLY WITH ME is one of the Billy May albums. I like the way May’s big orchestra sound works with Sinatra when he’s upbeat.
Rick, good point. Sinatra was always more upbeat with Billy May and more moody with Nelson Riddle.
Apparently the session was recorded in true stereo – 1958 was more or less the year that stereo was introduced – and it was issued in both formats on LP – the dreaded “double inventory” that record retailers cursed. I see that Music Direct is selling a 2-CD version with the original mono mix and a new stereo mix. I’d be curious to compare the original stereo mix with the remix, but I’m not that big a Sinatra fan. I’m partial to his dates with the Basie band anyway.
Art, I’d be curious to hear your assessment of the new stereo remix as compared with the original mix. The new, remastered mono version sounds fabulous!
Only The Lonely and In the Wee Small Hours are my favourites, but I also like No One Cares. I still have most of Frank’s LPs in my basement plus a few on CD.
I think I bought a CD of Only the Lonely in a HMV store on Oxford St. in London. Angel Eyes and What’s New are probably the songs I like best. I much prefer the slow stuff to the upbeat numbers so the Swing LPs seldom get played.
Kent, I prefer Sinatra’s slow stuff to those upbeat numbers, too.
A heartbreaking Sinatra song is “I’m a fool to want you.”
Elgin, you are so right! “I’m a Fool to Want You” is a song most guys can relate to.
I used to have this on LP, but I gave it to a girl. Now I wish I hadn’t since she’s long gone. Great album.
James, ONLY THE LONELY (60th ANNIVERSARY EUROPEAN EDITION) sounds fabulous! I dare say this version is better than the LP version.