Where Are You

Given the hard-swinging albums that Sinatra minted the same year (e.g., 1957's "Come Fly With Me" and "A Swingin' Affair!"), this incredibly melancholy turn shows his mesmerizing ability to inhabit a ballad to be completely uncompromised. In many ways this album is a follow-on to the 1954 effort, "In the Wee Small Hours," but with Jenkins' arrangements in place of Riddle's, and a string-heavy orchestra providing dramatic, classical underpinnings to the lyrical confusion and sorrow. Opening with the title track, Sinatra approaches these forlorn songs with a tone that is at once nuanced and delicate, but stoked by the punchier timbres of his swing singing. He comes across as tougher and more mature on the outside, while, in the end, just as lost on the inside. It's a brilliant weaving of the strands he'd been spinning throughout the decade.

This album doesn't get the spotlight of "In the Wee Small Hours," or the ring-a-ding-ding up-tempo albums, but it is every bit as good. And given that it's lesser-known, it is the hidden gem for those just discovering Sinatra's catalog. It's both a perfect starting point for appreciating Sinatra's gifts as a vocalist, and an essential addition to anyone's Sinatra collection. Capitol's CD reissue adds a quartet of tracks arranged in a similar mood by Nelson Riddle in 1953 (and produced in mono), and while they're fine in their own right, the original twelve tracks earn five-stars all by themselves.

"Where Are You?" is not only Sinatra's first album recorded in stereo, it is actually something of a change of pace for the singer since it was the first album he recorded at Capitol with a producer other than Nelson Riddle, beginning a successful collaboration with arranger/conductor Gordon Jenkins. The key difference between the two producers was that Jenkins tended towards the classical touch of lush string-dominated arrangements in providing the proper touch of melancholy for this collection of torch songs. The result is not the stark sadness of earlier Sinatra collections of saloon songs (e.g., "In the Wee Small Hours"), but more an overwhelming sense of sadness. Ten years later he would win the Grammy for producing another essential Sinatra album, "September of My Years."

The choice cuts off of "Where Are You?" would be "The Night We Called It a Day," "I Cover the Waterfront," and "Lonely Town." However, the tone is set by the title track, where Sinatra displays a new sense of delicacy in his vocals, the orchestra effectively reduced to subtle background color. "Where Are You?" is one of these classic Sinatra songs that you get to discover (or rediscover), when you get away from the boxed sets and hit collections and just listen to the albums. Nobody did a better job of putting together thematic collections for each release than Frank Sinatra and this album, which reached #3 on the Pop Charts, is one of his very best in that regard. Additionally, as is usually the case with these remastered CDs, there are four bonus tracks from the same recording sessions including "I Can Read Between the Lines" and "Don't Worry 'Bout Me," which are just the frosting on the cake.