Customer Reviews

Where Are You

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"When Gordon Jenkins walked into a recording session, everything stopped. I never saw it with anybody else. He was the best-equipped musician, orchestrator and conductor that I ever worked with." ~ Frank Sinatra ~

This is the way ballads should be sung. I grew up listening to this album from my late father's collection. I didn't care about this CD until recently and it has become one of my very favorite recordings of Mr. Sinatra. His voice is at its prime, his phrasing of each song is impeccable and his performances are beyond compare. This is the first of the three albums he recorded in stereo with one of the greatest Sinatra arrangers/conductors Gordon Jenkins during his Capitol Records era.

The last four tracks are not in the original album's repertoire and these were arranged and conducted by the great Nelson Riddle. To me, the most moving and poignant tracks are "Don't Worry 'Bout Me," "Autumn Leaves" and "Maybe You'll Be There" - a song with the most poignant and affecting lyrics that one can't help being moved to tears and more tears. . .

"You said your arms would always hold me
You said your lips were mine alone to kiss
Now after all those things you told me
How can it end like this?
Someday if all my prayers are answered
I'll hear a footstep on the stair
With anxious heart I'll hurry to the door
And maybe you'll be there!"

The title track is another tearjerker "Where Are You?"

"Where is the dream we started?
I can't believe we're parted
Where is our happy ending?
Where are you?"

"I Think of You" is a hauntingly beautiful song penned by J. Elliot and D. Marcotte. Although Rachmaninoff was not credited as the music composer on track listing, the melody is adapted from one of the brilliant composer's masterpieces, "Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Moderato, Allegro."

"In the hush of evening
As shadows steal across my lonely room
I think of you, I think of you
From afar the music of violins
Comes softly through the gloom
All I can do is think of you
Oh I can see you standing there before me
And I can hear you whisper you adore me
So when the dusk is falling
I live again the loveliness we knew
I think of you, I think of you"

Warning: You'll need a box of tissue while listening to this CD to dry your tears!

With sixteen remarkable songs and the exhaustive liner notes by Pete Welding, this is a perfect addition to your Frank Sinatra collection. One of Sinatra's finest recordings! I wholeheartedly recommend it.

* * * * * TEN STARS * * * * *

I think this and Only The Lonely are Frank's two best records in his career - not necessarily the most enjoyable, being "dark of night" albums, but unparalleled for artistic integrity and sincerity. On these records he reaches a level of passion and intensity that's unmatched not only by him, but by anyone else in the history of popular singing. "Where Are You" is a true masterpiece: absolutely flawless, with utterly perfect song selection; tender and very sympathetic orchestration by Gordon Jenkins; and caring, emotional, soul searching vocals, just as on Only The Lonely, though not quite as gloomy. This is the ultimate CD to put on during those reflective moments when it's autumn, the air is crisp, the leaves are falling, and your mind wanders back to times that used to be. "There's No You" is my personal favorite; stunningly written and performed, this is as beautiful a song as anyone could ever write about a lost loved one. "Autumn Leaves" and "Laura" are equally moving, and are in my opinion the definitive versions of those songs, despite the hundreds of others that exist. Let's put it this way - no writer could ever hope for a more sincere and moving performance of their songs then what Frank delivers here. Also, "Maybe You'll Be There" is a fairly unknown but wonderful song with perfect lyrics.

All in all, these songs' lyrics tell the tales of a lonely, haunted man deep in a wistful dream, oblivious to the world around him as he stares at the trees and lets his mind drift like the falling leaves. These songs are about loss, and the resulting confusion that accompanies it when you lose someone you care about, especially by death. What we hear is how this intelligent, sensitive man, though deeply troubled, is dealing with those feelings; sometimes he's delusionally optimistic (I Cover The Waterfront, Maybe You'll Be There), other times he's sadly accepting, though heartbroken (The Night We Called It A Day, There's No You, Autumn Leaves). In short, when you select some of the best songs that have ever been written about loss, and have such a talented and passionate singer to sing them, you get a dramatic masterpiece: one of the greatest albums ever recorded in any era: Where Are You. It will never let you down, my friends. It will live for eternity, far beyond any of us.

For Frank Sinatra 1957 went well beyond being a very good year. Of the six albums that the singer released that year I would argue that three of them--the swinging "Come Fly With Me," the hard-driving "A Swingin' Affair!", and the melancholy "Where Are You?"--end up on the short list of the ten essential Sinatra albums. Another two, "Close to You and More" and the soundtrack for "Pal Joey" are only a step or two below that highest level, and only "A Jolly Christmas with Frank Sinatra" is a marginal effort. Three great albums and two very good albums in one year is remarkable (when the Beatles exploded they were releasing "only" two great albums a year), and the cold hard fact is that in 1957 Sinatra had a better year than the entire careers of 99% of the world's recording artists.

"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.

For some bizarre reason this 1957 release isn't considered one of Frank Sinatra's two or three best albums. Possibly that's because it wasn't arranged & conducted by Nelson Riddle, who was to Sinatra in the 1950's what George Martin was to the Beatles. There's no doubt that Sinatra and Riddle made some of the era's---hell, the century's---best music, and that Riddle's sparse, flawlessly-wrought arrangements matched Sinatra's pitch-perfect, unflappable voice the way Sinatra's fingers matched a martini glass and a cigarette...(and the good news is this CD provides 4 songs not on the original release that were arranged by Riddle)...but the bulk of this album was orchestrated by Mr. Gordon Jenkins. The music is lush, dramatic, even movielike, and at moments seems in danger of getting carried away into gross sentimentality, but it never does. Jenkins was a master at creating a mood, setting the scene for the actor to enter into and do his work without fear. And Sinatra, in the guise of the melancholy hero familiar to fans of his films "Young At Heart" and "Meet Danny Wilson", is in top form here, using his voice to vent an ache as deep and blue as loss itself. There are songs on this CD that are shockingly familiar to anyone who's loved and lost, songs like "I Cover the Waterfront", "I'm A Fool to Want You", "The Night We Called It a Day", "Autumn Leaves", and the title tune...and Sinatra works the lyrics with such passion and precision you'd swear he was speaking the beats of your own heart...and then there's Jenkins' music, slowly rising and swelling, then gently falling and finally crashing down to earth into silence and you think there can't be anything more to say about that...and then Sinatra draws a breath and a violinist draws his bow and it all begins again. It's true that Sinatra painted his masterpiece the following year with his and Riddle's CD "Frank Sinatra Sings For Only the Lonely", but it's also true that as a practice run for his chef d'oeuvre, "Where Are You?" is pretty damn d'oeuvre, too.

Sinatra's first of three albums recorded with arranger/conductor Gordon Jenkins, and the very first Sinatra album recorded in stereo. As the liner notes point out, dawn-of-the-stereo-age recordings such as this are, in many ways, the equivalent of Blue Note's monumental mono works, in terms of preparation. The early 2- and 3-track stereo recorders didn't provoke the sort of piecemeal punch-in assembly that later multi-track recorders would truly enable. Instead, stereo was used as a way to document the physical space of the orchestra and singer. Sinatra is framed in a consistent fashion by the surrounding musicians, rendering Jenkins' orchestrations as beautiful scrollwork decorating the landmark voice.

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.

With the release of this album as well as "A Swingin' Affair" and "Come Fly With Me," 1957 was one of many landmark years for Frank Sinatra. I am only 28 years old, but I have listened to some of the greatest music of the 20th century. Without a doubt, "Where Are You?" ranks as one of my favorite albums by any artist. The selection of the album's 12 original songs is impeccable - virtually every one of them is stunning and haunting in both lyrics and melody. And the inclusion of the four bonus tracks, while unnecessary, certainly does not detract from the collection.

However, it is Frank's unparalleled interpretations of these 12 classics that gives them a whole new life, and Gordon Jenkins' string-laden orchestra complements Sinatra's vocals perfectly. The songs on this album collectively create a mood of unmistakable loneliness and are perfect for a chilly autumn afternoon.

In my opinion, this album represents Sinatra in peak form. His voice had grown deeper and richer than in his early days, and he had by now fully developed his art of interpreting songs and putting them across with honesty and without fanfare. Other than Billie Holiday, I don't know of another singer with Frank's interpretive abilities.

Owning this album is a must for anyone interested in looking beyond the "greatest hits" packages and delving deeper into the annals of this one-of-a-kind artist.

During the fifties Sinatra released a series of concept albums. Many of those albums are truly excellent. Where Are You is among the best of those releases. Gordon Jenkins is responsible for most of the arrangements here. Where Nelson Riddle's arrangement were often downbeat and somewhat tongue in the cheek, Jenkins' arrangement tend to be very Lush affairs. Tears seem to be poring out of every string arrangement without ever drawing away to much attention from Sinatra's voice. Even though this voice has been immensely popular over the years, ironically it has also been one of the most underestimated. Mainly because Sinatra has an image of the suave showman, the ladies man. His appearance was one of the main factors in his success, cool and nonchalant. This album shows how deceptively nonchalant he actually was. Although his singing always sounds loose his timing is almost perfect. Classics as Autumn Leaves a delivered with care and great respect for the material. His deliverance of I'm A Fool To Want You manage to choke me up every time. This album is not to be approached with your heart broken if you want to keep your eyes dry. This truly is a deserving classic. One of Sinatra's many.

If you have any appreciation of Frank Sinatra, buy this album. It's hard to imagine he could ever have been in better voice. As stated by other reviewers, the selection of songs is melancholy and Sinatra's delivery creates the impression he's been through all the experiences they suggest. His range is unstrained, his phrasing incomparable and his breath control more than adequate. I do believe few singers could have sung some of the songs at such a slow pace while maintaining musicality. One can enjoy the album on several levels. Listening is such a pleasing experience, though, one soon wonders just what elements are at work here and this leads to more analytical listening. In that regard, the selected songs comprise a cohesive whole. One is not bounced around adjusting to a variety of moods. Sinatra's phrasing in itself is worth a listen-through--the delay in ending a word, his choice of separating or closely linking words, etc. I found a striking difference between the Gordon Jenkins tracks and those with Nelson Riddle. Jenkins' arrangements were works of art. The introductions and interludes were truly musical experiences in their own right. When Frank was singing, though, the orchestra became unobtrusive and the arrangement seemed to encourage him to sing the song as he chose. I'm sure some will disagree but I found Riddle's arrangements less imaginative and more workmanlike. Moreover, Sinatra seemed more constrained by the Riddle arrangements, not as free to do it his way as he was on the Jenkins tracks. This is not to imply that there are four bad tracks on this album---there are none. It's simply that the Jenkins tracks were magic---masterful orchestration and Frank at the top of his form. This CD is certainly one of my most satisfying musical purchases.

This album is one of several Sinatra recorded in the late 50's that he would categorize as containing his so-called "suicide songs". This recording, along with "In the Wee Small Hours", "Only the Lonely", "No One Cares" and "Point of No Return" provide great listening for one who is in that certain melancholy mood. The pathos in his rendering of these selections is evident, yet he is never moribund or pathetic - and that is no easy feat. In other less capable hands, this material could lead the artist to wallow in self-pity, but being the great singer-actor that he was, Sinatra rises to the occasion. Highlights include the title track, "Where Is the One?", "There's No You", "Maybe You'll be There" and the classic, definitive version of "Don't Worry 'Bout Me". Highly recommended.

I reviewed the "IMPORT" version of this CD earlier, but they want me to "review" the new remastered version too,which I've also heard. I'm no expert at analyzing a "remastered" version vs. an earlier one. But this is simply an incredible CD, the first eight cuts unbeatable in the Frank canon, or anywhere else. True, FS's ballad albums take a bit getting used to, since they are so soft and lush, full of intricate orchestration, and oriented to an older audience. Anyway, THE NIGHT WE CALLED IT A DAY, MAYBE YOU'LL BE THERE, LONELY TOWN, and I'M A FOOL TO WANT YOU are this album's peak, the latter two among a handful of Frank's all-time ballads,which makes them among a handful of the best ballads ever recorded! There's a lot of pathos here, which may not be everyone's cup of tea, but along with the later ONLY THE LONELY ,this is among Frank's must hear ballad albums ever!!