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Charted: Sept. 29, 1958

Rating: 4.833 (average of 3 ratings)

Genre: traditional pop

Quotable: “the ideal late-night album” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Album Tracks:

  1. Only the Lonely
  2. Angel Eyes
  3. What’s New?
  4. It’s a Lonesome Old Town
  5. Willow Weep for Me
  6. Goodbye
  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 (and One More for the Road)
  13. Sleep Warm *
  14. Where or When *

Sales:

sales in U.S. only ½ million
sales in U.K. only - estimated --
sales in all of Europe as determined by IFPI – click here to go to their site. --
sales worldwide - estimated ½ million

Peak:

peak on U.S. Billboard album chart 1 5
peak on U.K. album chart 5

Singles/Hit Songs:

  • none

Awards:

Rated one of the top 1000 albums of all time by Dave’s Music Database. Click to learn more.

Only the Lonely
Frank Sinatra
Review:
“Originally, Frank Sinatra had planned to record Only the Lonely with Gordon Jenkins, who had arranged his previous all-ballads album, Where Are You. Jenkins was unavailable at the time of the sessions, which led Sinatra back to his original arranger at Capitol, Nelson Riddle. The result is arguably his greatest ballads album. Only the Lonely follows the same formula as his previous down albums, but the tone is considerably bleaker and more desperate. Riddle used a larger orchestra for the album than he had in the past, which lent the album a stately, nearly classical atmosphere” (Erlewine).

“At its core, however, the album is a set of brooding saloon songs, highlighted by two of Sinatra’s tour de forces – Angel Eyes and One for My Baby. Sinatra never forces emotion out of the lyric, he lets everything flow naturally, with grace. It’s a heartbreaking record, the ideal late-night album” (Erlewine).

Review Source(s):

Last updated April 13, 2008.