In the Wee Small Hours is the ninth studio album by American vocalist Frank Sinatra. It was released in April 1955 by Capitol and produced by Voyle Gilmore with arrangements by Nelson Riddle. All the songs on the album deal with themes such as loneliness, introspection, melancholy, desolation, lost love, failed relationships, depression, and night life. The cover artwork reflects these themes, portraying Sinatra alone on an eerie and deserted city street at night awash in blue-tinged street lights. In the Wee Small Hours has been called one of the first concept albums. Sinatra had been developing the idea of an album with a consistent theme since 1946 with his first album, The Voice. He would successfully continue releasing "concept" albums with later releases such as Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, No One Cares, and Only the Lonely. In the Wee Small Hours was issued as two 10-inch LP discs, and also as one 12-inch record LP, making it one of the first of its kind in the pop field. It was also issued as four four–song 45-rpm EP discs sold in cardboard sleeves with the same cover as the LPs, not in paper covers like 45-rpm singles. The album was a commercial success, peaking at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, where it stayed for 18 weeks, becoming Sinatra's highest charting album since Songs by Sinatra in 1947. The success of the album helped popularize the viability of the 12-inch LP in popular music, and the 10-inch format fell into obsolescence by the end of the 1950s. In 1970 it was re-issued as a ten track album under the name What Is This Thing Called Love?. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it number 100 on their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, dropping it to number 101 in the 2012 revision and to number 282 in the 2020 update. Background By the early 1950s, the singer saw his career in decline, his teen "bobby soxer" audience having lost interest in him as he entered his late 30s. In 1951, he went so far as to attempt suicide, according to one author. Later that year, a second season of The Frank Sinatra Show was aired on CBS, but failed to receive the same positive reception the first season had, with its host having lost his previous energy. Later, Sinatra was dropped from Columbia. Against the wishes