Track Listing

1. Where Are You?
2. Night We Called It a Day
3. I Cover the Waterfront
4. Maybe You'll Be There
5. Laura
6. Lonely Town
7. Autumn Leaves
8. I'm a Fool to Want You
9. I Think of You
10. Where Is the One?
11. There's No You
12. Baby Won't You Please Come Home
13. I Can Read Between the Lines [*]
14. It Worries Me [*]
15. Rain (Falling from the Skies) [*]
16. Don't Worry 'Bout Me [*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10516 in Music
• Released on: 2002-01-08
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com
Underrated, at least in comparison with the better-known In the Wee Small Hours and Sings for Only the Lonely, 1957's Where Are You? is another excellent collection of melancholy torch songs, including "Lonely Town," "The Night We Called It a Day," "I Think of You," and "Maybe You'll Be There." As on those records, Sinatra doesn't sing so much as breathe, never overwhelming the fragility of the compositions with excessive displays of emotion. Of course, this approach just makes the songs sound that much sadder. This was also the first record Sinatra recorded in stereo, and Gordon Jenkins's lush string arrangements are obviously designed to take advantage of the new medium. --Dan Epstein

Customer Reviews

"Where Are You?"
"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?"

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

With sixteen remarkable songs and an 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 * * * * *

Frank Sinatra works with Gordan Jenkins for the first time
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.

A wistful, haunting masterpiece...
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.