Ballads for low times

"No One Cares" is a collection of laments in minor keys. The general theme is mourned relationships -- some that have painfully died and a few that "can't get started." The cover photo of Sinatra staring despondently at the bottom of a glass at a bar, while other people socialize in the background, is a marvelous visual image of what these songs evoke.



Frank Sinatra had to do a record like this. His career would have been incomplete had he not used his deep, expressive voice to wring out the despair that is present in this collection. My favorite among them is "A Cottage For Sale," in which the emptiness of a home reflects an empty heart.



It is unfortunate that the orchestration adds no musical interest whatsoever to this recording. Sinatra brings deep sadness to each song -- that's good. The drippy strings-and-woodwinds accompaniment makes them plod -- that's bad. I've heard some of these same songs recorded by other artists with accompaniment that included some brass and tasteful jazz embellishments -- such treatment improves the songs without diminishing their passion. This is my only criticism of "No One Cares."

Some of the finest torch-singing ever recorded

It's nearly beyond comprehension how someone as personally magnetic as Sinatra could so convincingly sing songs of melancholy and loneliness. Though his albums with Nelson Riddle's arrangements may have been more popularly famous, Sinatra rarely found more suitable accompaniment than the semi-classical orchestral arrangements of Gordon Jenkins. This second collaboration between Sinatra and Jenkins, released in 1959, features the same beautifully engineered stereo as 1957's "Where Were You?"



Also as heard on the '57 release, Jenkins supports Sinatra's inconsolable sadness with arrangements that are both sparse and lush at the same time. He leaves plenty of space for Sinatra's vocals, but underlines the lyrics with brooding orchestral strings and woodwinds and shades in the mood with bluesy touches of piano. "Stormy Weather" features low-strings as thunderclouds and violins that drip along with the foul-weather mood. Sinatra displays his gift for lyrical transparency - his ability to tell a story that happens to be attached to musical notes - throughout the album, but hits a highpoint on "Why Try to Change Me Now?" The lyrics exert such an emotional pull that you'll need to listen a second time to even notice the melody!



Ralph J. Gleason's original liner notes are a wonderful love-letter to Sinatra, and Pete Welding's contemporary notes provide valuable career context for the album. This CD reissue adds a quartet of bonus tracks to the original eleven, including one recorded for the original album (but dropped for technical reasons), "The One I Love (Belongs to Somebody Else)," that is deservedly reunited with its session-mates. The remaining three additions are Sinatra/Riddle collaborations whose themes dovetail nicely with the album's blue sentiments. Tracks 14 and 15 are mono.

More Sinatra torch songs recorded with Gordon Jenkins

In 1957 Frank Sinatra worked with a different arranger at Columbia Records other than Nelson Riddle when he recorded a collection of torch songs for "Where Are You?" with arranger Gordon Jenkins. Two years later Sinatra and Jenkins worked together on "No One Cares," which is almost as good as their first effort. That would be something of an ironic comment because these are dark, brooding songs of loneliness. All things considered I think I like Sinatra as a saloon singer best of all, in which case you would want to pick up both of these albums and "Only the Lonely," which Sinatra recorded in 1958 (with Riddle when Jenkins ended up being unavailable). The most recognizable songs on "No One Cares" would be "Stormy Weather" and "I'll Never Smile Again," which was never this depressing when Doris Day sang it. Standout tracks include "A Cottage for Sale," "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You," and "Here's That Rainy Day," although with torch songs it is always a matter of individual taste when it comes down to what sort of sad, melancholy little song can send you spiraling all the way down into the depths of despair. This reissue of the 1959 album would probably grade out at 4.5 stars if such things were allowed, but I have no problem rounding up given the album's overall quality and the four bonus tracks tacked on at the end of which "This Was My Love" is the best.

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Great singers can have their indulgences. One can view Sinatra's fondness for the diabetic romanticism of orchestra conductor Gordon Jenkins as a direct opposite to the manic Billy May swing. This is not to say that Nelson Riddle can't do romantic or swing arrangements, but he uses restraint and subtlety. Perhaps the listener of this album takes the cue from the hilarious cover, with Sinatra spotlit, in his uniform raincoat and hat, drinking at a bar looking glum, while ignoring a glamouress woman sitting next to him. If you can believe that conceit, knowing of Sinatra's Rat Pack and Italian attitude to women, then you can probably appreciate the irony of Sinatra's melancholia (though perhaps going from his suicidal reaction to the failure of his marriage to Ava Gardner, it is the men who mistreat women that seem to take their loss the worst). At times the voice sounds strained, there is the occasional bum note, and often Jenkins' seems to be fighting Sinatra for attention, but at their collaborative best on the seminal I'll Never Cry Again and I Don't Stand A Ghost of a Chance With You, the results are sublime. For me Stormy Weather is a mistake, and None But The Lonely Heart a failed experiment. I prefer the religious sounding notes that open Ghost of a Chance and particurlarly Where Do You Go?. My favourite track is Here's That Rainy Day, where Jenkins pulls back a little, apart from a gush towards the end. Also noteworthy is the musical descent for the end of the title cut reminiscent of Riddle's Goodbye from Only The Lonely, and the witty lyrics of Why Try To Change Me Now, refreshing in the otherwise depressive context.

The darkest Sinatra album of all......and it's WONDERFUL

No One Cares is often erroneously left out of Sinatra's greatest albums list. I am extremely disappointed that it has not been remastered, it deserves to be. Listening to this album, it's as if Frank had a button on his throat to push to get different vocal qualities from his voice. Just listen to the overall dark quality of his voice in this gem. It is a different voice, a bleak and hurt voice; it's a sound not heard on any other album. It's amazing. I'm a singer and can respect true genious when I hear it; Sinatra is a vocal musical genious. No one...I repeat ...NO ONE can sing a song like Frank. These songs surpass your ears, attack your heart, and rest in your soul. His voice sounds as if he's at the point of breaking from sadness, the vulnerability he demonstrates musically is staggering. There are singers...and then there is Sinatra. He's singer,actor,friend, lover,fighter,winner,loser,hard-man, vunerable-boy, all rolled into one voice. It's here...on every song, in every note. And it's beautiful. This album is a MUST.

Sinatra at his best--brings new meaning to crooning

His choice of selections, coupled with the innovative and lush arrangements of Gorden Jenkins, make this one of the less well-known but absolutely essential albums to have in your Sinatra collection. Listen to "A Cottage for Sale," for example. It is clearly the most stirring rendition recorded--you won't be disappointed!