In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning

Written: 1955

Music by: David Mann

Words by: Bob Hilliard

Written for: Independent Publication
(not for a Broadway show, revue, movie, etc.)

On the Main Stage at Cafe Songbook

Sting (Vocal)
Chris Botti (Trumpet)

performing

"In the Wee Small Hours
of the Morning"

2001 performance available on the 2002 DVD
Chris Botti & Friends: Night Sessions - Live in Concert

More Performances of
"In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning"
in the Cafe Songbook Record/Video Cabinet
(Video credit)

Cafe Songbook Reading Room

"In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning"

Critics Corner || Lyrics Lounge

The Serendipity of How a Sinatra Album
Got Its Title
as originally told by Jonathan Schwartz on his radio program, The Saturday Show with Jonathan Schwartz, WNYC FM, December 12, 2010, -- (and retold here in our words)

In 1955, songwriters David Mann and Bob Hilliard were playing cards at Hilliard's apartment in Englewood Cliffs, N. J. just about the time the finishing touches were being put on the Sinatra album that would eventually be titled In the Wee Small Hours. As the game was breaking up, Hilliard pushed Mann to stick around so they could knock off one song before Mann went home. After some resistance, Mann, who had an early appointment in New York the next day relented, and before they knew it the title, suggested by the time, and the song were completed. Mann jotted the lyric and the music down on a piece of paper, stuck it in his jacket pocket and drove home across the G.W. bridge to Manhattan.

The next morning, as he was heading for his appointment, his cab was passing through Columbus Circle where the New York offices of Capitol Records were then located. At a red light, he spotted Sinatra and Nelson Riddle emerging from the cab in front of his. Knowing both men, Mann jumped out of his cab and caught up with them. Sinatra and Riddle promptly invited him to join them at Capitol where they were going to discuss their new album. The ensuing conversation revealed to Mann that there were currently fifteen songs ready but they needed one more. Only then did he recall the sheet of paper in his jacket pocket with his and Hilliard's new song "In the Wee Small Hours" scribbled on it.

Mann mentioned to Frank and Nelson that he just happened to have a new song with him and asked if Frank would take a look. Frank did nothing immediately but not long before Mann had to depart for his appointment, asked to see it and after giving the song what appeared to Mann to be a cursory read, whispered to the writer, "This Is My Kind of Song." Sinatra stuck the paper in his own pocket and the men parted company. Some days later, Dave Cavanaugh, an A&R man for Capitol, telephoned Mann and told him that not only was his song going to be on the album but "In the Wee Small Hours" would be the album's title. Mann, who was overjoyed, could not believe his luck. After all, had he, or for that matter Sinatra and Riddle, been crossing Columbus Circle a minute earlier or a minute later he would never have seen them, and according to the songwriter, he most likely wouldn't have sent the song to the singer. Not only that, Schwartz pointed out, there would never have been the Sinatra album, In the Wee Small Hours -- at least not with that song on it and not with that title. Schwartz claims that Mann told him the story on two separate occasions and is convinced of its veracity. (as heard on The Saturday Show with Jonathan Schwartz, WNYC FM, New York Jan. 28, 2012)

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