Classic Sheet Music: A Long Night

Sheet music to A Long Night, from She Shot Me Down

In my opinion, She Shot Me Down was Sinatra’s last great album. Thanks to tracks like The Gal That Got Away/It Never Entered My Mind and A Long Night, this was Sinatra’s late-period triumph, filled with the type of torch songs he is most closely associated with. LA is My Lady and both Duets albums would follow; and while each of those three efforts had some strong points, never again would Sinatra release an album that seemed so, well, Sinatra-like.

And then there’s the cover art, a classic image of a pensive Sinatra at the bar, enveloped in smoke, looking every bit the world-weary troubadour. Rarely has an album’s cover so accurately portrayed the mood of its music so well. Sinatra himself said of the album, “A complete saloon album… tear-jerkers and cry-in-your-beer kind of things.”

Absurd as it may seem, this album, like so many of his great Reprise-era recordings, is out of print. The only legitimate way of purchasing it is to find a used copy or download it from Amazon.com.

Tagged as: Frank Sinatra, Sheet Music

Paul M. Mock
Very true! However, think of how much better that LP would have been if they didn’t cut up “Hey look, No Crying” and kept in the originally intended “Everything Happens to Me”. The LP died from lack of promotion (except by Mr. S himself in concert). It SHOULD have been the companion-piece to Lady Day’s “Lady in Satin”, but the final result was not to be.
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