Only the Lonely

"Only the Lonely" is a song featured in Frank Sinatra's 1958 album Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely.

History
"Only the Lonely" is the title track of Frank Sinatra's album of the same name. The song's composers, Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, were asked to write a song for the new project, and this song became the final outcome of their work. On the song, Van Heuson wrote in the liner notes for Only the Lonely: "The lyric came very hard. Session without session without the glimmer of a line. Sammy is as facile a man with words as there is in our business, and I thought changing the melody here and there might be helpful. He wouldn't permit me to change a note."

In the originally published sheet music, Cahn's lyric contained the phrase "Some very small cafe," and this lyric is sometimes sung by other recording artists (for example, by Shirley Horn in her 1963 recording). Sinatra, however, chose to sing the somewhat redundant "some little small cafe", and this alteration has been used by many subsequent singers (including Aretha Franklin and Diana Krall).

Releases

 * Studio recordings
 * Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (1958)
 * Reissues
 * The Capitol Years (1990)
 * Concepts (1992)
 * The Capitol Years (1998)
 * Capitol Records Concept Albums (2007)

Lyrics
Each place I go only the lonely go Some little small café The songs I know only the lonely know

Each melody recalls a love that used to be The dreams I dream only the lonely dream Of lips as warm as May

That hopeless scheme only the lonely scheme That soon somewhere you'll find the one that used to care And you recall each fun time

Those picnics at the beach when love was new It well could be the one time A hopeless little dream like that comes true

If you find love hang on to each caress And never let love go For when it's gone you'll know the loneliness The heartbreak only the lonely know