Margaret Whiting - Past Midnight (1961)

As the album liner notes go to some length to clarify, the songs that make up Past Midnight are designed to capture the nocturnal world that exists after the bar lights go dark and the last cigarette is extinguished. It's not a time or place one typically associates with the innocence or earnestness of Margaret Whiting, but somehow she pulls it off, giving free rein to the jazzy impulses lurking behind her more commercial pop efforts. Whiting's interpretations of songs like "At Long Last Love" and "Just One of Those Things" are lithe and lovely, free of schmaltz or starch. No less surprising, the nuanced arrangements swing rather than snooze, guaranteeing the album is more lively than its after-hours concept might suggest.