In seven unexceptional days in the heat of a New York summer, Glenn Gould, the eccentric and amazingly gifted Canandian virtuoso pianist, records his exceptional interpretation of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Considered by many critics to be the acme of technical brilliance for a solo classical recording, Gould's irreverant and daring interpretation of Bach gained him immediate success. As his debut album, Goldberg Variations would catapault him to the pinnacle of the classical music world—with all the burdens that it would ultimately entail for him.

In late 1955 in Columbia Studio D, New York, Miles Davis and John Coltrane collaborate for the first time and the results would be placed on the classic jazz masterpiece, Kind of Blue and the seminal, Round About Midnight. 1955 also signifies the year that Coltrane emerges as a significant player in the New York Jazz scene, gaining a reputation for his highly imaginative and experimental stylings.

Shortly after reviving a slumping career and making one of the greatest comebacks in recording history, Frank Sinatra records the classic In the Wee Small Hours in February 1955. With this collection of lightly melancholic ballads addressing love and loss, Sinatra establishes himself as the quintessential interpreter of American song. As critic Pete Wielding writes, "An album of unparalleled beauty and unfeigned emotional sincerity...In the Wee Small Hours has come to be regarded by fans of the singer as one of the finest, most perfectly realized and deeply satisfying recordings of his long career."