Best Known As: Singer of New York, New York and leader of the Rat Pack
Name at birth: Francis Albert Sinatra
Frank Sinatra is an icon of American musical cool. His official career was singing: he began as a rail-thin crooner during World War II, and matured into the most respected pop singer of his generation. He also took up acting, winning an Academy Award for his performance in From Here To Eternity (1953, with Burt Lancaster). Along the way Sinatra developed a reputation as a well-dressed, fast-living, fist-fighting swinger, with a top-dog swagger that earned him the nickname "The Chairman of the Board." He was the acknowledged leader of the Hollywood 'Rat Pack' of the early 1960s, which included Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and others. Musically he was beloved as a stylish, heartfelt singer of old-school standards like Come Fly With Me, New York, New York, All the Way, Strangers in the Night and One For My Baby (And One More For the Road). He ranks with Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and The Beatles as among the most influential pop musicians of the 20th century.
Sinatra is also known as "Ol' Blue Eyes"... Sinatra was married four times: to childhood sweetheart Nancy Barbato (1939-1951), actress Ava Gardner (1951-57), actress Mia Farrow (1966-68), and Barbara Blakeley Marx (1976 until his death in 1998). Gardner previously had been married to jazzman Artie Shaw, Marx had previously been married to Zeppo Marx (brother of Groucho Marx), and Farrow was later married to Woody Allen... Sinatra had three children, all from his first marriage: Nancy (b. 1940), Frank, Jr. (b. 1944), and Christina (commonly known as Tina, b. 1948)... Nancy Sinatra had her own pop music career and sang the hit 1966 single "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'." Frank and Nancy sang a duet on the 1967 single "Somethin' Stupid"...
(b Hoboken, nj, 12 Dec 1915). American popular singer and film actor. While singing with Tommy Dorsey's band (1940-42) he was a celebrity among young people on a scale matched only by Benny Goodman before him and later by Presley and the Beatles. After leaving Dorsey he began a solo career. In the 1950s Nelson Riddle's orchestral arrangements were particularly successful in drawing out the many facets of Sinatra's musical personality. He represents the consummation of the tradition of the American popular singer.
Francis Albert Sinatra (born 1915) may have been the most popular singer in American history, in a career that spanned from the 1930s into the 1990s.
Francis Albert Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on December 12, 1915. He was the only child of Martin and Natalie "Dolly" Sinatra. He lived in a predominantly Italian-American working class neighborhood. As a student at Demarest High School, he became popular by exhibiting the traits he would carry with him throughout his lifetime - those of a generous but pugnacious individual.
Early in his life Sinatra knew he wanted to become a singer. His influences were Rudy Vallee and his idol, Bing Crosby. After dropping out of high school he began to sing at obscure clubs. He got his first big break with Major Bowes and his "Amateur Hour" in 1935, singing in a group called the Hoboken Four. Sinatra, by preference, continued to sing in various New Jersey nightclubs, hoping to attract the attention of the bandleaders who led America into the "Swing Era" on the many hundreds of radio stations that were popping up all over the country.
From the Rustic Cabin Club in Alpine, New Jersey, Sinatra got his first radio play in 1939 on station WNEW in New York City. He then signed with his first bandleader, Harry James, for $75 per week. That same year he married his longtime sweetheart, Nancy Barbato. They would eventually have three children.
After seven months with Harry James, Sinatra joined Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra, causing his career to skyrocket. Dorsey's orchestra was one of the most popular in the land and remained so with Sinatra singing, from 1940 through 1942. During that time he performed with the band in his first two movies - Las Vegas Nights (1941) and Ship Ahoy (1942). He began his solo career at the end of 1942 and continued his meteoric rise.
As the leading American singer through the war era, he epitomized the evolution of American music with its blends of music that included jazz and the classics. The idiom would come to be known simply as American popular, or pop music. The Swing Era lasted from 1935 through the end of World War II, and Sinatra was by far its best known vocalist. His musical roots and education were that of the Tin Pan Alley tradition, but he was a diligent student of Italian opera as well. Most important to him throughout his career would be his insistence on his own style and arrangements for whatever music he sang. His unique phrasing of lyrics and his jazzy syncopation of melody lines were delivered in a voice best described as light baritone with a sharp New York accent, resonating deep into his nasal cavities to produce the classic crooning effect.
His wide-shouldered suits and his bow ties were imitated by many men, but his most ardent followers were the teenaged girls, nicknamed the "bobby-soxers," who swooned or screamed for "Frankie" when he sang. For the "Croon Prince of Swing," his widespread appeal was further fueled by America's explosive mass media growth in newspapers, magazines, films, record players, and radio stations. Sinatra was the first to attract the kind of near hysteria that would later accompany live appearances by Elvis Presley and the Beatles. This type of excitement reached its peak in the famed Columbus Day Riot of October 12, 1944, when thousands of his fans (mostly female), denied entry into the already-packed Paramount Theater in New York City, stormed the streets and vented their frustration by smashing nearby shop windows.
Though Sinatra was exempted from military service in World War II because of a perforated eardrum, he helped the war effort with his appearances in movies and benefits for soldiers. He was an outspoken supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and liberal viewpoints, including racial and religious tolerance. His charitable appearances were consistent and numerous.
Sinatra's first and only major downfall in the public eye came in 1951 and lasted for almost three years. His extramarital affairs led to his divorce, and his subsequent well-publicized, tempestuous marriage to actress Ava Gardner also ended in divorce in 1957. Rumors of Mafia connections spread, mostly from his socializing with alleged Mafia kingpins, and these rumors persisted, along with publicity about his noted barroom brawls. Musical tastes were changing as well, as "belters" like Eddie Fisher and Frankie Laine were replacing the crooners in popularity. All of these events, in addition to his failure to serve in the military, combined to alienate him from an adoring but fickle public, and especially from the press. The allegations of underworld activity were never proven, and no indictments were ever made. His comeback was secured with his appearance as the feisty Italian-American soldier, Angelo Maggio, in the critically acclaimed film From Here to Eternity (1954). The role won him an Academy Award for best supporting actor, and he was back on the record charts as well with "Young at Heart."
Nelson Riddle, his arranger in the 1950s, helped Sinatra stay on the competitive record charts throughout the rest of the decade. In fact, Sinatra stayed on the charts steadily through 1967, despite the sudden and overwhelming preeminence of Rock 'n' Roll music. This durability was due in part to the advent of the long-playing album, the LP, upon which Sinatra could surround a central theme with a large collection of songs or ballads. From 1957 through 1966 he had 27 top ten albums without producing one top ten single. These albums were led by Only the Lonely (1958), Come Fly With Me (1958), and Come Dance With Me (1959). The bobby-soxers were now adults, but Sinatra had shifted smoothly to the role of the aging romantic bachelor. This was signified by the image of him leaning alone against a lamppost, raincoat in hand. His movie appearances multiplied during this period, with nine in the span of just two years, including Guys and Dolls (1955), Young At Heart (1955), The Tender Trap (1955), The Man With the Golden Arm (1955), and High Society (1956).
His music came to be known as "middle of the road," but his ever-present style put him in a class by himself because of his ability to convey the heartfelt romantic message. Additional hits of the 1960s included "It Was a Very Good Year," from his Grammy Award winning album September of My Years (1965), and "Strangers in the Night" (1966). He did reach the top of the singles charts in a duet with his daughter Nancy, "Somethin' Stupid," in 1967. A brief marriage to 20-year-old actress Mia Farrow ended in divorce in 1968. He continued his movie roles, including Tony Rome (1967) and Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964), but they had declined in artistic merit. Critics saw these movies as vehicles for reinforcement of his tough-guy image, as well as his and his friends' answer to the great youth movement that was taking place around them. These friends included entertainers Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford, a clique that came to be known as the "Rat Pack."
After his famous recording of "My Way" (1969), Sinatra made an ill-fated attempt to sing some of the lighter tunes of modern rock composers. This led to a brief retirement from entertainment (1971 through 1973), a time that was accompanied by a shift in his politics from liberal to conservative. He had become a close friend of Ronald Reagan's and helped Reagan in his later successsful presidential campaigns.
By this time Sinatra's financial empire produced millions of dollars in earnings from investments in films, records, gambling casinos, real estate, missile parts, and general aviation. He came out of his retirement in 1974 with a renewed interest in the middle of the road genre and older tunes. He was married for the fourth time, in 1976, to Barbara Blakely. His return to the limelight was highlighted by his famous recording of "New York, New York" (1980) as he entered his sixth decade of entertaining.
In 1988, Sinatra joined with Sammie Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin and embarked on a cross-country tour. The tour lasted only one week. Sinatra later organized another reunion tour with Shirley MacLaine in 1992 and it was a resounding success. By 1994, Sinatra was experiencing memory lapses but that did not keep him from performing publicly. He merely added the use of a teleprompter to remind him of the lyrics. After celebrating his 80th birthday at a public tribute and roast at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium, new collector's packages of recordings were released and became instant best-sellers.
The legions who grew up with him and his music were complemented by adoration from younger generations, all of whom have made "Old Blue Eyes" the pre-eminent popular singer of the 20th century.
Further Reading
Sinatra had his detractors, as well a controversial man may, but most of his biographers are reverent of him. Two who are generally not reverent are Earl Wilson in Sinatra: An Unauthorized Biography (1976), an in-depth study of the man and the allegations that dogged him, and Kitty Kelly in her unsparing portrait, His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra (1986). Also recommended, though openly admiring of the man, are Sinatra: An American Classic (1984), with its fine pictorial display, by John Rockwell; Norm Goldstein's Frank Sinatra: Ol'Blue Eyes (1982); and Frank Sinatra - My Father (1985) by his daughter Nancy. Gene Ringgold and Clifford McCarty provide an excellent pictorial account of his life in films in The Films of Frank Sinatra (1971).
Additional Sources
Ewen, David. All the Years of American Popular Music (Prentice-Hall, 1977).
Kelley, Kitty. His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra (Bantam, 1986).
Simon, George T. The Big Bands (Schirmer Books, 1967).
(born Dec. 12, 1915, Hoboken, N.J., U.S. — died May 14, 1998, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. singer and actor. Sinatra began his singing career in the mid-1930s and was "discovered" by trumpeter Harry James, who immediately recruited him. Sinatra achieved sweeping national popularity in 1940 – 42 while singing with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. He sang on the radio program Your Hit Parade (1943 – 45), while becoming a favourite performer in theatres and nightclubs. In the 1940s he co-starred in a number of musical films with dancer Gene Kelly. His popularity suddenly declined about 1948, but his performance in From Here to Eternity (1953, Academy Award) revived his flagging career, and he later starred in many acclaimed films, including musicals such as Guys and Dolls (1955) and dramas such as The Manchurian Candidate (1962). After 1953 he performed and recorded using arrangements by Nelson Riddle, Billy May, and Gordon Jenkins, reaching his peak in albums such as Only the Lonely (1958). In 1961 he founded Reprise Records. His masterly performances, alternately swinging and affectingly melancholic, brought him a success unparalleled in the history of American popular music.
(1915- ), singer and actor. Sinatra, probably the greatest singer of American popular music, was born in working-class Hoboken, New Jersey, the only child of Italian immigrants. His singing with Tommy Dorsey's popular orchestra from 1940 to 1942 made him a star. Sinatra's records of "All or Nothing at All" and "In the Blue of the Evening" topped the charts in 1943. His fans in the World War II era, dubbed "bobby-soxers," set a new standard for female hysteria over pop stars, especially in 1944 when thirty thousand of them rioted outside Manhattan's Paramount Theater.
Sinatra quickly developed a distinctive singing style. His voice, a supple baritone, ranged from brash arrogance to intimate tenderness. He could sing romantic ballads that built to a dramatic climax and swinging up-tempo songs. In both, he emphasized a personal interpretation of the lyrics through his subtle phrasing and rhythmic variation.
The House I Live In, a short film made in 1945, featured Sinatra speaking out against racial and religious discrimination; the title song celebrated America's working people. Made at the peak of his popularity, the film won Sinatra a special Academy Award in 1945 and summed up his commitment to racial justice and progressive political causes. But in the late forties, as McCarthyism spread in the entertainment industry, he came under attack by right-wing gossip columnists who portrayed him as a communist sympathizer. The charges succeeded in destroying his career; by 1950 he was a has-been at thirty-four.
In 1953 he made an extraordinary comeback as a dramatic actor in From Here to Eternity, which won him the Academy Award for best supporting actor. His thirty-one subsequent films included comedies and musicals, notably Guys and Dolls (1955) and Pal Joey (1957), and dramatic films, like The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
Sinatra reached a new musical peak in the late fifties with what is regarded as his best album, Only the Lonely (1958), composed of ravishing and vulnerable ballads, and Songs for Swingin' Lovers (1956), which consists of up-tempo songs sung with a strong rhythmic punch. But his new fame was accompanied by a stormy personal life involving nightclub brawling, widely publicized womanizing, and venomous denunciations of rock 'n' roll.
In 1960 his version of "High Hopes" served as the official song of John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign, and he starred in the inaugural gala. September of My Years won the Grammy Award for best album in 1967. "My Way" (1969), his signature song, spoke of a man at the end of his life looking back at his achievements.
Sinatra announced his retirement in 1971 and shifted his political affiliations from left to right. President Richard M. Nixon invited him to perform at the White House in 1973, and he presided at the 1981 inaugural festivities for President Ronald Reagan.
Bibliography:
Kitty Kelley, His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra (1986); John Rockwell, Sinatra: An American Classic (1984).
Sinatra, Frank (Francis Albert Sinatra), 1915-98, American singer and actor, b. Hoboken, N.J. During the late 1930s and early 40s he sang with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey bands, causing teenage girls to shriek and swoon over his romantic, seemingly casual renditions of such songs as "I'll Never Smile Again" and "This Love of Mine." During his long career he became one of the most successful pop music figures of the century, widely respected as a "singer's singer" for his richly detailed readings of lyrics and his versatile and nuanced musical style. Sinatra's sophisticated musicianship was evident in his many recordings. He had a long-lived and successful movie career, appearing in 58 films including On the Town (1949), From Here to Eternity (1953, Academy Award), Guys and Dolls (1955), Pal Joey (1957), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and The Detective (1968). He also directed and produced several films. Sinatra retired from show business in 1971 but returned in several concert tours.
Bibliography
See A. I. Lonstein, The Compleat Sinatra (1970); G. Ringgold and C. McCarthy, The Films of Frank Sinatra (1971); R. Peters, The Frank Sinatra Scrapbook (1982); K. Kelley, His Way (1986); W. Friedwald, Sinatra! The Song Is You (1995); S. Petkov and L. Mustazza, ed., The Frank Sinatra Reader (1995); P. Hamill, Why Sinatra Matters (1998).
Representative Albums: "Songs for Swingin' Lovers!," "Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years," "The Voice: The Columbia Years (1943-1952)"
Representative Songs: "Night and Day," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "The Lady Is a Tramp"
Biography
Frank Sinatra was arguably the most important popular music figure of the 20th century, his only real rivals for the title being Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles. In a professional career that lasted 60 years, he demonstrated a remarkable ability to maintain his appeal and pursue his musical goals despite often countervailing trends. He came to the fore during the swing era of the 1930s and '40s, helped to define the "sing era" of the '40s and '50s, and continued to attract listeners during the rock era that began in the mid-'50s. He scored his first number one hit in 1940 and was still making million-selling recordings in 1994. This popularity was a mark of his success at singing and promoting the American popular song as it was written, particularly in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. He was able to take the work of great theater composers of that period, such as Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers, and reinterpret their songs for later audiences in a way that led to their rediscovery and their permanent enshrinement as classics. On records and in live performances, on film, radio, and television, he consistently sang standards in a way that demonstrated their perennial appeal.
The son of a fireman, Sinatra dropped out of high school in his senior year to pursue a career in music. In September 1935, he appeared as part of the vocal group the Hoboken Four on Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour. The group won the radio show contest and toured with Bowes. Sinatra then took a job as a singing waiter and MC at the Rustic Cabin in Englewood, NJ. He was still singing there in the spring of 1939, when he was heard over the radio by trumpeter Harry James, who had recently organized his own big band after leaving Benny Goodman. James hired Sinatra, and the new singer made his first recordings on July 13, 1939. At the end of the year, Sinatra accepted an offer from the far more successful bandleader Tommy Dorsey, jumping to his new berth in January 1940. Over the next two and a half years, he was featured on 16 Top Ten hits recorded by Dorsey, among them the chart-topper "I'll Never Smile Again," later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. During this period, he also performed on various radio shows with Dorsey and appeared with the band in the films Las Vegas Nights (1941) and Ship Ahoy (1942).
In January 1942, he tested the waters for a solo career by recording a four-song session arranged and conducted by Axel Stordahl that included Cole Porter's "Night and Day," which became his first chart entry under his own name in March 1942. Soon after, he gave Dorsey notice. Sinatra left the Dorsey band in September 1942. The recording ban called by the American Federation of Musicians, which had begun the previous month, initially prevented him from making records, but he appeared on a 15-minute radio series, Songs By Sinatra, from October through the end of the year and also did a few live dates. His big breakthrough came due to his engagement as a support act to Benny Goodman at the Paramount Theatre in New York, which began on New Year's Eve. It made him a popular phenomenon, the first real teen idol, with school girls swooning in the aisles. RCA Victor, which had been doling out stockpiled Dorsey recordings during the strike, scored with "There Are Such Things," which had a Sinatra vocal; it hit number one in January 1943, as did "In the Blue of the Evening," another Dorsey record featuring Sinatra, in August, while a third Dorsey/Sinatra release, "It's Always You," hit the Top Five later in the year, and a fourth, "I'll Be Seeing You," reached the Top Ten in 1944. Columbia, which controlled the Harry James recordings, reissued the four-year-old "All or Nothing at All," re-billed as being by Frank Sinatra with Harry James & His Orchestra, and it hit number one in September. Meanwhile, the label had signed Sinatra as a solo artist, and in a temporary loophole to the recording ban, put him in the studio to record a cappella, backed only by a vocal chorus. This resulted in four Top Ten hits in 1943, among them "People Will Say We're in Love" from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's musical Oklahoma!, and a fifth in early 1944 ("I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night") before protests from the musicians union ended a cappella recording.
In February 1943, Sinatra was hired by the popular radio series Your Hit Parade, on which he performed through the end of 1944. Adding to his radio duties, he appeared from June through October on Broadway Bandbox and in the fall again took up the Songs by Sinatra show, which ran through December. In January, it was expanded to a half-hour as The Frank Sinatra Show, which ran for a year and a half. In April 1943, he made his first credited appearance in a motion picture, singing "Night and Day" in Reveille With Beverly. This was followed by Higher and Higher, released in December, in which he had a small acting role, playing himself, and by Step Lively, released in July 1944, which gave him a larger part. MGM was sufficiently impressed by these performances to put him under contract. The recording ban was lifted in November 1944, and Sinatra returned to making records, beginning with a cover of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" that was in the Top Ten before the end of the year. Among his eight recordings to peak in the Top Ten in 1945 were Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn's "Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)," Johnny Mercer's "Dream," Styne and Cahn's "I Should Care," and "If I Loved You" and "You'll Never Walk Alone" from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel. Sinatra insisted that Styne and Cahn be hired to write the songs for his first MGM musical, Anchors Aweigh, and over the course of his career, the singer recorded more songs by Cahn (a lyricist who worked with several composers) than by any other songwriter. Anchors Aweigh, in which Sinatra was paired with Gene Kelly, was released in July 1945 and went on to become the most successful film of the year.
Sinatra returned to radio in September with a new show bearing an old name, Songs by Sinatra. It ran weekly for the next two seasons, concluding in June 1947. Among his eight Top Ten hits in 1946 were two that hit number one ("Oh! What It Seemed to Be" and Styne and Cahn's "Five Minutes More"), as well as "They Say It's Wonderful" and "The Girl That I Marry" from Irving Berlin's musical Annie Get Your Gun, Jerome Kern's "All Through the Day," and Kurt Weill's "September Song." He also topped the album charts with the collection The Voice of Frank Sinatra. His only film appearance for the year came in Till the Clouds Roll By, a biography of the recently deceased Kern, in which he sang "Ol' Man River."
By 1947, Sinatra's early success had crested, though he continued to work steadily in several media. On radio, he returned to the cast of Your Hit Parade in September 1947, appearing on the series for the next two seasons, then had his own 15-minute show, Light-Up Time, during 1949-1950. On film, he appeared in five more movies through the end of the decade, including both big-budget MGM musicals like On the Town and minor efforts such as The Kissing Bandit. He scored eight Top Ten hits in 1947-1949, including "Mam'selle," which hit number one in May 1947, and "Some Enchanted Evening," from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical South Pacific. He also hit the Top Ten of the album charts with 1947's Songs by Sinatra and 1948's Christmas Songs by Sinatra. Sinatra's career was in decline by the start of the '50s, but he was far from inactive. He entered the fall of 1950 with both a new radio show and his first venture into television. On radio, there was Meet Frank Sinatra, which found the singer acting as a disc jockey; it ran through the end of the season. On TV, there was The Frank Sinatra Show, a musical-variety series; it lasted until April 1952. His film work had nearly subsided, though in March 1952 came the drama Meet Danny Wilson, which tested his acting abilities and gave him the opportunity to sing such songs as Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer's "That Old Black Magic," "I've Got a Crush on You" by George and Ira Gershwin, and "How Deep Is the Ocean?" by Irving Berlin.
At Columbia Records, Sinatra came into increasing conflict with musical director Mitch Miller, who was finding success for his singers by using novelty material and gimmicky arrangements. Sinatra resisted this approach, and though he managed to score four more Top Ten hits during 1950-1951 -- among them an unlikely reading of the folk standard "Goodnight Irene" -- he and Columbia parted ways. Thus, ten years after launching his solo career, he ended 1952 without a record, film, radio, or television contract. Then he turned it all around. The first step was recording. Sinatra agreed to a long-term, boilerplate contract with Capitol Records, which had been co-founded by Johnny Mercer a decade earlier and had a roster full of faded '40s performers. In June 1953, he scored his first Top Ten hit in a year and a half with "I'm Walking Behind You." Then in August, he returned to film, playing a non-singing, featured role in the World War II drama From Here to Eternity, a performance that earned respect for his acting abilities, to the extent that he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the part on March 25, 1954. In the fall of 1953, Sinatra began two new radio series: Rocky Fortune, a drama on which he played a detective, ran from October to March 1954; and The Frank Sinatra Show was a 15-minute, twice-a-week music series that ran for two seasons, concluding in July 1955. Meanwhile, Sinatra had begun working with arranger/conductor Nelson Riddle, a pairing that produced notable chart entries in February 1954 on both the singles and albums charts. "Young-at-Heart," which just missed hitting number one, was the singer's biggest single since 1947, and the song went on to become a standard. (The title was used for a 1955 movie in which Sinatra starred.) Then there was the 10" LP Songs for Young Lovers, the first of Sinatra's "concept" albums, on which he and Riddle revisited classic songs by Cole Porter, the Gershwins, and Rodgers and Hart in contemporary arrangements with vocal interpretations that conveyed the wit and grace of the lyrics. The album lodged in the Top Five. In July, Sinatra had another Top Ten single with Styne and Cahn's "Three Coins in the Fountain," and in September Swing Easy! matched the success of its predecessor on the LP chart. By the middle of the '50s, Sinatra had reclaimed his place as a star singer and actor; in fact, he had taken a more prominent place than he had had in the heady days of the mid-'40s. In 1955, he hit number one with the single "Learnin' the Blues" and the 12" LP In the Wee Small Hours, a ballad collection later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
On September 15, 1955, he appeared in a television production of Our Town and sang "Love and Marriage" (specially written by Sammy Cahn and his new partner James Van Heusen), which became a Top Five hit. Early in 1956, he was back in the Top Ten with Cahn and Van Heusen's "(Love Is) The Tender Trap," the theme song from his new film, The Tender Trap. As part of his thematic concepts for his albums of the '50s, Sinatra alternated between records devoted to slow arrangements (In the Wee Small Hours) and those given over to dance charts (Swing Easy). By the late winter of 1956, the schedule called for another dance album, and Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, released in March, filled the bill, stopping just short of number one and going gold. The rise of rock & roll and Elvis Presley began to make the singles charts the almost-exclusive province of teen idols, but Sinatra's "Hey! Jealous Lover" (by Sammy Cahn, Kay Twomey, and Bee Walker), released in October, gave him another Top Five hit in 1957. Meanwhile, he ruled the LP charts. The Capitol singles compilation This Is Sinatra!, released in November, hit the Top Ten and went gold. Sinatra began 1957 by releasing Close to You, a ballad album with accompaniment by a string quartet, in February. It hit the Top Five, followed in May by A Swingin' Affair!, which went to number one, and another ballad album, Where Are You?, a Top Five hit after release in September. He was also represented in the LP charts in November by the soundtrack to his film Pal Joey (based on a Rodgers & Hart musical), which hit the Top Five, and by the seasonal collection A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra, which eventually was certified platinum. The Joker Is Wild, another of his 1957 films, featured the Cahn-Van Heusen song "All the Way," which became a Top Five single. In October, he returned to prime time television with another series called The Frank Sinatra Show, but it lasted only one season, and subsequently he restricted his TV appearances largely to specials (of which he made many).
In February 1958, Sinatra reached the Top Ten with "Witchcraft," his last single to perform that well for the next eight years. That month, Capitol released Come Fly with Me, a travel-themed rhythm album, which hit number one. The year's ballad album, Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely, released in September, also topped the charts, and it went gold. In between, Capitol released the compilation This Is Sinatra, Vol. 2, which hit the Top Ten. 1959 followed a similar pattern. Come Dance With Me! appeared in January and became a gold-selling Top Ten hit. It also won Sinatra Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and for vocal performance. Look to Your Heart, a compilation, was released in the spring and reached the Top Ten. And No One Cares, the year's ballad collection, appeared in the summer and just missed topping the charts. Sinatra gradually did less singing in his movies of the '50s, which is why they are given less attention here. But in March 1960, he appeared in a movie version of Cole Porter's musical Can-Can, and the resulting soundtrack album hit the Top Ten. Meanwhile, Sinatra was beginning to think about the approaching end of his Capitol Records contract and to enter the studio less frequently for the company. His next regular album was a year in coming, and when it did, Nice 'n' Easy was a mid-tempo collection, breaking his pattern of alternating fast and slow albums. The wait may have caused pent-up demand; the album spent many weeks at number one and went gold. Although Sinatra had not yet completed his recording commitment to Capitol, he began in December 1960 to make recordings for his own label, which he called Reprise Records. As a result, record stores were deluged with five new Sinatra albums in 1961: in January, Capitol had Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!!; in April, Reprise was launched with the release of Ring-a-Ding Ding!; in July, Reprise followed with Sinatra Swings the same week that Capitol released Come Swing with Me!; and in October, Reprise had I Remember Tommy..., an album of songs Sinatra had sung with the Tommy Dorsey band. There was also the March compilation All the Way on Capitol, making for six releases in one year. Remarkably, they all reached the Top Ten. Meanwhile, Reprise's first single, "The Second Time Around," a song written by Cahn and Van Heusen for Bing Crosby, won Sinatra the Grammy for Record of the Year. By 1962, the market was glutted. Capitol released its last new Sinatra album, Point of No Return, as well as a compilation, and Reprise put out three new LPs, but only Reprise's Sinatra & Strings reached the Top Ten. In 1963, however, all three Reprise releases, Sinatra-Basie, The Concert Sinatra, and the gold-selling Sinatra's Sinatra, made the Top Ten. The onset of the Beatles in 1964 began to do to the LP charts what Elvis Presley had done to the singles charts in 1956, but Sinatra continued to reach the Top Ten with his albums of the mid-'60s, albeit not as consistently. Days of Wine and Roses, Moon River, and Other Academy Award Winners hit that ranking in May 1964, as did Sinatra '65 in August 1965. That same month, Sinatra mounted a commercial comeback by emphasizing his own advancing age. Nearing 50, he released September of My Years, a ballad collection keyed to the passage of time. After "It Was a Very Good Year" was drawn from the album as a single and rose into the Top 40, the LP took off for the Top Five and went gold. It was named 1965 Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards, and Sinatra also picked up a trophy for best vocal performance for "It Was a Very Good Year."
In November 1965, Sinatra starred in a retrospective TV special, A Man and His Music, and released a corresponding double-LP, which reached the Top Ten and went gold. It won the 1966 Grammy for Album of the Year. Sinatra returned to number one on the singles charts for the first time in 11 years with the million-selling "Strangers in the Night" in July 1966; the song won him Grammys for Record of the Year and best vocal performance. A follow-up album named after the single topped the LP charts and went platinum. Before the end of the year, Sinatra had released two more Top Ten, gold-selling albums, Sinatra at the Sands and That's Life, the latter anchored by the title song, a Top Five single. In April 1967, Sinatra was back at number one on the singles charts with the million-selling "Somethin' Stupid," a duet with his daughter Nancy. By the late '60s, even Sinatra had trouble resisting the succeeding waves of youth-oriented rock music that topped the charts. But Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits!, a compilation of his '60s singles successes released in August 1968, was a million-seller, and Cycles, an album of songs by contemporary writers like Joni Mitchell and Jimmy Webb, released that fall, went gold. In March 1969, Sinatra released "My Way," with a lyric specially crafted for him by Paul Anka. It quickly became a signature song for him. The single reached the Top 40, and an album of the same name hit the Top Ten and went gold. In the spring of 1971, at the age of 55, Sinatra announced his retirement. But he remained retired only until the fall of 1973, when he returned to action with a new gold-selling album and a TV special both called Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back. In this late phase of his career, Sinatra cut back on records, movies, and television in favor of live performing, particularly in Las Vegas, but also in concert halls, arenas, and stadiums around the world. He refrained from making any new studio albums for six years, then returned in March 1980 with a three-LP set, Trilogy: Past, Present, Future. The most memorable track from the gold-selling set turned out to be "Theme From New York, New York," the title song from the 1977 movie, which Sinatra's recording belatedly turned into a standard. By the early '90s, the CD era had inaugurated a wave of box set reissues, and the 1990 Christmas season found Capitol and Reprise marking Sinatra's 75th birthday by competing with the three-disc The Capitol Years and the four-disc The Reprise Collection. Both went gold, as did Reprise's one-disc highlights version, Sinatra Reprise -- The Very Good Years. Sinatra himself, meanwhile, while continuing to tour, had not made a new recording since his 1984 LP L.A. Is My Lady. In 1993, he re-signed to Capitol Records and recorded Duets, on which he re-recorded his old favorites, joined by other popular singers ranging from Tony Bennett to Bono of U2 (none of whom actually performed in the studio with him). It became his biggest-selling album, with sales over 3,000,000 copies, and was followed in 1994 by Duets II, which won the 1995 Grammy Award for Traditional Pop Performance.
Sinatra finally retired from performing in his 80th year in 1995. He later died of a heart attack at 82. Anyone will be astonished at the sheer extent of Sinatra's success as a recording artist over 50 years, due to the changes in popular taste during that period. His popularity as a singer and his productivity has resulted in an overwhelming discography. Its major portions break down into the Columbia years (1943-1952), the Capitol years (1953-1962), and the Reprise years (1960-1981), but airchecks, film and television soundtracks, and other miscellaneous recordings swell it massively. As a movie star and as a celebrity of mixed reputation, Sinatra is so much of a 20th century icon that it is easy to overlook his real musical talents, which are the actual source of his renown. As an artist, he worked to interpret America's greatest songs and to preserve them for later generations. On his recordings, his success is apparent. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Career Highlights: The Manchurian Candidate, On the Town, The Naked Runner
First Major Screen Credit: Higher and Higher (1944)
Biography
Whether he was called "The Voice," "Ol' Blue Eyes," or "The Chairman of the Board," Frank Sinatra's nicknames all conveyed the adulation and respect reserved for a man who was commonly thought of as the best American popular singer of the 20th century. Sinatra's voice, whether manifested in song or spoken word, caressed the ears of many a listener for more than five decades. Sinatra's legacy -- countless songs and more than 70 films -- continue to ensure him the kind of popularity that has reached beyond the grave to elevate him past the status of mere icon to that of cultural institution.
Born Francis Albert Sinatra on December 12, 1915, Sinatra grew up poor in Hoboken, NJ. After working for a newspaper, he organized the Hoboken Four, a singing group. He got his first break when he won first prize on radio's "Major Bowes Amateur Hour," and went on to perform in nightclubs and on radio. Sinatra then landed the job of vocalist with the Harry James band, and later switched to Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. It was during his tenure with Dorsey's group that Sinatra made his first two films in uncredited roles as a singer in the bands in Las Vegas Nights (1941) and Ship Ahoy (1942).
In 1942, Sinatra's attempt to become a solo artist met with great success, especially in the hearts, minds, and ears of many American women and girls, who flocked to his performances with a fervor that would be replicated two decades later with the arrival of the Beatles. Soon, Sinatra was the "dream-date" idol of millions of American girls and, for several years, was enormously popular on-stage in addition to other venues, including radio, records, and nightclubs. To complement his popularity as a singer, Sinatra began acting, playing in a number of light musical films throughout the '40s. His first real acting role came in Higher and Higher (1943); other notable movies from this period in his career included Take Me out to the Ballgame (1949), co-starring Gene Kelly and Esther Williams, and On the Town, also made in 1949 and co-starring Kelly, who co-directed the picture with Stanley Donen.
Sinatra suffered a career setback in 1952 when his vocal cords hemorrhaged and he was dropped by MCA, the monolithic talent agency. Having established a shaky screen career, he fought back and landed the role of Angelo Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953) after begging Columbia for the part and then agreeing to take it for a mere 8,000 dollars. His performance won him the 1954 Best Supporting Actor Oscar and a Golden Globe, and, in the process, resuscitated his faltering career. Sinatra appeared in several more movies in the '50s, receiving a 1956 Best Actor Oscar nomination and a British Academy Award (BAFTA) for his portrayal of a drug addict in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). In addition, he took home a Golden Globe for his performance in
