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Francis Albert Sinatra (Template:IPAc-en; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Sinatra is among the world's best-selling music artists, with an estimated 150 million record sales globally.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra began his musical career in the swing era and was influenced by the easy-listening vocal style of Bing Crosby.<ref>Giddens, Garry Bing Crosby: The Unsung King of Song, published 2001</ref> He joined the Harry James band as the vocalist in 1939 before finding success as a solo artist after signing with Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the "bobby soxers". In 1946, Sinatra released his debut album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra. He then signed with Capitol Records and released several albums with arrangements by Nelson Riddle, notably In the Wee Small Hours (1955) and Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956). In 1960, Sinatra left Capitol Records to start his own record label, Reprise Records, releasing a string of successful albums. He collaborated with Count Basie on Sinatra-Basie: An Historic Musical First (1962) and It Might as Well Be Swing (1964). In 1965, he recorded September of My Years and starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music. After releasing Sinatra at the Sands in 1966, Sinatra recorded one of his most famous collaborations with Tom Jobim, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim. It was followed by 1968's Francis A. & Edward K. with Duke Ellington. Sinatra retired in 1971 following the release of "My Way" but came out of retirement two years later. He recorded several albums and released "New York, New York" in 1980.
Sinatra also forged a highly successful acting career. After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for From Here to Eternity (1953), he starred in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Sinatra also appeared in musicals such as On the Town (1949), Guys and Dolls (1955), High Society (1956), and Pal Joey (1957), which won him a Golden Globe Award. Toward the end of his career, he frequently played detectives, including the title character in Tony Rome (1967). Sinatra received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1971. On television, The Frank Sinatra Show began on CBS in 1950, and he continued to make appearances on television throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Sinatra was recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985, and received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra received eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award, and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. American music critic Robert Christgau called him "the greatest singer of the 20th century"<ref name="Christgau" /> and he continues to be regarded as an iconic figure.Template:Sfn
Early lifeEdit
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Template:Quote box Francis Albert SinatraTemplate:Efn was born on December 12, 1915, in a tenement at 415 Monroe Street in Hoboken, New Jersey,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:SfnTemplate:Efn the only child of Italian immigrants Natalina "Dolly" Garaventa and Antonino Martino "Marty" Sinatra.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn Sinatra weighed Template:Convert at birth and had to be delivered with the aid of forceps, which caused severe scarring to his left cheek, neck, and ear, and perforated his eardrum—which remained damaged for the rest of his life. His grandmother resuscitated him by running him under cold water until he gasped.Template:Sfnm Due to his injuries, his baptism at St. Francis Church in Hoboken was delayed until April 2, 1916.Template:Sfn A childhood operation on his mastoid bone left major scarring on his neck, and during adolescence he was further scarred by cystic acne.Template:Sfn Sinatra was raised in the Catholic Church.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Sinatra's mother was energetic and driven;Template:Sfn biographers believe that she was the dominant factor in the development of her son's personality and self-confidence.Template:Sfnm Sinatra's fourth wife Barbara would later claim that Dolly "knocked him around a lot" when he was a child.Template:Sfn Dolly became influential in Hoboken and in local Democratic Party circles.Template:Sfn She worked as a midwife,Template:Sfn and according to Sinatra biographer Kitty Kelley, ran an illegal abortion service that catered to Italian Catholic girls, for which she was nicknamed "Hatpin Dolly".Template:SfnTemplate:Efn She had a gift for languages and served as a local interpreter.Template:Sfn
Sinatra's illiterate father was a bantamweight boxerTemplate:Sfnm who later worked at the Hoboken Fire Department, working his way up to captain.Template:Sfn Due to his illiteracy, he stressed the importance of a "complete and full" education and had instilled in his son the desire to become a civil engineer and enroll at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sinatra spent much time at his parents' tavern in Hoboken,Template:Efn working on his homework and occasionally singing for spare change.Template:Sfn During the Great Depression, Dolly provided money to her son for outings with friends and to buy expensive clothes, resulting in neighbors describing him as the "best-dressed kid in the neighborhood".Template:Sfn Excessively thin and small as a child and young man, Sinatra's skinny frame later became a staple of jokes during stage shows.<ref name="SS">Sinatra at the Sands (1966), Reprise Records</ref>Template:Sfn
At a young age, Sinatra developed an interest in music, particularly big band jazzTemplate:Sfn and listened to Gene Austin, Rudy Vallée, Russ Colombo, and Bob Eberly while idolizing Bing Crosby.Template:Sfn For his 15th birthday, his uncle Domenico gave him a ukulele, with which he performed at family gatherings.Template:Sfn Sinatra attended David E. Rue Jr. High School from 1928,Template:Sfn and A. J. Demarest High School (since renamed as Hoboken High School) in 1931, where he arranged bands for school dances,Template:Sfn but left without graduating after having attended only 47 days before being expelled for "general rowdiness".Template:Sfnm
To please his mother, he enrolled at Drake Business School, but departed after 11 months.Template:Sfn Dolly found her son work as a delivery boy at the Jersey Observer newspaper (since merged into The Jersey Journal), where his godfather Frank Garrick worked;Template:Efn he later worked as a riveter at the Tietjen and Lang shipyard.Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He began performing in local Hoboken social clubs and sang for free on radio stations such as WAAT in Jersey City.Template:Sfn In New York, Sinatra found jobs singing for his supper or for cigarettes.Template:Sfn To improve his speech, he began taking elocution lessons for a dollar each from vocal coach John Quinlan, one of the first people to notice his impressive vocal range.Template:Sfn
Music careerEdit
1935–1942: Hoboken Four, Harry James, and Tommy DorseyEdit
Sinatra began singing professionally as a teenager. He never learned to read music but learned by ear.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn He got his first break in 1935 when his mother persuaded a local singing group called the 3 Flashes to let him join. Baritone Fred Tamburro stated that "Frank hung around us like we were gods or something", admitting that they only took him on board because he owned a carTemplate:Efn and could chauffeur the group. Sinatra soon learned they were auditioning for the Major Bowes Amateur Hour show and "begged" the group to let him join.Template:Sfn
With Sinatra, the group became known as the "Hoboken Four" and passed an audition from Edward Bowes to appear on the show. They each earned $12.50,Template:Sfn and attracted 40,000 votes to win first prize—a six-month contract to perform on stage and radio across the U.S.Template:Sfn Sinatra quickly became the group's lead singer, and, much to the jealousy of his fellow group members, garnered most of the attention from the girls.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Due to the success of the group, Bowes kept asking for them to return, disguised under different names, varying from "The Secaucus Cockamamies" to "The Bayonne Bacalas," although this may be apocryphal, sourced from Sinatra’s humorous stage patter during his legendary appearance with the Count Basie orchestra at the Sands (1966).<ref name="SS" />
In 1938, Sinatra found employment as a singing waiter at a roadhouse called "The Rustic Cabin" in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, for which he was paid $15 a week.Template:Sfnm The roadhouse was connected to the WNEW radio station in New York City, and he began performing with a group live during the Dance Parade show.Template:Sfn Despite the low salary, Sinatra felt that this was the break he was looking for, and boasted to friends that he was going to "become so big that no one could ever touch him".Template:Sfn In March 1939, saxophone player Frank Mane, who knew Sinatra from Jersey City radio station WAAT, arranged for him to audition and record "Our Love", his first solo studio recording.<ref name=CoyneK />Template:Efn In June, bandleader Harry James, who had heard Sinatra sing on "Dance Parade", signed him to a two-year contract of $75 a week after a show at the Paramount Theatre in New York.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn It was with the James band that Sinatra released his first commercial record "From the Bottom of My Heart" in July. No more than 8,000 copies were sold,Template:Sfn and further records released with James through 1939, such as "All or Nothing at All", also had weak sales on their initial release.<ref name=rollingstone>Template:Cite news</ref> Thanks to his vocal training, Sinatra could now sing two tones higher, and developed a repertoire which included songs such as "My Buddy", "Willow Weep for Me", "It's Funny to Everyone but Me", "Here Comes the Night", "On a Little Street in Singapore", "Ciribiribin", and "Every Day of My Life".Template:Sfn
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Sinatra became increasingly frustrated with the Harry James band, feeling that he was not achieving the major success and acclaim he was looking for. His pianist and close friend Hank Sanicola persuaded him to stay with the group,Template:Sfn but in November 1939 he left James to replace Jack LeonardTemplate:Efn as the lead singer of the Tommy Dorsey band. Sinatra earned $125 a week, appearing at the Palmer House in Chicago,Template:Sfn and James released Sinatra from his contract.<ref name=pc1a>Template:Pop Chronicles 40s</ref>Template:Efn
On January 26, 1940, he made his first public appearance with the band at the Coronado Theatre in Rockford, Illinois,Template:Sfn opening the show with "Stardust".Template:Sfn Dorsey recalled: "You could almost feel the excitement coming up out of the crowds when the kid stood up to sing. Remember, he was no matinée idol. He was just a skinny kid with big ears. I used to stand there so amazed I'd almost forget to take my own solos".Template:Sfn
Dorsey was a major influence on Sinatra and became a father figure. Sinatra copied Dorsey's mannerisms and traits, becoming a demanding perfectionist like him, even adopting his hobby of toy trains. He asked Dorsey to be godfather to his daughter Nancy in June 1940.Template:Sfnm Sinatra later said that "The only two people I've ever been afraid of are my mother and Tommy Dorsey."Template:Sfn Though Kelley says that Sinatra and drummer Buddy Rich were bitter rivals,Template:Efn other authors state that they were friends and even roommates when the band was on the road, but professional jealousy surfaced as both men wanted to be considered the star of Dorsey's band. Later, Sinatra helped Rich form his own band with a $25,000 loan and provided financial help to Rich during times of the drummer's serious illness.Template:Sfnm
In his first year with Dorsey, Sinatra recorded more than forty songs. Sinatra's first vocal hit was the song "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" in late April 1940.Template:Sfn Two more chart appearances followed with "Say It" and "Imagination", which was Sinatra's first top-10 hit.Template:Sfn His fourth chart appearance (and his first on the first officially published Billboard chart)<ref name="bronson">Template:Cite book</ref> was "I'll Never Smile Again", topping the charts for twelve weeks beginning in mid-July.Template:Sfnm Other records with Tommy Dorsey issued by RCA Victor include "Our Love Affair" and "Stardust" in 1940; "Oh! Look at Me Now", "Dolores", "Everything Happens to Me", and "This Love of Mine" in 1941; "Just as Though You Were There", "Take Me", and "There Are Such Things" in 1942; and "It Started All Over Again", "In the Blue of Evening", and "It's Always You" in 1943.Template:Sfn
As his success and popularity grew, Sinatra pushed Dorsey to allow him to record some solo songs. Dorsey eventually relented, and on January 19, 1942, Sinatra recorded "Night and Day", "The Night We Called It a Day", "The Song is You", and "Lamplighter's Serenade" at a Bluebird recording session, with Axel Stordahl as arranger and conductor.Template:Sfnm Sinatra first heard the recordings at the Hollywood Palladium and Hollywood Plaza and was astounded at how good he sounded. Stordahl recalled: "He just couldn't believe his ears. He was so excited you almost believed he had never recorded before. I think this was a turning point in his career. I think he began to see what he might do on his own".Template:Sfn
After the 1942 recordings, Sinatra believed he needed to go solo,Template:Sfn with an insatiable desire to compete with Bing Crosby,Template:Efn but he was hampered by his contract which gave Dorsey 43% of Sinatra's lifetime earnings.Template:Sfn A legal battle ensued, eventually settled in August 1942.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn On September 3, 1942, Dorsey bade farewell to Sinatra, reportedly saying "I hope you fall on your ass",Template:Sfn but he was more gracious on the air when replacing Sinatra with singer Dick Haymes.<ref name="pc1a" />
Rumors began spreading in newspapers that Sinatra's mobster godfather, Willie Moretti, coerced Dorsey at gunpoint to let Sinatra out of his contract for a few thousand dollars.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Sinatra persuaded Stordahl to come with him and become his personal arranger, offering him $650 a month, five times his salary from Dorsey.Template:Sfn Dorsey and Sinatra, who had been very close, never reconciled their differences.Template:Sfn
1942–1945: Onset of Sinatramania and Role in World War IIEdit
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Perfectly simple: It was the war years, and there was a great loneliness, and I was the boy in every corner drugstore, the boy who'd gone off drafted to the war. That's all.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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By May 1941, Sinatra topped the male singer polls in Billboard and DownBeat magazines.Template:Sfn His appeal to bobby soxers, as teenage girls of that time were called, revealed a new audience for popular music, which had previously been recorded mainly for adults.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The phenomenon became officially known as "Sinatramania" after his "legendary opening" at the Paramount Theatre in New York on December 30, 1942.Template:Sfn
According to Nancy Sinatra, Jack Benny later said, "I thought the goddamned building was going to cave in. I never heard such a commotionTemplate:Nbsp... All this for a fellow I never heard of."Template:Sfn Sinatra performed for four weeks at the theatre, his act following the Benny Goodman orchestra, after which his contract was renewed for another four weeks by Bob Weitman due to his popularity. He became known as "Swoonatra" or "The Voice", and his fans "Sinatratics". They organized meetings and sent masses of letters of adoration, and within a few weeks of the show, some 1,000 Sinatra fan clubs had been reported across the US.Template:Sfn
Sinatra's publicist, George Evans, encouraged interviews and photographs with fans and was the man responsible for depicting Sinatra as a vulnerable, shy, Italian–American with a rough childhood who made good.Template:Sfn When Sinatra returned to the Paramount in October 1944, only 250 persons left the first show, and 35,000 fans left outside caused a near riot, known as the Columbus Day Riot, outside the venue because they were not allowed in.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn Such was the bobby-soxer devotion to Sinatra that they were known to write Sinatra's song titles on their clothing, bribe hotel maids for an opportunity to touch his bed, and steal clothing he was wearing, most commonly his bow tie.Template:Sfn
Sinatra signed with Columbia Records as a solo artist on June 1, 1943, during the 1942–44 musicians' strike.Template:Sfnm Columbia Records re-released Harry James and Sinatra's August 1939 version of "All or Nothing at All",Template:Sfn which reached number 2 on June 2 and was on the best-selling list for 18 weeks.Template:Sfn He initially had great success,Template:Sfn and performed on the radio on Your Hit Parade from February 1943 until December 1944,Template:Sfn and on stage.
Columbia wanted new recordings of their growing star as quickly as possible, so Alec Wilder was hired as an arranger and conductor for several sessions with a vocal group called the Bobby Tucker Singers.Template:Sfn Of the nine songs recorded during these sessions, seven charted on the best-selling list.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> That year he made his first solo nightclub appearance at New York's Riobamba,Template:Sfn and a successful concert in the Wedgewood Room of the prestigious Waldorf-Astoria New York that year secured his popularity in New York high society.Template:Sfn Sinatra released "You'll Never Know", "Close to You", "Sunday, Monday, or Always" and "People Will Say We're in Love" as singles. By the end of 1943, he was more popular in a DownBeat poll than Bing Crosby.Template:Sfn
Sinatra did not serve in the military during World War II. On December 11, 1943, he was officially classified 4-F ("Registrant not acceptable for military service") by his draft board because of his perforated eardrum. However, Army files reported that Sinatra had actually been rejected because he was "not acceptable material from a psychiatric viewpoint;" his emotional instability was hidden to avoid "undue unpleasantness for both the selectee and the induction service".Template:Sfn Briefly, there were rumors reported by columnist Walter Winchell that Sinatra paid $40,000 to avoid military service, but the FBI found this to be without merit.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Toward the end of the war, Sinatra entertained the troops during several successful overseas USO tours with comedian Phil Silvers.Template:Sfn During one trip to Rome, he met the Pope, who asked him if he was an operatic tenor.Template:Sfn Sinatra worked frequently with the popular Andrews Sisters in radio in the 1940s,Template:Sfn and many USO shows were broadcast to troops via the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS).Template:Sfn In 1944, Sinatra released "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night" as a single and recorded his own version of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas". The following year he released "I Dream of You (More Than You Dream I Do)", "Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)", "Dream", and "Nancy (with the Laughing Face)" as singles.Template:Sfn
1946–1952: Columbia years and career slumpEdit
Despite being heavily involved in political activity in 1945 and 1946, in those two years, Sinatra sang on 160 radio shows, recorded 36 times, and shot four films. By 1946, he was performing on stage up to 45 times a week, singing up to 100 songs daily, and earning up to $93,000 a week.Template:Sfn
In 1946, Sinatra released "Oh! What it Seemed to Be", "Day by Day", "They Say It's Wonderful", "Five Minutes More", and "The Coffee Song" as singles,Template:Sfn and launched his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra,Template:Sfn which reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart. William Ruhlmann of AllMusic wrote that Sinatra "took the material very seriously, singing the love lyrics with utter seriousness" and that his "singing and the classically influenced settings gave the songs unusual depth of meaning."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was soon selling 10Template:Nbspmillion records a year.Template:Sfn
Such was Sinatra's command at Columbia that his love of conducting was indulged with the release of the set Frank Sinatra Conducts the Music of Alec Wilder, an offering unlikely to appeal to Sinatra's core fanbase of teenage girls at the time.Template:Sfn The following year he released his second album, Songs by Sinatra, featuring songs of a similar mood and tempo such as Irving Berlin's "How Deep is the Ocean?" and Harold Arlen's and Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are".Template:Sfn "Mam'selle", composed by Edmund Goulding with lyrics by Mack Gordon for the film The Razor's Edge (1946),Template:Sfn was released as a single.Template:Sfn
Sinatra had competition; versions by Art Lund, Dick Haymes, Dennis Day, and The Pied Pipers also reached the top ten of the Billboard charts.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In December, he recorded "Sweet Lorraine" with the Metronome All-Stars, featuring talented jazz musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Harry Carney and Charlie Shavers, with Nat King Cole on piano, in what Charles L. Granata describes as "one of the highlights of Sinatra's Columbia epoch".Template:Sfn
Sinatra's third album, Christmas Songs by Sinatra, was originally released in 1948 as a 78Template:Nbsprpm album set,Template:Sfn and a 10" LP record was released two years later.Template:Sfn When Sinatra was featured as a priest in The Miracle of the Bells, due to press negativity surrounding his alleged Mafia connections at the time,Template:Efn it was announced to the public that Sinatra would donate his $100,000 in wages from the film to the Catholic Church.Template:Sfn
By the end of 1948, Sinatra had slipped to fourth on DownBeatTemplate:'s annual poll of most popular singers,Template:Sfn and in the following year he was pushed out of the top spots in polls for the first time since 1943.Template:Sfn Frankly Sentimental (1949) was panned by DownBeat, who commented that "for all his talent, it seldom comes to life."Template:Sfn
Though "The Hucklebuck" reached the top ten,Template:Sfn it was his last single release under the Columbia label.Template:Sfn Sinatra's last two albums with Columbia, Dedicated to You and Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra, were released in 1950.Template:Sfn Sinatra would later feature a number of the Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra album's songs, including "Lover", "It's Only a Paper Moon", and "It All Depends on You", on his 1961 Capitol release, Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!!.Template:Sfn
Culminating the low of his career was the death of publicist George Evans in January 1950. According to Jimmy Van Heusen, Sinatra's close friend and songwriter, Evans's death to him was "an enormous shock which defies words", as he had been crucial to his career and popularity with the "Bobby soxers".Template:Sfn
Sinatra's reputation continued to decline as reports broke in February of his affair with Ava Gardner and the destruction of his marriage to Nancy,Template:Sfn though he insisted that his marriage had long been over even before he met Gardner.Template:Sfn In April, Sinatra was engaged to perform at the Copa club in New York, but had to cancel five days of the booking due to a submucosal hemorrhage of the throat.Template:Sfn Evans once said that whenever Sinatra suffered from a bad throat and loss of voice it was always due to emotional tension, which "absolutely destroyed him".Template:Sfn
In financial difficulty following his divorce and career decline, Sinatra was forced to borrow $200,000 from Columbia to pay his back taxes after MCA refused to front the money.Template:Sfn Rejected by Hollywood, he turned to Las Vegas and made his debut at the Desert Inn in September 1951,Template:Sfn and also began singing at the Riverside Hotel in Reno, Nevada.
Sinatra's decline in popularity was evident in his concert appearances. At a brief run at the Paramount in New York, he drew small audiences.Template:Sfn At the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, he performed to half-filled houses.Template:Sfn At a concert at Chez Paree in Chicago, only 150 people turned up in a 1,200-seat venue.Template:Sfn By April 1952, he was performing at the Kauai County Fair in Hawaii.Template:Sfn Sinatra's relationship with Columbia Records was disintegrating, with A&R executive Mitch Miller claiming he "couldn't give away" Sinatra records.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Though several notable recordings were made during this time period, such as "If I Could Write a Book" in January 1952, which Granata sees as a "turning point", forecasting his later work with its sensitivity,Template:Sfn
Columbia and MCA dropped him later that year.Template:Sfn His last studio recording for Columbia, "Why Try To Change Me Now", was recorded in New York on September 17, 1952, with an orchestra arranged and conducted by Percy Faith.Template:Sfn Journalist Burt Boyar observed, "Sinatra had had it. It was sad. From the top to the bottom in one horrible lesson."Template:Sfn
1953–1960: Career revival and the Capitol yearsEdit
The release of the film From Here to Eternity in August 1953 marked the beginning of a remarkable career revival.Template:Sfn Tom Santopietro notes that Sinatra began to bury himself in his work, with an "unparalleled frenetic schedule of recordings, movies and concerts",Template:Sfn in what authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan describe as "a new and brilliant phase".Template:Sfn
On March 13, 1953, Sinatra met with Capitol Records vice president Alan Livingston and signed a seven-year recording contract.Template:Sfn His first session for Capitol took place at KHJ studios at Studio C, 5515 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, with Axel Stordahl conducting.Template:Sfn The session produced four recordings, including "I'm Walking Behind You",Template:Sfn Sinatra's first Capitol single.Template:Sfn
After spending two weeks on location in Hawaii filming From Here to Eternity, Sinatra returned to KHJ on April 30 for his first recording session with Nelson Riddle, an established arranger and conductor at Capitol who was Nat King Cole's musical director.Template:Sfn After recording the first song, "I've Got the World on a String", Sinatra offered Riddle a rare expression of praise, "Beautiful!",Template:Sfn and after listening to the playbacks, he could not hide his enthusiasm, exclaiming, "I'm back, baby, I'm back!"Template:Sfn
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In subsequent sessions in May and November 1953,Template:Sfn Sinatra and Riddle developed and refined their musical collaboration, with Sinatra providing specific guidance on the arrangements.Template:Sfn Sinatra's first album for Capitol, Songs for Young Lovers, was released on January 4, 1954, and included "A Foggy Day", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "My Funny Valentine", "Violets for Your Furs", and "They Can't Take That Away from Me",Template:Sfnm songs which became staples of his later concerts.<ref name="SS" /><ref name="SC57" />
That same month, Sinatra released the single "Young at Heart", which reached No. 2 and was awarded Song of the Year.Template:Sfnm<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn In March, he recorded and released the single "Three Coins in the Fountain", a "powerful ballad"<ref name="Inc.1954">Template:Cite magazine</ref> that reached No. 4.Template:Sfn Sinatra's second album with Riddle, Swing Easy!, which reflected his "love for the jazz idiom" according to Granata,Template:Sfn was released on August 2 of that year and included "Just One of Those Things", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Get Happy", and "All of Me".Template:Sfn<ref name="Inc.1965">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Swing Easy! was named Album of the Year by Billboard, and he was named "Favorite Male Vocalist" by Billboard, DownBeat, and Metronome that year.Template:Sfnm<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Sinatra came to consider Riddle "the greatest arranger in the world",Template:Sfn and Riddle, who considered Sinatra, "a perfectionist",Template:Sfn said: "It's not only that his intuitions as to tempo, phrasing, and even configuration are amazingly right, but his taste is so impeccableTemplate:Nbsp... There is still no one who can approach him."Template:Sfn
Sinatra became one of Las Vegas's pioneer residency entertainers,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and a prominent figure on the Vegas scene throughout the 1950s and 1960s onwards, a period described by Rojek as the "high-water mark" of Sinatra's "hedonism and self-absorption". Rojek notes that the Rat Pack "provided an outlet for gregarious banter and wisecracks" but argues that it was Sinatra's vehicle, possessing an "unassailable command over the other performers".Template:Sfn Sinatra would fly to Las Vegas from Los Angeles in Van Heusen's plane.Template:Sfn On October 4, 1953, Sinatra made his first performance at the Sands Hotel and Casino, after an invitation by the manager Jack Entratter.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Sinatra typically performed there three times a year and later acquired a share in the hotel.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn
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In 1955, Sinatra released In the Wee Small Hours, his first 12" LP,Template:Sfn featuring songs such as "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", "Mood Indigo", "Glad to Be Unhappy" and "When Your Lover Has Gone".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to Granata it was the first concept album of his to make a "single persuasive statement", with an extended program and "melancholy mood".Template:Sfn Sinatra embarked on his first tour of Australia the same year.Template:Sfn
Another collaboration with Riddle resulted in Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, sometimes seen as one of his best albums, which was released in March 1956.Template:Sfn It features a recording of "I've Got You Under My Skin" by Cole Porter,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> which reportedly took 22 takes to perfect.Template:Sfn
His February 1956 recording sessions inaugurated the studios at the Capitol Records Building,Template:Sfn complete with a 56-piece symphonic orchestra.Template:Sfn According to Granata, his recordings of "Night and Day", "Oh! Look at Me Now", and "From This Moment On" revealed "powerful sexual overtones, stunningly achieved through the mounting tension and release of Sinatra's best-teasing vocal lines", while his recording of "River, Stay 'Way from My Door" in April demonstrated his "brilliance as a syncopational improviser".Template:Sfn
Riddle said that Sinatra took "particular delight" in singing "The Lady is a Tramp", commenting that he "always sang that song with a certain amount of salaciousness", making "cue tricks" with the lyrics.Template:Sfn His penchant for conducting was displayed again in 1956's Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color, an instrumental album that has been interpreted to be a catharsis to his failed relationship with Gardner.Template:Sfn Sinatra also sang at that year's Democratic National Convention and performed with The Dorsey Brothers for a week soon afterward at the Paramount Theatre.Template:Sfn
In 1957, Sinatra released Close to You, A Swingin' Affair!, and Where Are You?—his first album in stereo, with Gordon Jenkins.Template:Sfn Granata considers "Close to You" to have been thematically his closest concept album to perfection during the "golden" era, and Nelson Riddle's finest work, which was "extremely progressive" by the standards of the day. It is structured like a three-act play, each commencing with the songs "With Every Breath I Take", "Blame It on My Youth" and "It Could Happen to You".Template:Sfn For Granata, Sinatra's A Swingin' Affair! and Songs for Swingin' Lovers! solidified "Sinatra's image as a 'swinger', from both a musical and visual standpoint." Buddy Collette considered the swing albums to have been heavily influenced by Sammy Davis Jr. and stated that when he worked with Sinatra in the mid-1960s, he approached a song much differently than he had done in the early 1950s.Template:Sfn
On June 9, 1957, he performed in a 62-minute concert conducted by Riddle at the Seattle Civic Auditorium,Template:Sfn his first appearance in Seattle since 1945.<ref name="SC57">Sinatra '57 in Concert (1999), Artanis Entertainment Group.</ref> The recording was first released as a bootleg, but Artanis Entertainment Group officially released it as Sinatra '57 in Concert in 1999, after Sinatra's death.<ref name="LAT99">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1958, Sinatra released the concept album Come Fly with Me with Billy May, designed as a musical world tour.Template:Sfnm It reached the top spot on the Billboard album chart in its second week, remaining at the top for five weeks,Template:Sfn and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the inaugural Grammy Awards.Template:Sfn The title song, "Come Fly With Me", written especially for him, would become one of his best-known standards.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On May 29, he recorded seven songs in a single session, more than double the usual yield of a recording session, and an eighth, "Lush Life", was abandoned as Sinatra found it too technically demanding.Template:Sfn In September, Sinatra released Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely, a stark collection of introspectiveTemplate:Efn saloon songs and blues-tinged ballads, which proved a huge commercial success, spending 120 weeks on BillboardTemplate:'s album chart and peaking at No. Template:Nbsp1.Template:Sfn Cuts from this LP, such as "Angel Eyes" and "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)", would remain staples of the "saloon song" segments of Sinatra's concerts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1959, Sinatra released Come Dance with Me!, a highly successful, critically acclaimed album that stayed on BillboardTemplate:'s Pop album chart for 140 weeks, peaking at No. 2. It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, as well as Best Vocal Performance, Male and Best Arrangement for Billy May.Template:Sfn
He released No One Cares in the same year, a collection of "brooding, lonely" torch songs, which critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine thought was "nearly as good as its predecessor Where Are You?, but lacked the "lush" arrangements of it and the "grandiose melancholy" of Only the Lonely.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In the words of Kelley, by 1959, Sinatra was "not simply the leader of the Rat Pack" but had "assumed the position of il padrone in Hollywood." He was asked by 20th Century Fox to be the master of ceremonies at a luncheon attended by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev on September 19, 1959.Template:Sfn Nice 'n' Easy, a collection of ballads, topped the Billboard chart in October 1960 and remained in the charts for 86 weeks,Template:Sfn winning critical plaudits.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
1960–1969: Reprise yearsEdit
Sinatra grew discontented at Capitol and feuded with Alan Livingston, which lasted over six months.Template:Sfn His first attempt at owning his own label was with his pursuit of buying declining jazz label Verve Records, which ended once an initial agreement with Verve founder Norman Granz "failed to materialize".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
He decided to form his own label, Reprise Records,Template:Sfnm and, in an effort to assert his new direction, temporarily parted with Riddle, May and Jenkins, working with other arrangers such as Neil Hefti, Don Costa, and Quincy Jones.Template:Sfn Sinatra built the appeal of Reprise Records as one in which artists were promised creative control, as well as a guarantee that they would eventually gain "complete ownership of their work, including publishing rights."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Under Sinatra the company developed into a music industry "powerhouse", and he later sold it for an estimated $80Template:Nbspmillion.Template:Sfn His first album on the label, Ring-a-Ding-Ding! (1961), was a major success, peaking at No.4 on Billboard.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The album was released in February 1961, the same month that Reprise Records released Ben Webster's The Warm Moods, Sammy Davis Jr.'s The Wham of Sam, Mavis River's Mavis and Joe E. Lewis's It is Now Post Time.Template:Sfn During the initial years of Reprise, Sinatra was still under contract to record for Capitol, completing his contractual commitment with the release of Point of No Return, recorded on September 11 and 12, 1961.Template:Sfn
In 1962, Sinatra released Sinatra and Strings, a set of standard ballads arranged by Don Costa, which became one of the most critically acclaimed works of Sinatra's Reprise period. Frank Jr., who was present during the recording, noted the "huge orchestra", which Nancy Sinatra stated "opened a whole new era" in pop music, with orchestras getting bigger, embracing a "lush string sound".Template:Sfn
Sinatra and Count Basie collaborated for the album Sinatra-Basie the same year,Template:Sfn a popular and successful release which prompted them to rejoin two years later for the follow-up It Might as Well Be Swing, arranged by Quincy Jones.Template:Sfnm The two became frequent performers together,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965.Template:Sfn Also in 1962, as the owner of his own record label, Sinatra was able to step on the podium as conductor again, releasing his third instrumental album Frank Sinatra Conducts Music from Pictures and Plays.Template:Sfn
In 1963, Sinatra reunited with Nelson Riddle for The Concert Sinatra, an ambitious album featuring a 73-piece symphony orchestra arranged and conducted by Riddle. The concert was recorded on a motion picture scoring soundstage with the use of multiple synchronized recording machines that employed an optical signal onto 35Template:Nbspmm film designed for movie soundtracks. Granata considers the album to have been "impeachable" [sic], "one of the very best of the Sinatra-Riddle ballad albums", in which Sinatra displayed his vocal range, particularly in "Ol' Man River", in which he darkened the hue.Template:Sfn
In 1964, the song "My Kind of Town" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sinatra released Softly, as I Leave You,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and collaborated with Bing Crosby and Fred Waring on America, I Hear You Singing, a collection of patriotic songs recorded as a tribute to the assassinated President John F. Kennedy.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Sinatra increasingly became involved in charitable pursuits in this period. In 1961 and 1962, he went to Mexico to put on performances for Mexican charities. Template:Efn and in July 1964, he was present at the dedication of the Frank Sinatra International Youth Center for Arab and Jewish children in Nazareth.Template:Sfn
Sinatra's phenomenal success in 1965, coinciding with his 50th birthday, prompted Billboard to proclaim that he may have reached the "peak of his eminence".<ref name="Billboard 0598" /> In June 1965, Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin played live in St. Louis to benefit Dismas House, a prisoner rehabilitation and training center with nationwide programs that, in particular, helped serve black Americans.
The Rat Pack concert, called The Frank Sinatra Spectacular, was broadcast live via satellite to numerous movie theaters across America.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The album September of My Years was released September 1965, and went on to win the Grammy Award for best album of the year.Template:Sfnm Granata considers the album to have been one of the finest of his Reprise years, "a reflective throwback to the concept records of the 1950s, and more than any of those collections, distills everything that Frank Sinatra had ever learned or experienced as a vocalist".Template:Sfn One of the album's singles, "It Was a Very Good Year", won the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A career anthology, A Man and His Music, followed in November, winning Album of the Year at the Grammys the following year.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1966, Sinatra released That's Life, with both the single of "That's Life" and album becoming Top Ten hits on BillboardTemplate:'s pop charts.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Strangers in the Night went on to top the Billboard and UK pop singles charts,<ref name="UKCharts">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> winning the award for Record of the Year at the Grammys.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sinatra's first live album, Sinatra at the Sands, was recorded during January and February 1966 at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Sinatra was backed by the Count Basie Orchestra, with Quincy Jones conducting.Template:Sfn Sinatra pulled out from the Sands the following year when he was driven out by its new owner Howard Hughes after a fight.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn
Sinatra started 1967 with a series of recording sessions with Antônio Carlos Jobim. He recorded one of his collaborations with Jobim, the Grammy-nominated album Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim, which was one of the best-selling albums of the year, behind the Beatles's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
According to Santopietro the album "consists of an extraordinarily effective blend of bossa nova and slightly swinging jazz vocals, and succeeds in creating an unbroken mood of romance and regret."Template:Sfn Writer Stan Cornyn wrote that Sinatra sang so softly on the album that it was comparable to the time that he suffered from a vocal hemorrhage in 1950.Template:Sfn
Sinatra released the album The World We Knew, which features a chart-topping duet of "Somethin' Stupid" with daughter Nancy.<ref name="UKCharts" /><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In December, Sinatra collaborated with Duke Ellington on the album Francis A. & Edward K..<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> According to Granata, the recording of "Indian Summer" on the album was a favorite of Riddle's, noting the "contemplative mood [which] is heightened by a Johnny Hodges alto sax solo that will bring a tear to your eye".Template:Sfn
With Sinatra in mind, singer-songwriter Paul Anka wrote the song "My Way", using the melody of the French "Comme d'habitude" ("As Usual"), composed by Claude François and Jacques Revaux.Template:Sfn Sinatra recorded it in one take, just after Christmas 1968.Template:Sfn "My Way", Sinatra's best-known song on the Reprise label, was not an instant success, charting at No. 27 in the US and No. 5 in the UK.Template:Sfn However, it remained in the UK charts for 122 weeks, including 75 non-consecutive weeks in the Top 40, between April 1969 and September 1971, which was still a record in 2015.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Sinatra told songwriter Ervin Drake in the 1970s that he "detested" singing the song because he believed audiences would think it was a "self-aggrandizing tribute".Template:Sfn According to NPR, "My Way" has become one of the most requested songs at funerals.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In an effort to maintain his commercial viability in the late 1960s, Sinatra would record works by Paul Simon ("Mrs. Robinson"), the Beatles ("Yesterday"), and Joni Mitchell ("Both Sides, Now") in 1969.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
1970–1981: "Retirement" and returnEdit
In 1970, Sinatra released Watertown, a critically acclaimed concept album, with music by Bob Gaudio (of the Four Seasons) and lyrics by Jake Holmes.Template:Sfn However, it sold a mere 30,000 copies that year and reached a peak chart position of 101.Template:Sfn
He left Caesars Palace in September of that year after an incident in which executive Sanford Waterman pulled a gun on him.Template:Efn He performed several charity concerts with Count Basie at the Royal Festival Hall in London.Template:Sfn On November 2, 1970, Sinatra recorded the last songs for Reprise Records before his self-imposed retirement,Template:Sfn announced the following June at a concert in Hollywood to raise money for the Motion Picture and TV Relief Fund.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He gave a "rousing" performance of "That's Life", and finished the concert with a Matt Dennis and Earl Brent song, "Angel Eyes" which he had recorded on the Only the Lonely album in 1958.<ref>Sinatra The Chairman James Kaplan pages 845–46</ref> He sang the last line. "'Scuse me while I disappear." The spotlight went dark, and he left the stage.Template:Sfn
He told LIFE journalist Thomas Thompson that "I've got things to do, like the first thing is not to do Template:Em at all for eight monthsTemplate:Nbsp... maybe a year",Template:Sfn while Barbara Sinatra later said that Sinatra had grown "tired of entertaining people, especially when all they really wanted were the same old tunes he had long ago become bored by".Template:Sfn Around this time, Sinatra designed Villa Maggio, a holiday home and retreat near Palm Desert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> While he was in retirement, President Richard Nixon asked him to perform at a Young Voters Rally in anticipation of the upcoming campaign. Sinatra obliged and chose to sing "My Kind of Town" for the rally held in Chicago on October 20, 1972.Template:Sfn
In 1973, Sinatra came out of his short-lived retirement with a television special and album. The album, entitled Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back,Template:Sfn arranged by Gordon Jenkins and Don Costa,Template:Sfn was a success, reaching number 13 on Billboard and number 12 in the UK.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Sfn The television special, Magnavox Presents Frank Sinatra, reunited Sinatra with Gene Kelly.
He initially developed problems with his vocal cords during the comeback due to a prolonged period without singing.Template:Sfn That Christmas, he performed at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas,Template:Sfn and returned to Caesars Palace the following month in January 1974.Template:Sfn He began what Barbara Sinatra describes as a "massive comeback tour of the United States, Europe, the Far East, and Australia."Template:Sfn In July, while on a second tour of Australia,Template:Sfn he caused an uproar by describing journalists thereTemplate:Sndwho were aggressively pursuing his every move and pushing for a press conferenceTemplate:Sndas "bums, parasites, fags, and buck-and-a-half hookers."Template:Sfn After he was pressured to apologize, Sinatra instead insisted that the journalists apologize for "fifteen years of abuse I have taken from the world press." Union actions canceled concerts and grounded Sinatra's plane, essentially trapping him in Australia.Template:Sfn
Sinatra's lawyer, Mickey Rudin, arranged for Sinatra to issue a written conciliatory note and a final concert that was televised to the nation.Template:Sfn In October 1974, he appeared at New York City's Madison Square Garden in a televised concert that was later released as an album under the title The Main Event – Live. Backing him was bandleader Woody Herman and the Young Thundering Herd, who accompanied Sinatra on a European tour later that month.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1975, Sinatra performed in concerts in New York with Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald, and at the London Palladium with Basie and Sarah Vaughan, and in Tehran at Aryamehr Stadium, giving 140 performances in 105 days.Template:Sfn In August he held several concerts at Lake Tahoe together with the newly risen singer John Denver,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Sfn who became a frequent collaborator.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sinatra had recorded Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and "My Sweet Lady" for Sinatra & Company (1971),Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and according to Denver, his song "A Baby Just Like You" was written at Sinatra's request for his new grandchild, Angela.Template:Sfn
During the Labor Day weekend held in 1976, Sinatra was responsible for reuniting old friends and comedy partners Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis for the first time in nearly twenty years, when they performed at the "Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon".Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> That year, the Friars Club selected him as the "Top Box Office Name of the Century", and he was given the Scopus Award by the American Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Nevada.Template:Sfn
Sinatra continued to perform at Caesars Palace in the late 1970s and was performing there in January 1977 when his mother Dolly died in a plane crash on the way to see him.Template:Sfnm<ref name="mdtgsi">Template:Cite news</ref> He canceled two weeks of shows and spent time recovering from the shock in Barbados.Template:Sfn In March, he performed in front of Princess Margaret at the Royal Albert Hall in London, raising money for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.Template:Sfn On March 14, he recorded with Nelson Riddle for the last time, recording the songs "Linda", "Sweet Lorraine", and "Barbara".Template:Sfn The two men had a major falling out and later patched up their differences in January 1985 at a dinner organized for Ronald Reagan when Sinatra asked Riddle to make another album with him. Riddle was ill at the time and died that October before they had a chance to record.Template:Sfn
In 1978, Sinatra filed a $1Template:Nbspmillion lawsuit against a land developer for using his name in the "Frank Sinatra Drive Center" in West Los Angeles.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> During a party at Caesars in 1979, he was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award, while celebrating 40 years in show business and his 64th birthday.Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> That year, former President Gerald Ford awarded Sinatra the International Man of the Year Award,Template:Sfn and he performed in front of the Egyptian pyramids for Anwar Sadat, which raised more than $500,000 for Sadat's wife's charities.Template:Sfn
In 1980, Sinatra's first album in six years was released, Trilogy: Past Present Future, a highly ambitious triple album that features an array of songs from both the pre-rock and rock eras.<ref name="Trilogy">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was the first studio album of Sinatra's to feature his touring pianist at the time, Vinnie Falcone, and was based on an idea by Sonny Burke.Template:Sfn The album garnered six Grammy nominationsTemplate:Nbsp– winning for best liner notesTemplate:Nbsp– and peaked at number 17 on BillboardTemplate:'s album chart,<ref name="Trilogy" /> and spawned yet another song that would become a signature tune, "Theme from New York, New York".Template:Sfn
That year, as part of the Concert of the Americas, he performed in the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which broke records for the "largest live paid audience ever recorded for a solo performer".Template:Sfn The following year, Sinatra built on the success of Trilogy with She Shot Me Down, an album that was praised for embodying the dark tone of his Capitol years.<ref name="She Shot Me Down">"[{{#ifeq: yes | yes | https://www.allmusic.com/album/r26337{{
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}} She Shot Me Down]. AllMusic. Retrieved November 28, 2006.</ref> Also in 1981, Sinatra was embroiled in controversy when he worked a 10-day engagement for $2Template:Nbspmillion in Sun City, in the internationally unrecognized Bophuthatswana, breaking a cultural boycott against apartheid-era South Africa. President Lucas Mangope awarded Sinatra with the highest honor, the Order of the Leopard, and made him an honorary tribal chief.Template:Sfn
1982–1995: Later career and final projectsEdit
Santopietro stated that by the early 1980s, Sinatra's voice had "coarsened, losing much of its power and flexibility, but audiences didn't care."Template:Sfn In 1982, he signed a $16Template:Nbspmillion three-year deal with the Golden Nugget of Las Vegas.
Kelley notes that by this period, Sinatra's voice had grown "darker, tougher and loamier", but he "continued to captivate audiences with his immutable magic." She added that his baritone voice "sometimes cracked, but the gliding intonations still aroused the same raptures of delight as they had at the Paramount Theater."Template:Sfn
That year, he made a reported further $1.3Template:Nbspmillion from the Showtime television rights to his "Concert of the Americas" in the Dominican Republic, $1.6Template:Nbspmillion for a concert series at Carnegie Hall, and $250,000 in just one evening at the Chicago Fest. He donated a lot of his earnings to charity.Template:Sfn He put on a performance at the White House for Italian president Sandro Pertini, and performed at the Radio City Music Hall with Luciano Pavarotti and George Shearing.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Sinatra was honored at the 1983 Kennedy Center Honors, alongside Katherine Dunham, James Stewart, Elia Kazan, and Virgil Thomson. Quoting Henry James, President Reagan said in honoring his old friend that "art was the shadow of humanity" and that Sinatra had "spent his life casting a magnificent and powerful shadow."Template:Sfn
On September 21, 1983, Sinatra filed a $2Template:Nbspmillion court case against Kitty Kelley, suing her for punitive damages, before her unofficial biography, His Way, was even published. The book became a best-seller for "all the wrong reasons" and "the most eye-opening celebrity biography of our time", according to William Safire of The New York Times.<ref name="ESSAY">Template:Cite news</ref> Sinatra was always adamant that such a book would be written on his terms, and he himself would "set the record straight" in details of his life.Template:Sfn
According to Kelley, the family detested her and the book, which took its toll on Sinatra's health. Kelley says that Tina Sinatra blamed her for her father's colon surgery in 1986.Template:Sfn He was forced to drop the case on September 19, 1984, with several leading newspapers expressing concerns about censorship.Template:Sfn
In 1984, Sinatra worked with Quincy Jones for the first time in nearly two decades on the album L.A. Is My Lady, which was well received critically.Template:Sfn The album was a substitute for another Jones project, an album of duets with Lena Horne, which had to be abandoned.Template:Efn In 1986, Sinatra collapsed on stage while performing in Atlantic City and was hospitalized for diverticulitis,Template:Sfn which left him looking frail.Template:Sfn Two years later, Sinatra reunited with Martin and Davis and went on the Rat Pack Reunion Tour, during which they played many large arenas. When Martin dropped out of the tour early on, a rift developed between them, and the two never spoke again.Template:Sfn
On June 6, 1988, Sinatra made his last recordings with Reprise for an album that was not released. He recorded "My Foolish Heart", "Cry Me a River", and other songs. Sinatra never completed the project, but take number 18 of "My Foolish Heart" may be heard in The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings (1995).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1990, Sinatra was awarded the second "Ella Award" by the Los Angeles-based Society of Singers, and performed for a final time with Ella Fitzgerald at the award ceremony.Template:Sfn Sinatra maintained an active touring schedule in the early 1990s, performing 65 concerts in 1990, 73 in 1991, and 84 in 1992 in seventeen countries.Template:Sfn
In 1993, Sinatra returned to Capitol Records and the recording studio for Duets, which became his best-selling album.Template:Sfn The album and its sequel, Duets II, released the following year,Template:Sfn would see Sinatra remake his classic recordings with popular contemporary performers, who added their vocals to a pre-recorded tape.Template:Sfn
During his tours in the early 1990s, his memory failed him at times during concerts, and he fainted onstage in Richmond, Virginia in March 1994.Template:Sfn His final public concerts were held in Fukuoka Dome in Japan on December 19–20, 1994.Template:Sfn The following year, Sinatra sang for the last time on February 25, 1995, before a live audience of 1200 select guests at the Palm Desert Marriott Ballroom on the closing night of the Frank Sinatra Desert Classic golf tournament.Template:Sfnm
Esquire reported of the show that Sinatra was "clear, tough, on the money" and "in absolute control".Template:Sfn Sinatra was awarded the Legend Award at the 1994 Grammy Awards, where he was introduced by Bono, who said of him, "Frank's the chairman of the bad attitudeTemplate:Nbsp... Rock 'n roll plays at being tough, but this guy is the bossTemplate:Nbsp– the chairman of boss".<ref name="bono">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1995, to mark Sinatra's 80th birthday, the Empire State Building glowed blue.<ref name="Guides2014">Template:Cite book</ref> A star-studded birthday tribute, Sinatra: 80 Years My Way, was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, featuring performers such as Ray Charles, Little Richard, Natalie Cole and Salt-N-Pepa singing his songs.Template:Sfn At the end of the program, Sinatra performed on stage for the last time to sing the final notes of the "Theme from New York, New York" with an ensemble.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In recognition of his many years of association with Las Vegas, Sinatra was elected to the Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ArtistryEdit
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While Sinatra never learned how to read music well, he had a natural understanding of it,Template:Sfn and he worked very hard from a young age to improve his abilities in all aspects of music.Template:Sfn He could follow a lead sheet (simplified sheet music showing a song's basic structure) during a performance by "carefully following the patterns and groupings of notes arranged on the page" and made his own notations to the music, using his ear to detect semitonal differences.Template:Sfn
Granata states that some of the most accomplished classically trained musicians soon noticed his musical understanding and remarked that Sinatra had a "sixth sense", which "demonstrated unusual proficiency when it came to detecting incorrect notes and sounds within the orchestra."Template:Sfn
Sinatra was an aficionado of classical music,Template:Sfn and would often request classical strains in his music, inspired by composers such as Puccini and Impressionist masters. His personal favorite was Ralph Vaughan Williams.Template:Sfn He would insist on always recording live with the band because it gave him a "certain feeling" to perform live surrounded by musicians.Template:Sfn By the mid-1940s, such was his understanding of music that after hearing an air check of some compositions by Alec Wilder, which were for strings and woodwinds, he became the conductor at Columbia Records for six of Wilder's compositions.Template:Efn The works were considered by Wilder to have been among the finest renditions and recordings of his compositions, past or present.Template:Sfn Critic Gene Lees, a lyricist and the author of the words to the Jobim melody "This Happy Madness", expressed amazement when he heard Sinatra's recording of it on Sinatra & Company (1971), considering him to have delivered the lyrics to perfection.Template:Sfn
Voice coach John Quinlan was impressed by Sinatra's vocal range, remarking, "He has far more voice than people think he has. He can vocalize to a B-flat on top in full voice, and he doesn't need a mic either".Template:Sfn As a singer, early on, he was primarily influenced by Bing Crosby,Template:Sfn but later believed that Tony Bennett was "the best singer in the business."Template:Sfn Bennett himself claimed that as a performer, Sinatra had "perfected the art of intimacy."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> According to Nelson Riddle, Sinatra had a "fairly rangy voice", Template:Efn remarking that "His voice has a very strident, insistent sound in the top register, a smooth lyrical sound in the middle register, and a very tender sound in the low. His voice is built on infinite taste, with an overall inflection of sex. He points everything he does from a sexual standpoint".Template:Sfn
Despite his heavy New Jersey accent, when Sinatra sang, his accent was barely detectable;Template:Sfn according to Richard Schuller, his diction became "precise" while singing and his articulation "meticulous".Template:Sfn His timing was impeccable, allowing him, according to Charles L. Granata, to "toy with the rhythm of a melody, bringing tremendous excitement to his reading of a lyric."Template:Sfn Tommy Dorsey observed that Sinatra would "take a musical phrase and play it all the way through seemingly without breathing for eight, ten, maybe sixteen bars." Dorsey was a considerable influence on Sinatra's techniques for his vocal phrasing with his own exceptional breath control on the trombone,Template:Sfn and Sinatra regularly swam and held his breath underwater, thinking of song lyrics to increase his breathing power.Template:Sfn Template:Quote box Arrangers such as Nelson Riddle and Anthony Fanzo found Sinatra to be a perfectionist who constantly drove himself and others around him, stating that his collaborators approached him with uneasiness because of his unpredictable and often volatile temperament.Template:Sfn
Granata comments that Sinatra was almost fanatically obsessed with perfection to the point that people began wondering if he was genuinely concerned about the music or showing off his power over others.Template:Sfn On days when he felt that his voice was not right, he would know after only a few notes and would postpone the recording session until the following day, yet still pay his musicians.Template:Sfn
After a period of performing, Sinatra tired of singing a certain set of songs and was always looking for talented new songwriters and composers to work with. Once he found ones that he liked, he actively sought to work with them as often as he could and made friends with many of them. Over the years, he recorded 87 of Sammy Cahn's songs, of which 24 were composed by Jule Styne and 43 by Jimmy Van Heusen. The Cahn-Styne partnership lasted from 1942 until 1954, when Van Heusen succeeded him as Sinatra's main composer.Template:Sfn
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Sinatra insisted upon direct input regarding arrangements and tempos for his recordings. He would spend weeks thinking about the songs he wanted to record and would keep an arranger in mind for each song.Template:Sfn Barbara Sinatra notes that Sinatra would almost always credit the songwriter at the end of each number and would often make comments to the audience, such as "Isn't that a pretty ballad" or "Don't you think that's the most marvelous love song", delivered with "childlike delight".Template:Sfn She states that after each show, Sinatra would be "in a buoyant, electrically charged mood, a post-show high that would take him hours to come down from as he quietly relived every note of the performance he'd just given."Template:Sfn Template:Quote box Sinatra's split with Gardner in the fall of 1953 had a profound impact on the types of songs he sang and on his voice. He began to console himself in songs with a "brooding melancholy", such as "I'm a Fool to Want You", "Don't Worry 'Bout Me", "My One and Only Love" and "There Will Never Be Another You",Template:Sfn which Riddle believed was the direct influence of Ava Gardner.
Lahr comments that the new Sinatra was "not the gentle boy balladeer of the forties. Fragility had gone from his voice, to be replaced by a virile adult's sense of happiness and hurt".Template:Sfn Author Granata considered Sinatra a "master of the art of recording", noting that his work in the studio "set him apart from other gifted vocalists." During his career, he made over 1000 recordings.Template:Sfn Recording sessions would typically last three hours. However, Sinatra would always prepare for them by spending at least an hour by the piano beforehand to vocalize, followed by a short rehearsal with the orchestra to ensure the balance of sound.Template:Sfn
During his Columbia years, Sinatra used an RCA Type 44 microphone, which Granata describes as "the 'old-fashioned' microphone which is closely associated with Sinatra's crooner image of the 1940s".Template:Sfn At Capitol, he used a Neumann U 47, an "ultra-sensitive" microphone that better captured the timbre and tone of his voice.Template:Sfn
In the 1950s, Sinatra's career was facilitated by developments in technology. Up to sixteen songs could now be held by the twelve-inch L.P., and this allowed Sinatra to use song in a novelistic way, turning each track into a kind of chapter, which built and counterpointed moods to illuminate a larger theme".Template:Sfn Santopietro writes that through the 1950s and well into the 1960s, "Every Sinatra LP was a masterpiece of one sort of another, whether uptempo, torch song, or swingin' affairs. Track after track, the brilliant concept albums redefined the nature of pop vocal art".Template:Sfn
Film careerEdit
1941–1952: Debut, musical films, and career slumpEdit
Sinatra attempted to pursue an acting career in Hollywood in the early 1940s. While films appealed to him,Template:Sfn being exceptionally self-confident,Template:Sfn he was rarely enthusiastic about his own acting, once remarking that "pictures stink".Template:Sfn Sinatra made his film debut performing in an uncredited sequence in Las Vegas Nights (1941), singing "I'll Never Smile Again" with Tommy Dorsey's Pied Pipers.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He had a cameo role along with Duke Ellington and Count Basie in Charles Barton's Reveille with Beverly (1943), making a brief appearance singing "Night and Day".Template:Sfn Next, he was given leading roles in Higher and Higher and Step Lively (both 1944) for RKO.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cast Sinatra opposite Gene Kelly and Kathryn Grayson in the Technicolor musical Anchors Aweigh (1945), in which he played a sailor on leave in Hollywood.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A major success,Template:Sfn it garnered several Academy Award wins and nominations, and the song "I Fall in Love Too Easily", sung by Sinatra in the film, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He briefly appeared at the end of Richard Whorf's commercially successful Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), a Technicolor musical biopic of Jerome Kern, in which he sang "Ol' Man River".Template:Sfnm
Sinatra co-starred again with Gene Kelly in the Technicolor musical Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), in which they play baseball players who are part-time vaudevillians.Template:Sfn He teamed up with Kelly for a third time in On the Town (1949), playing a sailor on leave in New York City. The film remains rated very highly by critics, and in 2006, it ranked No. 19 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Both Double Dynamite (1951), an RKO Irving Cummings comedy produced by Howard Hughes,Template:Sfn and Joseph Pevney's Meet Danny Wilson (1952) failed to make an impression.Template:Sfnm
1953–1959: Career comeback and primeEdit
Template:Multiple image Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity (1953) deals with the tribulations of three soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, and Sinatra, stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.Template:Sfn Sinatra had long been desperate to find a film role that would bring him back into the spotlight, and Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn had been inundated by appeals from people across Hollywood to give Sinatra a chance to star as "Maggio" in the film.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn During production, Montgomery Clift became a close friend,Template:Sfn and Sinatra later professed that he "learned more about acting from him than anybody I ever knew before".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After several years of critical and commercial decline, his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor win helped him regain his position as the top recording artist in the world.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His performance also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.<ref name=GoldenGlobes>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Los Angeles Examiner wrote that Sinatra is "simply superb, comical, pitiful, childishly brave, pathetically defiant", commenting that his death scene is "one of the best ever photographed".Template:Sfn
Sinatra starred opposite Doris Day in the musical film Young at Heart (1954),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and earned critical praise for his performance as a psychopathic killer posing as an FBI agent opposite Sterling Hayden in the film noir Suddenly (1954).Template:Sfn
Sinatra was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor and BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role as a heroin addict in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955).Template:SfnTemplate:Efn After roles in Guys and Dolls,Template:Sfn and The Tender Trap (both 1955),Template:Sfnm Sinatra was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role as a medical student in Stanley Kramer's directorial début, Not as a Stranger (1955).Template:Sfnm During production, Sinatra got drunk with Robert Mitchum and Broderick Crawford and trashed Kramer's dressing room.Template:Sfn Kramer vowed at the time never to hire Sinatra again and later regretted casting him as a Spanish guerrilla leader in The Pride and the Passion (1957).Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Sinatra featured alongside Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly in High Society (1956) for MGM, earning a reported $250,000 for the picture.Template:Sfn The public rushed to the cinemas to see Sinatra and Crosby together on-screen, and it ended up earning over $13Template:Nbspmillion at the box office, becoming one of the highest-grossing pictures of its year.Template:Sfn He starred opposite Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak in George Sidney's Pal Joey (1957), for which Sinatra won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.<ref name=GoldenGlobes /> Santopietro considers the scene in which Sinatra sings "The Lady Is a Tramp" to have been the finest moment of his film career.Template:Sfn He next portrayed comedian Joe E. Lewis in The Joker Is Wild (1957);Template:Sfn the song "All the Way" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> By 1958, Sinatra was one of the ten biggest box office draws in the United States,Template:Sfn appearing with Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine in Vincente Minnelli's Some Came Running and Kings Go Forth (both 1958) with Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood.Template:Sfnm "High Hopes", sung by Sinatra in the Frank Capra comedy, A Hole in the Head (1959),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn won the Academy Award for Best Original Song,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and became a chart hit, lasting on the Hot 100 for 17 weeks.Template:Sfn
1960–1980: Later careerEdit
Due to an obligation, he owed to 20th Century Fox for walking off the set of Henry King's Carousel (1956),Template:Efn Sinatra starred opposite Shirley MacLaine, Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jourdan in Can-Can (1960). He earned $200,000 and 25% of the profits for the performance.Template:Sfn Around the same time, he starred in the Las Vegas-set Ocean's 11 (1960), the first film to feature the Rat Pack together and the start of a "new era of screen cool" for Santopietro.Template:Sfn Sinatra personally financed the film and paid Martin and Davis fees of $150,000 and $125,000, respectively, sums considered exorbitant for the period.Template:Sfn He had a leading role opposite Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), which he considered to be the role he was most excited about and the high point of his film career.Template:Sfnm Vincent Canby, writing for the magazine Variety, found the portrayal of Sinatra's character to be "a wide-awake pro creating a straight, quietly humorous character of some sensitivity."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He appeared with the Rat Pack in the western Sergeants 3 (1962),Template:Sfn and again in the 1964 gangster-oriented musical Robin and the 7 Hoods. For his performance in Come Blow Your Horn (1963), adapted from the Neil Simon play, he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best ActorTemplate:Nbsp– Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.<ref name=GoldenGlobes />
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Sinatra directed None but the Brave (1965),Template:Sfn and Von Ryan's Express (1965) was a major success.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the late 1960s, Sinatra became known for playing detectives,Template:Sfn including Tony Rome in Tony Rome (1967) and its sequel Lady in Cement (1968).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He played a similar role in The Detective (1968).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As Die Hard was based on the novel sequel to The Detective, the studioTemplate:VagueTemplate:Specify was contractually obliged to offer Sinatra the role. Sinatra, who was 70 at the time, declined.<ref name="GeekDieHard">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="DieHardNR">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Sinatra starred opposite George Kennedy in the western Dirty Dingus Magee (1970), an "abysmal" affair according to Santopietro,Template:Sfn which was panned by the critics.Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The following year, Sinatra received a Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award<ref name=GoldenGlobes /> and had intended to play Detective Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry (1971), but had to turn down the role due to developing Dupuytren's contracture in his hand.Template:Sfn Sinatra's last major film role was opposite Faye Dunaway in Brian G. Hutton's The First Deadly Sin (1980). Santopietro said that as a troubled New York City homicide cop, Sinatra gave an "extraordinarily rich", heavily layered characterization, one which "made for one terrific farewell" to his film career.Template:Sfn
Television and radio careerEdit
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After beginning on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio show with the Hoboken Four in 1935, and later WNEW and WAAT in Jersey City,Template:Sfn Sinatra became the star of radio shows of his own on NBC and CBS from the early 1940s to the mid-1950s. In 1942, Sinatra hired arranger Axel Stordahl away from Tommy Dorsey before he began his first radio program that year, keeping Stordahl with him for all of his radio work..<ref name="dunningota">Template:Cite book</ref> By the end of 1942, he was named the "Most Popular Male Vocalist on Radio" in a DownBeat poll.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> Early on he frequently worked with The Andrews Sisters on radio. They would appear as guests on each other's shows,Template:Sfn as well as on many USO shows broadcast to troops via the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS).Template:Sfn He appeared as a special guest in the sisters' ABC Eight-to-the-Bar Ranch series,Template:Sfn while the trio in turn guested on his Songs by Sinatra series on CBS.Template:Sfn Sinatra had two stints as a regular member of the cast of Your Hit Parade;Template:Efn his first was from 1943 to 1945,Template:Sfn and second was from 1946 to May 28, 1949,Template:Sfn during which he was paired with the then-new girl singer, Doris Day.Template:Sfn Starting in September 1949, the BBD&O advertising agency produced a radio series starring Sinatra for Lucky Strike called Light Up TimeTemplate:Nbsp– some 176 15-minute shows that featured him and Dorothy Kirsten singingTemplate:Nbsp– which lasted through to May 1950.Template:Sfnm
In October 1951, the second season of The Frank Sinatra Show began on CBS Television. Ultimately, Sinatra did not find the success on television for which he had hoped.Template:Efn Santopietro writes that Sinatra "never appeared fully at ease on his own television series."Template:Sfn In 1953 and 1954, Sinatra starred in the NBC radio program Rocky Fortune, portraying Rocco Fortunato (a.k.a. Rocky Fortune).Template:Sfn
In 1957, Sinatra formed a three-year $3Template:Nbspmillion contract with ABC to launch The Frank Sinatra Show, featuring himself and guests in 36 half-hour shows. ABC agreed to allow Sinatra's Hobart Productions to keep 60% of the residuals and bought stock in Sinatra's film production unit, Kent Productions, guaranteeing him $7Template:Nbspmillion.Template:Sfn Though an initial critical success upon its debut on October 18, 1957, it soon attracted negative reviews from Variety and The New Republic, and The Chicago Sun-Times thought that Sinatra and frequent guest Dean Martin "performed like a pair of adult delinquents", "sharing the same cigarette and leering at girls."Template:Sfn In return, Sinatra later made numerous appearances on The Dean Martin Show and Martin's TV specials.Template:Sfn
Sinatra's fourth and final Timex TV special, Welcome Home Elvis, was broadcast in March 1960, earning massive viewing figures. During the show, he performed a duet with Presley, who sang Sinatra's 1957 hit "Witchcraft" with the host performing the 1956 Presley classic "Love Me Tender". Sinatra had previously been highly critical of Elvis Presley and rock and roll in the 1950s, describing it as a "deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac" that "fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people."Template:SfnTemplate:Efn A CBS News special about Sinatra's 50th birthday, Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, was broadcast on November 16, 1965, and received an Emmy award and a Peabody Award.Template:Sfn
Continuing his musical collaboration with Jobim and Ella Fitzgerald in 1967, Sinatra appeared in the TV special, A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim, which was broadcast on CBS on November 13.Template:Sfn When Sinatra came out of retirement in 1973, he appeared in a TV special that shared its title with his contemporaneously released album, Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back.Template:Sfn In the late 1970s, John Denver appeared as a guest in the Sinatra and Friends ABC-TV Special, singing "September Song" as a duet.Template:Sfn
Sinatra starred as a detective in Contract on Cherry Street (1977), cited as his "one starring role in a dramatic television film".Template:Sfn Ten years later, he made a guest appearance opposite Tom Selleck in Magnum, P.I.. Shot in January 1987, the episode aired on CBS on February 25.Template:Sfn
Personal lifeEdit
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Sinatra was married to Nancy Sinatra (née Barbato) from 1939 to 1951. The couple had three children, Nancy (born 1940), Frank Jr. (1944–2016), and Tina (born 1948).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Sinatra met Barbato in Long Branch, New Jersey, in the summer of 1934Template:Sfn while working as a lifeguard.Template:Sfn He agreed to marry her after an incident at "The Rustic Cabin" that led to his arrest.Template:Efn Sinatra had numerous extramarital affairs,Template:Sfn and gossip magazines published details of affairs with women including Marilyn Maxwell, Lana Turner and Joi Lansing.Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn
Sinatra was married to Hollywood actress Ava Gardner from 1951 to 1957. It was a turbulent marriage with many well-publicized fights and altercations.Template:Sfn The couple formally announced their separation on October 29, 1953, through MGM.Template:Sfn Gardner filed for divorce in June 1954, at a time when she was dating matador Luis Miguel Dominguín,Template:Sfn but the divorce was not settled until 1957.Template:Sfn Sinatra continued to feel very strongly for her,Template:Sfn and they remained friends for life.Template:Sfn
In 1957, Sinatra moved to a home in Rancho Mirage, California, called The Compound.<ref name="Baker2008">Template:Cite book</ref>
Sinatra reportedly broke off engagements to Lauren Bacall in 1958Template:Sfn and Juliet Prowse in 1962.Template:Sfn He was romantically linked to Marilyn Monroe, Pat Sheehan, Vikki Dougan, and Kipp Hamilton.<ref>Clemens, Samuel. "Hollywood's Irish Lass", Classic Images. p.13. July 2022</ref> Sinatra and Mia Farrow were married on July 19, 1966, and the couple divorced in August 1968.Template:Sfn They remained close friends for life,Template:Sfn and in a 2013 interview, Farrow said that Sinatra might be the father of her son, Ronan Farrow (born 1987).<ref name="GuardianFarrow">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In a 2015 CBS Sunday Morning interview, Nancy Sinatra dismissed the claim as "nonsense". She said that her father had a vasectomy years before Farrow's birth.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Ronan Farrow Is Frank Sinatra's Son? Nancy Sinatra Says That's 'Nonsense'. Billboard. April 2, 2015.</ref>
Sinatra was married to Barbara Marx from 1976 until his death.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The couple married on July 11, 1976, at Sunnylands, in Rancho Mirage, California, the estate of media magnate Walter Annenberg.Template:Sfn
Sinatra was close friends with Jilly Rizzo,Template:Sfn songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen, golfer Ken Venturi, comedian Pat Henry, baseball manager Leo Durocher, and president John F. Kennedy (for whom he organized an inaugural ball with Peter Lawford).Template:Sfn In his spare time, he enjoyed listening to classical music.Template:Sfn He swam daily in the Pacific Ocean.Template:Sfn He often played golf with Venturi at the course in Palm Springs, where he lived in the house Twin Palms he had commissioned from E. Stewart Williams in 1947Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He liked painting, reading, and building model railways.Template:Sfn
Though Sinatra was critical of the church on numerous occasionsTemplate:Sfn and had a pantheistic, Einstein-like view of God in his earlier life,<ref name=religion>Template:Cite news</ref> he was inducted into the Catholic Sovereign Military Order of Malta in 1976,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and he turned to Catholicism for healing after his mother died in a plane crash in 1977. He died as a practicing Catholic and had a Catholic burial.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Style and personalityEdit
Sinatra was known for his immaculate sense of style.Template:Sfn He spent lavishly on expensive custom-tailored tuxedos and stylish pin-striped suits, which made him feel wealthy and important and that he was giving his very best to the audience.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He was also obsessed with cleanliness—while with the Tommy Dorsey band, he developed the nickname "Lady Macbeth" because of frequent showering and switching his outfits.Template:Sfn His deep blue eyes earned him the popular nickname "Ol' Blue Eyes".Template:Sfn
For Santopietro, Sinatra was the personification of America in the 1950s: "cocky, eye on the main chance, optimistic, and full of the sense of possibility."Template:Sfn Barbara Sinatra wrote, "A big part of Frank's thrill was the sense of danger that he exuded, an underlying, ever-present tension only those closest to him knew could be defused with humor."Template:Sfn Cary Grant, a friend of Sinatra, stated that Sinatra was the "most honest person he'd ever met", who spoke "a simple truth, without artifice which scared people", and was often moved to tears by his performances.Template:Sfn Jo-Caroll Dennison commented that he possessed "great inner strength" and that his energy and drive were "enormous."Template:Sfn A workaholic, he reportedly only slept four hours a night on average.Template:Sfn Throughout his life, Sinatra had mood swings and bouts of mild to severe depression,Template:Sfn stating to an interviewer in the 1950s that "I have an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as elation."Template:Sfn Barbara Sinatra stated that he would "snap at anyone for the slightest misdemeanor",Template:Sfn while Van Heusen said that when Sinatra got drunk, it was "best to disappear."Template:Sfn
Sinatra's mood swings often developed into violence, directed at people he felt had crossed him, particularly journalists who gave him scathing reviews, publicists, and photographers.Template:Sfn According to Rojek, he was "capable of deeply offensive behavior that smacked of a persecution complex."Template:Sfn He received negative press for fights with Lee Mortimer in 1947, photographer Eddie Schisser in Houston in 1950, Judy Garland's publicist Jim Byron on the Sunset Strip in 1954,Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> and for a confrontation with Washington Post journalist Maxine Cheshire in 1973, in which he implied that she was a cheap prostitute.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn His feud with then-Chicago Sun Times columnist Mike Royko began when Royko wrote a column questioning why Chicago police offered free protection to Sinatra when he had his own security. Sinatra wrote an angry letter in response, calling Royko a "pimp" and threatening to "punch you in the mouth" for speculating that he wore a toupée.<ref>You're Nothing but a Pimp Template:Webarchive lettersofnote.com (November 30, 2009); retrieved April 18, 2020</ref>
Sinatra was also known for his generosity,Template:Sfn particularly after his comeback. Kelley notes that when Lee J. Cobb nearly died from a heart attack in June 1955, Sinatra flooded him with "books, flowers, delicacies", paid his hospital bills, and visited him daily, telling him that his "finest acting" was yet to come.Template:Sfn
Alleged organized-crime links and Cal Neva LodgeEdit
Sinatra became the stereotype of the "tough working-class Italian American", something which he embraced. He said that if it had not been for his interest in music, he would have likely ended up in a life of crime.Template:Sfn Willie Moretti was Sinatra's godfather and the notorious underboss of the Genovese crime family, and he helped Sinatra in exchange for kickbacks and was reported to have intervened in releasing Sinatra from his contract with Tommy Dorsey.Template:Sfn Sinatra was present at the Mafia Havana Conference in 1946,Template:Sfn and the press learned of his being there with Lucky Luciano. One newspaper published the headline "Shame, Sinatra".Template:Sfn He was reported to be a good friend of mobster Sam Giancana,Template:Sfn Kelley quoted Jo-Carrol Silvers that Sinatra "adored" Bugsy Siegel and boasted to friends about him and how many people Siegel had killed.Template:Sfn Kelley says that Sinatra and mobster Joseph Fischetti had been good friends from 1938 onward and acted like "Sicilian brothers".Template:Sfn She also states that Sinatra and Hank Sanicola were financial partners with Mickey Cohen in the gossip magazine Hollywood Night Life.Template:Sfn (Johnny) Roselli's membership in the Friars Club in Beverly Hills was sponsored by celebrity singer and Friars Club abbot Frank Sinatra.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The FBI kept records amounting to 2,403 pages on Sinatra, who was a natural target with his alleged Mafia ties, his ardent New Deal politics, and his friendship with John F. Kennedy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The FBI kept him under surveillance for almost five decades beginning in the 1940s. The documents include accounts of Sinatra as the target of death threats and extortion schemes.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The FBI documented that Sinatra was losing esteem with the Mafia as he grew closer to President Kennedy, whose younger brother Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy was leading a crackdown on organized crime.Template:Sfn Sinatra said he was not involved: "Any report that I fraternized with goons or racketeers is a vicious lie."Template:Sfn
In 1960, Sinatra bought a share in the Cal Neva Lodge & Casino, a casino hotel on the south shore of Lake Tahoe. Sinatra built the Celebrity Room theater, which attracted his show business friends Red Skelton, Marilyn Monroe, Victor Borge, Joe E. Lewis, Lucille Ball, Lena Horne, Juliet Prowse, the McGuire Sisters, and others. By 1962, he reportedly held a 50-percent share in the hotel.Template:Sfn Sinatra's gambling license was temporarily suspended by the Nevada Gaming Control Board in 1963 after Giancana was spotted on the premises.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn Due to ongoing pressure from the FBI and Nevada Gaming Commission on mobster control of casinos, Sinatra agreed to give up his share in Cal Neva and the Sands.Template:Sfn That year, his son Frank Jr. was kidnapped but was eventually released unharmed.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> Sinatra's gambling license was restored in February 1981, following support from Ronald Reagan.Template:Sfn
Political views and activismEdit
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Sinatra held varied political views throughout his life. His mother, Dolly, was a Democratic Party ward leader.Template:Sfn After meeting President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, he subsequently heavily campaigned for the Democrats in the 1944 presidential election.Template:Sfnm According to Jo Carroll Silvers, in his younger years, Sinatra had "ardent liberal" sympathies and was "so concerned about poor people that he was always quoting Henry Wallace."Template:Sfn He was outspoken against racism, particularly toward black people and Italians, from a young age. In the early 1950s, he was among those who campaigned to combine the racially segregated musicians' unions in Los Angeles.<ref name="Bryant1999">Template:Cite book</ref> In November 1945, Sinatra was invited by the mayor of Gary, Indiana, to try to settle a strike by white students of Froebel High School against the "Pro-Negro" policies of the new principal.Template:Sfn His comments, while praised by liberal publications, led to accusations by some that he was a communist, which he denied.Template:Sfn In the 1948 presidential election, Sinatra actively campaigned for President Harry S. Truman.<ref name="ws;">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1952 and 1956, he campaigned for Adlai Stevenson.<ref name="ws;" />
Of all the U.S. presidents he associated with during his career, he was closest to John F. Kennedy.<ref name=ws; /> Sinatra often invited Kennedy to Hollywood and Las Vegas, and the two would womanize and enjoy parties together.Template:Sfn In January 1961, Sinatra and Peter Lawford organized the Inaugural Gala in Washington, D.C., held on the evening before President Kennedy was sworn into office.<ref name=ws; /> After taking office, Kennedy distanced himself from Sinatra due partly to Sinatra's ties with the Mafia.<ref name=irishcentralreports>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1962, Sinatra was snubbed by the President as, during his visit to his Palm Springs, Kennedy stayed with the Republican Bing Crosby instead of Sinatra, citing FBI concerns about the latter's alleged connections to organized crime.Template:Efn Sinatra had spared no expense upgrading the facilities at his home in anticipation of the President's visit, fitting it with a heliport, which he smashed with a sledgehammer after the rejection.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite the snub, when he learned of Kennedy's assassination he reportedly sobbed in his bedroom for three days.<ref name=ws; />Template:Efn Sinatra worked with Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and remained a supporter of the Democratic Party until the early 1970s. Although still a registered Democrat, Sinatra endorsed Republican Ronald Reagan for a second term as Governor of California in 1970.Template:Sfn<ref name="ws;" /> He officially changed allegiance in July 1972 when he supported Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election.<ref name=ws; />
In the 1980 presidential election, Sinatra donated $4Template:Nbspmillion to Ronald Reagan's campaign.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sinatra arranged Reagan's Presidential gala, as he had done for Kennedy.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Sfn In 1985, Reagan presented Sinatra with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, remarking, "His love of country, his generosity for those less fortunateTemplate:Nbsp... make him one of our most remarkable and distinguished Americans."<ref name=ESSAY />
In June 1984, Sinatra performed at the State Dinner in the White House honoring Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayawardena at the invitation of Reagan.
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Santopietro notes that Sinatra was a "lifelong sympathizer with Jewish causes."Template:Sfn He was awarded the Hollzer Memorial Award by the Los Angeles Jewish Community in 1949.Template:Sfn He gave a series of concerts in Israel in 1962 and donated his entire $50,000 fee for appearing in a cameo role in Cast a Giant Shadow (1966) to the Youth Center in Jerusalem.Template:Sfn On November 1, 1972, he raised $6.5Template:Nbspmillion in bond pledges for Israel,Template:Sfn and was given the Medallion of Valor for his efforts.Template:Sfn The Frank Sinatra Student Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was dedicated in his name in 1978.Template:Sfn
From his youth, Sinatra displayed sympathy for black Americans and worked both publicly and privately all his life to help the struggle for equal rights. He blamed racial prejudice on the parents of children.Template:Sfn Sinatra played a major role in the desegregation of Nevada hotels and casinos in the 1950s and 1960s.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On January 27, 1961, Sinatra played a benefit show at Carnegie Hall for Martin Luther King Jr. and led his fellow Rat Pack members and Reprise label mates in boycotting hotels and casinos that refused entry to black patrons and performers. According to his son, Frank Jr., King sat weeping in the audience at one of his father's concerts in 1963 as Sinatra sang "Ol' Man River", a song from the musical Show Boat that is sung by a black American stevedore.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> When he changed his political affiliations in 1970, Sinatra became less outspoken on racial issues.Template:Sfn Though he did much towards civil rights causes, it did not stop the occasional racial jibe from him and the other Rat Pack members toward Davis at concerts.<ref name="LAT99" />Template:Sfn
Death and funeralEdit
During the final years of his life, Sinatra was in ill health and was frequently hospitalized for heart and breathing problems, high blood pressure, pneumonia, and bladder cancer. He made no public appearances following a heart attack in February 1997.<ref name="holden">Template:Cite news</ref> A year later, on the night of May 14, 1998, Sinatra died in his sleep after suffering another heart attack at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, with his wife Barbara at his side. He was 82.<ref name=holden />Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Barbara encouraged Sinatra to "fight" while attempts were made to stabilize him, and reported that his final words were, "I'm losing."<ref name="farewell">Template:Cite news</ref> Sinatra's daughter, Tina, later wrote that she and her siblings had not been notified of their father's final hospitalization, and it was her belief that "the omission was deliberate. Barbara would be the grieving widow alone at her husband's side."Template:Sfn The night after Sinatra's death, the lights on the Empire State Building were turned blue, the lights at the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honor, and the casinos stopped spinning for one minute.Template:Sfn<ref name="BBCMay98">Template:Cite news</ref> Significant increases in recording sales worldwide were reported by Billboard in the month of his death.<ref name="Billboard 0598">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Sinatra's funeral was held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, California, on May 20, 1998, with 400 mourners in attendance and thousands of fans outside.<ref name=finalcurtain>Template:Cite news</ref> Gregory Peck, Tony Bennett, and Sinatra's son, Frank Jr., addressed the mourners, who included many people from entertainment.<ref name="farewell" /><ref name=finalcurtain />
Sinatra was buried in a blue business suit; his grave, adorned with mementos from family members, was next to his parents in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.Template:Sfnm The phrases "The Best Is Yet to Come", and "Beloved Husband & Father" were placed on Sinatra's modest grave marker.Template:Sfn Sinatra's gravestone was changed Template:As of to read "Sleep Warm, Poppa", due to damage caused to the original gravestone under mysterious circumstances, according to the magazine Palm Springs Life.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Legacy and honorsEdit
Robert Christgau referred to Sinatra as "the greatest singer of the 20th century".<ref name="Christgau">Template:Cite journal</ref> His popularity is matched only by Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson.<ref name="holden" /> For Santopietro, Sinatra was the "greatest male pop singer in the history of America",Template:Sfn who amassed "unprecedented power onscreen and off", and "seemed to exemplify the common man, an ethnic twentieth-century American male who reached the 'top of the heap', yet never forgot his roots." Santopietro argues that Sinatra created his world, which he was able to dominate—his career was centered around power, perfecting the ability to capture an audience.Template:Sfn
Gus Levene commented that Sinatra's strength was that when it came to lyrics, telling a story musically, Sinatra displayed a "genius" ability and feeling, which with the "rare combination of voice and showmanship" made him the "original singer" which others who followed most tried to emulate.Template:Sfn George Roberts, a trombonist in Sinatra's band, remarked that Sinatra had a "charisma, or whatever it is about him, that no one else had."Template:Sfn Biographer Arnold Shaw considered that "If Las Vegas had not existed, Sinatra could have invented it." He quoted reporter James Bacon in saying that Sinatra was the "swinging image on which the town is built", adding that no other entertainer quite "embodied the glamour" associated with Las Vegas.Template:Sfn Sinatra is seen as one of the icons of the 20th century,Template:Sfn and has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in film and music.<ref name=LATimes>Template:Cite news</ref>
In Sinatra's native Hoboken, he was awarded the Key to the City by Mayor Fred M. De Sapio on October 30, 1947.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2003, the city's main post office was rededicated in his honor.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A bronze plaque, placed two years before Sinatra's death in 1998, marks the site of the house where he was born.<ref name="NJM" /> There is also a marker in front of Hoboken Historical Museum, which has artifacts from his life and conducts Sinatra walking tours.<ref name="auto1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Frank Sinatra Drive runs parallel to the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway. On the waterfront is Frank Sinatra Park, where a bronze plaque was placed in 1989 upon its opening.<ref name="NJM">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the Frank Sinatra Park, a Template:Convert tall bronze statue of Sinatra was dedicated in 2021 on December 12, Sinatra's birthday.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>City of Hoboken to unveil new Sinatra statue on Frank Sinatra's birthday [1] Template:Webarchive</ref> A residence hall at Montclair State University in New Jersey was named in his honor.<ref name="MSU">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Other buildings named for Sinatra include the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, the Frank Sinatra International Student Center at Israel's Hebrew University in Jerusalem dedicated in 1978,<ref name="JFed">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Frank Sinatra Hall at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, California, dedicated in 2002.<ref name="USC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Wynn Resorts' Encore Las Vegas resort features a restaurant dedicated to Sinatra which opened in 2008.<ref name="Opening of Sinatra">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There are several streets and roads named in honor of Frank Sinatra in several states of the U.S.Template:Sfn
Various items of memorabilia from Sinatra's life and career, such as Frank Sinatra's awards, gold records, and various personal items, are displayed at USC's Frank Sinatra Hall in Los Angeles and at Wynn Resort's Sinatra restaurant in Las Vegas.<ref name="USC" /><ref name="Opening of Sinatra" /> Template:Multiple image The United States Postal Service issued a 42-cent stamp in honor of Sinatra in May 2008, commemorating the tenth anniversary of his death.<ref name=stamp>Template:Cite press release</ref><ref name=sinatraasidol>Template:Cite news</ref> The United States Congress passed a resolution on May 20, 2008, designating May 13 as Frank Sinatra Day.<ref name=march13>Template:Cite news</ref>
Sinatra received three Honorary Degrees during his lifetime. In May 1976, he was invited to speak at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas graduation commencement held at Sam Boyd Stadium. It was at this commencement that he was bestowed an Honorary Doctorate litterarum humanarum by the university.Template:Sfn During his speech, Sinatra stated that his education had come from "the school of hard knocks" and that "this is the first educational degree I have ever held in my hand. I will never forget what you have done for me today".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1984 and 1985, Sinatra received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Loyola Marymount University and an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Sinatra at No. 19 on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In 2024, a new road in North Bristol was named Sinatra Way, to commemorate Sinatra's 1953 visit to Frenchay Hospital, which used to sit at the site of a new housing development.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Tribute albums to SinatraEdit
- A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra by Oscar Peterson (1959)
- Very Sinatra by Ruby Braff (1981)
- Perfectly Frank by Tony Bennett (1992)
- Voices in Standard by The Four Freshmen (1994)
- As I Remember It by Frank Sinatra, Jr. (1996)
- Manilow Sings Sinatra by Barry Manilow (1998)
- Sinatraland by Patrick Williams and His Big Band (1998)
- Blue Eyes Plays Ol' Blue Eyes by Si Zentner & Orchestra (1998)
- Keely Sings Sinatra by Keely Smith (2001)
- Michael Andrew Pays Tribute to Frank Sinatra by Michael Andrew (2002)
- Frank by Amy Winehouse [2003]
- Steve Lawrence Sings Sinatra by Steve Lawrence (2003)
- Plays Sinatra His Way by Joey DeFrancesco (2004)
- Allow Us to Be Frank by Westlife (2004)
- Songs of Sinatra by Steve Tyrell (2005)
- Blue Eyes Meets Bed-Stuy The Notorious B.I.G. & Frank Sinatra by Jon Moskowitz and Dj Cappel & Smitty (2005)
- L'allieva by Mina (2005)
- Bolton Swings Sinatra by Michael Bolton (2006)
- Dear Mr. Sinatra by John Pizzarelli (2006)
- Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?? by Ray Stevens (2008)
- His Way, Our Way by various artists (2009)
- Cauby Sings Sinatra by Cauby Peixoto (2010)
- Sin-Atra a heavy metal tribute by various artists (2011)
- Daniel Boaventura Sings Frank Sinatra (Ao Vivo) (2015)
- Let's Be Frank by Trisha Yearwood (2018)
- My Way by Willie Nelson (2018)
- That’s Life by Willie Nelson (2021)
Film, television and stage portrayalsEdit
A television miniseries based on Sinatra's life, titled Sinatra, was aired by CBS in 1992. The series was directed by James Steven Sadwith, who won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Directing for a Miniseries or a Special and starred Philip Casnoff as Sinatra. Sinatra was written by Abby Mann and Philip Mastrosimone and produced by Sinatra's daughter, Tina.Template:Sfn
Sinatra has subsequently been portrayed on screen by Ray Liotta (The Rat Pack, 1998),<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> James Russo (Stealing Sinatra, 2003),Template:Sfn Dennis Hopper (The Night We Called It a Day, 2003),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Robert Knepper (My Way, 2012),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and spoofed by Joe Piscopo and Phil Hartman on Saturday Night Live.Template:Sfn A biographical film directed by Martin Scorsese has long been planned.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> A 1998 episode of the BBC documentary series Arena, The Voice of the Century, focused on Sinatra.<ref name=BBCArena>Template:Cite news</ref> Alex Gibney directed a four-part biographical series on Sinatra, All or Nothing at All, for HBO in 2015.<ref name=NYTApr15>Template:Cite news</ref> A musical tribute was aired on CBS television in December 2015 to mark Sinatra's centenary.<ref name=LATDec4>Template:Cite news</ref> Sinatra was also portrayed by Rico Simonini in the 2018 feature film Frank & Ava, which is based on a play by Willard Manus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Creed singer Scott Stapp also portrayed Sinatra in the 2024 feature film Reagan, a biopic of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Martin Scorsese planned to make a film on Sinatra and his second wife Ava Gardner.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Sinatra believed that Johnny Fontane, a mob-associated singer in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather (1969), was based on him. Puzo wrote in 1972 that when the author and singer met in Chasen's, Sinatra "started to shout abuse", calling Puzo a "pimp" and threatening violence. Francis Ford Coppola, director of the film adaptation, said in the audio commentary that "Obviously Johnny Fontane was inspired by a kind of Frank Sinatra character".<ref name="parker20151211">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2023, a biopic jukebox stage musical titled Sinatra: The Musical by Joe DiPietro premiered at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre starring Tony Award-winning actor Matt Doyle as Sinatra.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
DiscographyEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}
Studio albums Template:Div col
- The Voice of Frank Sinatra (1946)
- Songs by Sinatra (1947)
- Christmas Songs by Sinatra (1948)
- Frankly Sentimental (1949)
- Dedicated to You (1950)
- Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra (1950)
- Songs for Young Lovers (1954)
- Swing Easy! (1954)
- In the Wee Small Hours (1955)
- Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956)
- Close to You (1957)
- A Swingin' Affair! (1957)
- Where Are You? (1957)
- A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra (1957)
- Come Fly with Me (1958)
- Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (1958)
- Come Dance with Me! (1959)
- No One Cares (1959)
- Nice 'n' Easy (1960)
- Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!! (1961)
- Ring-a-Ding-Ding! (1961)
- Come Swing with Me! (1961)
- Swing Along With Me (1961)
- I Remember Tommy (1961)
- Sinatra and Strings (1962)
- Point of No Return (1962)
- Sinatra and Swingin' Brass (1962)
- All Alone (1962)
- Sinatra Sings Great Songs from Great Britain (1962)
- The Concert Sinatra (1963)
- Sinatra's Sinatra (1963)
- Sinatra Sings Days of Wine and Roses, Moon River, and Other Academy Award Winners (1964)
- Softly, as I Leave You (1964)
- September of My Years (1965)
- Sentimental Journey (1965)
- My Kind of Broadway (1965)
- A Man and His Music (1965)
- Moonlight Sinatra (1966)
- Strangers in the Night (1966)
- That's Life (1966)
- The World We Knew (1967)
- Cycles (1968)
- My Way (1969)
- A Man Alone (1969)
- Watertown (1970)
- Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back (1973)
- Some Nice Things I've Missed (1974)
- Trilogy: Past Present Future (1980)
- She Shot Me Down (1981)
- L.A. Is My Lady (1984)
- Duets (1993)
- Duets II (1994)
Collaboration albums
- Sinatra–Basie: An Historic Musical First with Count Basie (1962)
- America, I Hear You Singing with Bing Crosby and Fred Waring (1964)
- It Might as Well Be Swing with Count Basie (1964)
- 12 Songs of Christmas with Bing Crosby and Fred Waring (1964)
- Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim with Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967)
- Francis A. & Edward K. with Duke Ellington (1968)
- The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas with Frank Sinatra Jr., Nancy Sinatra and Tina Sinatra (1968)
- Sinatra & Company with Antonio Carlos Jobim (1971)
See alsoEdit
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
SourcesEdit
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Further readingEdit
- Freedland, Michael (1998). All the Way: A Biography of Frank Sinatra. St. Martin's Press. Template:ISBN
- Kaplan, James (2015). Sinatra: The chairman. New York: Doubleday. Template:ISBN
- Pickard, Roy (1994). Frank Sinatra at the Movies. Hale. Template:ISBN
External linksEdit
- Template:Official website
- Sinatra family website Template:Webarchive
- Frank Sinatra webradio
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- Frank Sinatra at FBI Records: The Vault
- The Sinatra Report, a special section of Billboard's November 20, 1965, issue – beginning immediately after page 34
- Sinatra in Retrospect; No. 1; The Young Sinatra; Parts 1 and 2 WXXI Public Broadcasting American Archive of Public Broadcasting
Template:Frank Sinatra Template:Frank Sinatra singles Template:Navboxes Template:Rat Pack Template:Nancy Sinatra Template:Subject bar Template:Authority control