Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great success in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the “bobby soxers”. His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
He signed with Capitol Records and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin’ Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice ‘n’ Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records (finding success with albums such as Ring-A-Ding-Ding, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, and fraternized with the Rat Pack and President John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, and scored hits with “Strangers in the Night” and “My Way“.
Sinatra attempted to weather the changing tastes in popular music, but with dwindling album sales and after appearing in several poorly received films, he retired in 1971. Coming out of retirement in 1973, he recorded several albums, scoring a hit with “(Theme From) New York, New York” in 1980, and toured both within the United States and internationally until a few years before his death in 1998.
Sinatra also forged a career as a dramatic actor, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity, and he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Man with the Golden Arm. He also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. Sinatra was honored with the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
The above painting bt Derren in 2002 is available as a limited print from the art store.
Happy birthday dear Franky!
Mikk.
If Frank was alive today, would he not sing songs like the following:
You are the Ipod of my eye and York 2.0 York 2.0?
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A true artist who never stopped performing. A king of musical phrasing, noone could swing like Ol’ Blue Eyes. A lovely tribute, thank you
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What this text fails to mention is the well known fact that Mr. Sinatra fraternised with members of the Italian mob syndicate, and they were partly responsiible for ensuring the successful election of John F. Kennedy in 1960. Mr. Sinatra died of complications casued by alcohol induced dementia.
@ Rona Topaz Well, thank you very much for mentioning that.
A Happy Birhday to the legendary King of Swing!
I saw Frank at the Royal Albert Hall – one of the best gigs I have ever been to
Typo on last line…
Great picture thought
Weird huh .. how he can touch a whole lof of people of different age .. Also weird how voices and music have changed with time ..
I think I have lived before .. can’t be something else ..
Aaah ‘ole blue eyes’….star of two of my favourite musicals, ‘Guys n’ Dolls’ (think he’s fantastic in that) and ‘On The Town’, with another particular favourite of mine in the great Gene Kelly.
Lovely pic by Derren, btw.
LC x
Ah good ole blue eyes love ya baby…must say however to save Franks memory and as a huge Sinatra fan he DID NOT DIE of alcohol fuelled dementia…crying out loud he was performing right up to his golden years…he finally succumbed to a heart attack at 10:50pm May 14th and yes he had allegencies with the mafia but so did the rest of his amazing RatPack. As for demise in career with poor films…well it depends who watches them…Ocean’s 11 was one of the best crafted movies out there and the remake is MILES off being anyway near as good, Robin And The 7 Hoods is also a fantastic film as are Franks earlier films with the amazing Gene Kelly…Anchors Way, On The Town and Take Me Out To The Ball Game….there will never be another Frank…no singers of today can even perform his songs correctly…such a loss to the music world he was.
sometimes he did perform drunk! my BIL did concert security & actually saw it. and yeah, back in those days you couldnt really avoid associating with the mafia if ya wanted to get anywhere in NJ (especially in the music industry).
but we SHOULD remember him, & all performers (such as derren) for their work. and the king of phrasing frankie was indeed.