Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert Sinatra (Hoboken, New Jersey, December 12, 1915-Los Angeles, California, May 14, 1998), popularly known as Frank Sinatra, He was an American singer and actor. He left behind, through his records and live performances, a canonical legacy in terms of male vocal performance in music. His recordings reached the music charts 209 times. He is one of 33 artists to hold three stars on the charts. the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

His repertoire was based on the work of the most important American popular composers, such as Jimmy Van Heusen, Cole Porter, Sammy Cahn or George Gershwin, and his style synthesized, already in its origins, fifteen years of mutual influences between music inspired by jazz and pop music that was beginning to spread over the radio. Sinatra built his style on a natural understanding of popular music, as understood by Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Benny Goodman, and Louis Armstrong., exploiting the idea that this, in all its aspects, should be an extension of the conversation.

Technically, he was characterized by his careful precision in phrasing and his mastery of breath control; the range of his voice was close to that of bass-baritone. In addition, he was perfect pitch, like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Michael Jackson, Freddie Mercury. As for his artistic category, this lies in his interpretative ability to transmit the emotions and feelings implicit in the lyrics of the songs.

In Sinatra, any type of vocal and even musical consideration is secondary to what is its main mission: to tell a story as expressive as possible.

Sinatra is credited with being the first singer to make conscious use of the means of sound amplification in order to place his voice above the sound of the orchestra (dominant of early-century American popular music). 20th century) and to bring it closer to the privacy of the listener's ear.

As an actor, Sinatra was an artist of the intuitive type, reluctant to undergo the usual rehearsals and repetitions on a recording, so his performances were emotionally intense as well as uneven. The importance in his life of his acting work was capital; For example, it was precisely through his role in From Here to Eternity that he managed to get out of a personal and artistic rut in the transition from the forties to the fifties to rise to the top of popularity, in addition to winning the Oscar for best supporting actor for his performance.

Throughout his professional career, Sinatra recorded more than 1,300 songs and appeared in more than fifty films. He received a multitude of awards and honors, including ten Grammy Awards, awarded by the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and the United States government's Medal of Freedom.

American music critic Robert Christgau referred to Sinatra as "the greatest singer of the 20th century". His popularity alone is comparable to Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, The Beatles and Michael Jackson.

Biography

1915-1939 Early life

Sinatra was born in a middle-class neighborhood in the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, on December 12, 1915, into a family of Italian immigrants. His mother's family, Natalina Garavante, Dolly, (December 26, 1896-January 6, 1977) was originally from Lumarzo, province of Genoa, and his father's, Antonino Martino Sinatra Saglimbeni, came from Palermo, Sicily. His mother, who was a district spokesperson for the Democratic Party, worked as a midwife and was in jail several times for performing illegal abortions. His father was a professional boxer (bantamweight) and owner of a tavern that he ran at night, as who worked as a firefighter by day. They were married, against the opposition of her family, on February 14, 1913.

Photo portrait of Frank Sinatra when he was a three-year-old boy.

Dolly gave birth to her only child in a traumatic birth after which she was unable to have any more children and almost ended her life and that of the child, who was left with a perforated eardrum and a scar by the forceps used. behind left ear and neck. After both recovered, Francis Albert was baptized in April 1916.

During his childhood and adolescence, Frank develops two characteristic facets of his future personality: a character, his teachers remembered, braggart and unruly, aided by his fondness for boxing inherited from his father; and his fondness for music, which at the age of 9 or 10 led him to sing in his father's tavern accompanied by a pianola (later on, he would sing songs accompanied by a ukulele). The mixture of both traits led Frank to try to imitate, both in style and in the way of dressing, the great singers of the moment, such as Bing Crosby, his main model, or Al Jolson. In Sinatra he would later highlight as an influential friendship in his early years that of an elderly Jewish woman, Mrs. Golden, whom he considered almost like a mother, since her real mother was frequently absent from home due to the constant activity her sociopolitical

In his youth, athletics and especially swimming were part of his favorite hobbies. However, he never showed much interest in studies, frequently playing hooky. He attended A.J. Demarest but dropped out in 1931 without graduating and went to work as a newsboy at the Jersey Observer, with his godfather. At that time he had a life as a gang member, which led to several run-ins with the police, and he worked in various jobs, such as truck driver, delivery boy or sportswriter for a newspaper, which provided him with enough income to buy clothes and save to be able to buy a car.

In 1932 he met Nancy Barbato (1917-2018), who would become his wife in 1938. He saw Bing Crosby perform with her in 1933. Both singers would meet personally ten years later, in September 1943.

In 1934, an encounter with the musician Carlos Gardel would change his life forever; Although the anecdote has numerous variants, it has not been possible to verify it and it may be apocryphal: Apparently, his wife Nancy came up to talk to him after a show, and told him that Sinatra was an excellent singer, but that he was accompanied by bad influences. Gardel went up to speak to Sinatra, and told him that he lived the same life in Buenos Aires, and warned him to leave it to dedicate himself to music. Likewise, Gardel suggested that he enter the Major Bowes Amateur Hour contest. This contest helped start his artistic career. He performed with the Three Flashes trio, who called themselves the Hoboken Four for the occasion, and they won first prize, which led to a tour sponsored by the show. However, due to disagreements with the rest of his companions, after three months Sinatra left the tour and returned home. The same anecdote tells that Sinatra, after his first concert in Argentina in 1981, moved to the Abasto neighborhood and in a corner murmured: "Thanks for helping me to live, Mr. Gardel".

It was around this time that, despite her enormous admiration for him, she began to strive to sound different from Crosby in order to stand out from the other singers. The main technical problem he had to face was the lack of power in his voice, since he did not know how to project it. However, his radio experience taught him that he could make himself heard how and where he wanted thanks to the microphone, which he turned into his main ally to, through radio, become popular throughout the United States in a short time.

He began to give concerts and in 1939 he became a vocalist in Harry Arden's orchestra, which allowed him to go on the air every night thanks to a New York station, which broadcast his concerts from roadside bars and restaurants. Her talent was soon recognized by Harry James, the trumpeter in Benny Goodman's orchestra, who was forming his own group, to which he invited her to participate as a vocalist. Since the leading role in the orchestra was held by James, Sinatra had to use his self-promotional skills to attract the attention of critics and spectators, developing what would become one of his most relevant personal characteristics as an artist: his absolute self-confidence. and in his talent. Despite the popular success, the orchestra ran into financial problems and was on the verge of disbanding. They were hard months for Sinatra and for his wife, who followed him on tour, even when she was already pregnant.

1940-1953

Publicity photo of Frank Sinatra in the 1940s; it is not accurately dated, but probably around 1945 or later.

Sinatra ended up being hired by Tommy Dorsey, who was looking for a vocalist to replace Jack Leonard. Sinatra's words about Dorsey's influence on his style are significant: "I learned everything about dynamics, phrasing and style from the way he played his trombone. Tommy Dorsey was a true master for me both in music and in the business, in every aspect".

Sinatra's first number one hit in Billboard magazine came in 1940 with his performance, in the company of Dorsey, of the song I'll Never Smile Again, whose great impact can be considered the starting point of Sinatra's career as a social phenomenon. He later recorded several more songs that were also huge sales hits. In 1941 he appeared for the first time in a film, Las Vegas nights , by Ralph Murphy, acting together with Dorsey's orchestra.

However, simultaneously with her popular success, there was also journalistic attention on her private life that led to various criticisms regarding how this had a negative impact on her vocal quality.

In September 1941, Sinatra, determined to wrest the top spot among singers of the time from Bing Crosby, announced to Dorsey, a year in advance, his desire to leave the orchestra to pursue an individual career. The march took place, therefore, in 1942, although in an unfriendly way: Dorsey negotiated a termination of contract that guaranteed him a third of the singer's future profits for life. It would not be until several years later that Sinatra would manage to remove that release clause.

On December 30, 1942, one of the moments in the life of Frank Sinatra that contributed to the creation of the myth took place; the singer himself pointed out that it was that day 'when God's was armed'. Up on the stage of the Paramount Theater in New York, as a guest star at a gala in which Benny Goodman was the star, a collective hysteria broke out among the spectators that would give much to talk about. From there, Sinatra became a quinceañera phenomenon, from which he had to escape in the most unlikely circumstances. For example, almost a year later, on October 12, 1943, during his new performance at the Paramount, 40,000 fans completely collapsed the streets surrounding the theater. Fan clubs and contracts multiplied: radio show, RKO movie contract, Life magazine cover. By the end of 1943, Sinatra, who had signed a contract with Columbia Records, was earning a million dollars a year.

In 1944 his success as a radio phenomenon began with the program The Frank Sinatra Show which, on different stations, would remain on the air for fourteen years. At the same time, he expresses his admiration and his support for Franklin D. Roosevelt and makes a generous contribution to the Democratic Party. It is the beginning of a continued interest in committed politics, beyond ideologies, since he would also become a good friend of the Reagans. In this sense, Sinatra was becoming a staunch defender of social causes. He left a significant mark on this in one of his first films, a kind of short on the theme of tolerance entitled The house I live in , which won him a special Oscar in 1945.

Sinatra in 1947.

However, and despite the good reviews he used to receive, Sinatra's first forays into the cinema were not well received, as his political leanings and troubled love life earned him much reluctance among the press and the public. When his love affairs (he was linked to Lana Turner and Marilyn Maxwell) came to light, his admirers were perplexed, as the publicity machine that accompanied him systematically tried to portray him as a happily married man. and with children. This shift in popular appreciation caused Sinatra to begin to decline around 1949, ranking fifth in the Downbeat popularity poll. In 1950, his press adviser, George Evans, dies of a heart attack and without him his love affairs turn into scandals trumpeted by the media, with journalists continually stalking him. In February of that year, after confirming his relationship with the actress Ava Gardner, Nancy separates from him. In addition, on May 2 he is forced to cancel all his galas after suffering a serious pharyngeal problem in a performance.

On November 1, 1951, with his career experiencing serious difficulties, his popularity steadily declining, his films failing, and singing music that had become outdated, he obtains a divorce from Nancy. The next day he and Ava apply for their marriage license in Philadelphia, getting married on November 7. Thus began a relationship characterized by its numerous separations and reconciliations in public. In 1953, Ava Gardner intentionally aborted a second time because she did not feel ready to be a mother. The couple would divorce in 1957.

In the years that followed, with Mitch Miller of Columbia Records, he would often be limited to recording songs of questionable quality and very little success. When Sinatra's contract with Columbia expired, it was not renewed and no other major record label wanted to sign him.

1954-1959

Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra The Dean Martin Show in 1958.

Sinatra fought and sacrificed financially to get a role in Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity. Not only did he get the role, but he also received an Oscar for it, in 1954, in the category of best supporting actor. In addition, the film was a box office success.

Offers immediately began pouring in for roles on film and television and in guest appearances. Artistically, he had great critical success with his performance in Suddenly (Suddenly), and he began to alternate dramatic roles with musicals, such as Ellos y ellas with Marlon Brando and High Society with Bing Crosby. In little more than two years, between 1955 and 1957, he came to star in eleven films. In 1956 he founded the production company Kent Productions to support his film projects.

Regarding his musical career, Alan Livingston, of the young Capitol Records, announced at a meeting in 1953 the hiring of Sinatra, something that was received among the company's staff with disapproval, because the singer was considered a finished artist. However, supported by the new conductor and arranger Nelson Riddle, who knew how to adapt the songs to Sinatra's interpretative style, the singer's career at Capitol became an absolute success, returning him to the forefront of the world of music.

In 1954 he began to consolidate his friendship with Sammy Davis, Jr., as a result of the accident that caused him to lose his left eye; Sinatra took him under his protection and defended him from any racial discrimination that might affect him.

Around these years, actor Humphrey Bogart had a group of close friends whom he and his wife, fellow actress Lauren Bacall, referred to as the Rat Pack. Sinatra, who had been appointed leader of the gang, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis, Jr., Judy Garland and her husband, Sid Luft, David Niven and his wife, Hjordis, and other stars were part, at one point or another, from this group of rebellious stars who liked to drink, party and get into trouble.

In August 1955, he was on the cover of Time magazine, which stated that "it is the best in show business today... About to turn forty, he has embarked on a second career that promises to be even brighter than the first one". Sinatra's output in the mid-1950s spans several memorable records and films, as well as an income that has been estimated at nearly $4 million a year. In 1957, ABC began airing The Frank Sinatra Show, a big-budget show that included an hour-long musical show and a half-hour dramatic performance.

His love affairs during these years include Judy Garland, Kim Novak, and the recent widow Lauren Bacall, whom he would ask to marry in 1958, only to break the engagement himself.

In the late 1950s, Sinatra began to want to be released from his recording contract with Capitol at all costs, as he felt it put too many obstacles in the way of his recording. He wanted to do it his way: select his own tunes, record when he wanted, schedule his records to be released for the dates he thought they should be in stores, and even get ahead of other artists. However, he was clear that he could never carry out those activities as long as he continued working for a label that did not belong to him. Ultimately, he signed an agreement whereby he would terminate his contract with Capitol and start recording with his own company, Reprise, simultaneously.

1960-1972

Frank Sinatra (right) with Eleanor Roosevelt (1960).

In 1960, after the formation of his new record company had already been announced, with which he would record profusely during the following years, Sinatra earned some twenty million dollars thanks to his film and television production companies, Essex, Kent and Dorchester, his four companies record labels, his gambling interests in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, his radio stock, and his many real estate investments.

The night of January 19, 1961 was, personally, one of the most important of his life as he produced the inaugural gala for the presidency of John F. Kennedy with enormous success. In that same year he began a sentimental relationship with the actress Marilyn Monroe which, due to the self-destructive process in which she found herself sunk, soon ended up leading to a relationship of emotional dependency on the singer. In February 1962, Sinatra announced that he was going to marry Juliet Prowse, a twenty-six-year-old actress, dancer, and singer, whom he had met in August 1959 and whom he had been dating simultaneously for ten months.. However, the engagement, for reasons not clarified, ended up breaking off.

In March of that same year, the television show where Sinatra and Elvis Presley appeared together was recorded. Frank paid Elvis $100,000 for a ten-minute performance, which included a duet song. In the summer, the singer began the so-called World Tour for the Benefit of Children in Europe, during which Sinatra visited various children's hospitals and youth care centers in various countries. In ten weeks he personally financed thirty concerts and raised over a million dollars. Upon returning from the tour, Marilyn Monroe's life began to deteriorate and between July 27 and 29, a week before her death, she was staying at the Cal-Neva Lodge, a complex residence that was partly owned by Sinatra.

At the end of 1963, his relations with the mob led to the Nevada State Gambling Control Board bringing charges against Sinatra for having lodged in Cal-Neva the mobster Sam Giancana; to avoid trouble, he himself announced that he was giving up his gaming license and Cal-Neva, which also meant the loss of his nine percent interest in the Sands casino in Las Vegas, regular meeting place and performance of the Rat Pack.

On December 8 of that same year, three men, Barry Keenan, Joe Amsler and John Irwin, kidnapped her son Frank, also a singer. The kidnapping lasted fifty-four hours and was resolved due to disagreements that arose between the kidnappers themselves, arrested two days later.

In October 1964, while filming Colonel Von Ryan, he meets 19-year-old actress Mia Farrow, who was working on the set of the television series Peyton Place. They married two years later, on July 19, 1966, and thirteen months later they finished their divorce proceedings.

In the summer of 1965, Sinatra began a six-city concert tour with the Count Basie Orchestra. The tour was a spectacular success, earning a total gross of $600,000. In January 1969, his father died as a result of an aortic aneurysm. Around this time, Sinatra began to have problems with his right hand: a dysfunction known as Dupuytren's disease, which consists of a decrease in muscle tissue in the hand. In 1970 he had to undergo surgery for this reason.

That same year, on February 17, Sinatra had to testify under oath before the New Jersey State Investigative Commission, which had sent him a subpoena to appear before them and answer certain questions. questions about his relationship with the underworld. He denied any link to them. On July 9 he publicly announced his support for Republican Ronald Reagan, who was seeking a second term as Governor of California.

On June 13, 1971, he held his farewell concert to the world of music at the Los Angeles Music Center.

On July 18, 1972, he had to testify before the Investigative Commission on Crime, which had been investigating the influence of organized crime on sports and horse racing. The House Select Committee on Crime wanted to question Sinatra about a $55,000 investment in Berkshire Downs in Hancock, Massachusetts ten years ago.

During that year he met Barbara Marx, wife of Zeppo Marx, whom he would eventually marry.

1973-1998

Star on Hollywood Fame Walk.

In June 1973 Sinatra returned to the recording studios with producer-arranger Don Costa and arranger Gordon Jenkins to record Ol'Blue eyes is back, an album that was released together with to a television special of the same title, in which actor and singer Gene Kelly participated, broadcast on November 18, 1973.

In July 1974 he began a tour of the Far East, five countries in Europe and Australia. At the end of the year, his relationship with Barbara ended. After some attempts to establish a stable relationship with other women, including Jacqueline Kennedy, Sinatra and Barbara got back together.

On April 1, 1976, Sinatra performed at the Westchester Premier Theater. After the performance, a photo session was held from which the famous photos would emerge in which the singer appears with various organized crime figures, including Jimmy Fratianno and Carlo Gambino.

He finally married Barbara Marx on July 11, 1976 at Sunnylands, a Walter Annenberg estate in Palm Springs.

On January 9, 1977, Sinatra's mother, Dolly, died in a plane crash on San Gorgonio Mountain in Southern California. Her death had a profound effect on him, reverting to the Catholicism of his youth.

During that year Sinatra produced and starred in his first television movie, Contract On Cherry Street.

In Las Vegas, celebrating his forty years as an artist and his sixty-fourth birthday, he was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award during a special party at Caesar's Palace.

During the 1980s, Sinatra was very active in concerts. The dice at the Maracana football stadium in front of 175,000 people was especially memorable. He also smashed a record that had lasted ninety years at Carnegie Hall, where he was to perform for two weeks, by putting up the "no tickets" sign; in one day.

During the 1980 presidential campaign, he tirelessly supported Ronald Reagan, raising more than $250,000, attending the Detroit Republican Convention where Reagan was nominated, and when Reagan was elected president, he was named director of the inaugural gala held on January 19, 1981 at the Capitol Center in Maryland. That same year he released his last film, The First Deadly Sin.

On February 11, 1981, he testified in the offices of the Las Vegas City Hall in order to be granted a gaming license, which he obtained. On August 5, 1981, he took the stage to give the first concert of his life in Argentina, which continued on the 6th, 7th and 8th with dinner-shows in the Libertador Hall of the Sheraton Hotel, and on the 9th and 10th at the Luna Park stadium, an event where the producer, the singer Palito Ortega fulfilled a personal dream although it meant an economic failure for him. Sinatra himself helped him overcome that difficult situation.

Frank Sinatra and Ronald Reagan in 1985.

In 1984, Sinatra recorded what would be his last album of new songs: L.A. is My Lady, whose song of the same title is understood as an affectionate compensation to the city of Los Angeles, after the success of New York, New York. This album was produced by his long-time collaborator Quincy Jones, who was experiencing a period of maximum popularity thanks to his work on Michael Jackson's Thriller.

In December 1987, Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. held a press conference in Beverly Hills to publicly announce a nationwide tour. Tickets sold out in each of the twenty-five cities that made up the tour well in advance of the concert date; the tour had to take place mostly without Martin, who couldn't handle the recent loss of his son.

In 1989 he undertook a world tour together with Davis and Liza Minnelli, apart from continuing with numerous individual performances. At the end of the year, Sammy Davis Jr. was diagnosed with throat cancer, which would finally end his life on May 16, 1990. Ava Gardner had died on January 24. Even so, that same year he began a tour, which would last throughout 1991, in the company of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé, to celebrate his fifty years in the world of music. The tour sold out all the locations. The singer's memory, however, began to fail and the cataracts that he had developed in both eyes prevented him from correctly reading the four screens located at the edge of the stage. Still, despite his age, Sinatra's touring schedule between 1991 and late 1994 was extraordinary, performing virtually every week to enthusiastic audiences around the world. His fortune in 1991 amounted, according to Forbes magazine, to 26 million dollars.

1993 was the year he returned to the top of the charts with his first album in ten years, Duets, featuring thirteen classic songs re-recorded as duets with some of the world's most popular singers. from then, like Bono, from the group U2, Julio Iglesias or Liza Minnelli. The album, for the recording of which Sinatra was never in the studio with any of his colleagues, since their respective parts were recorded separately, was a great success and sold millions of copies, reaching number 1 on the Billboard . In 1995 Duets II would come out and that same year he received an award for his entire professional life at the Grammy Awards.

On February 25, 1995, he offered what would be his last concert at the Desert Springs Resort and Spa of the Marriott hotel, in a private party of about 1,200 people held on the last day of the tournament of Golf Frank Sinatra Desert Classic. At the end of the year, Dean Martin died and the singer fell into a deep depression.

In November 1996, a month after his last public appearance at the Carousel benefit ball in Los Angeles, he was admitted to the hospital, as well as two more times in January 1997, making headlines and reports all over the world. the world. At the end of April of that year, the United States Congress voted to grant Sinatra the Congressional Gold Medal on the proposal of the Democratic representative from New York, José E. Serrano.

He died on May 14, 1998 in West Hollywood, California, USA, at the age of 82, as a result of a heart attack.

Public relevance and controversial aspects

Private life

Sinatra's immense popularity, from the very beginning of his artistic career during the 1940s, completely conditioned his life, both in the private and public sphere. First of all, he upset his family life.

Sinatra had married Nancy Barbato in 1939. The singer's continuous travels made his infidelity possible almost from the beginning of the marriage, even when they had three children (Nancy, Frank and Tina). Although Sinatra tried to maintain a public image through the media as a family man, the situation became so untenable for her that on Valentine's Day in 1950 Nancy announced her decision to separate permanently from him, due to the fact that their relationship came to light. supported by her husband and Ava Gardner. The marriage was annulled on October 31, 1951, and shortly after La Voz and The Most Beautiful Animal got married. They made her honeymoon in Cuba, staying at the Hotel Nacional in Havana. Despite this breakup and the reasons for it, over the years she never made the slightest public reproach to Sinatra. At the same time, Sinatra never turned his back on her or her children.

Frank always called her. sweetheart (my life) and totally trusted her. "She is the only woman who understands me," she told her friends. She never stopped loving her, but she never came back with her.

A family portrait of Frank Sinatra, his first wife Nancy Barbato Sinatra and his three children: Nancy, Tina and Frank Jr., June 1949.

His relationship with Ava Gardner, the one that best embodies his public sentimental relationships, was extraordinarily troubled. Deeply in love with each other, with a very palpable erotic charge, the clash of characters destroyed the relationship. Sinatra suffered in his own flesh the same thing that his wife Nancy had suffered from him because of her infidelities. Ava Gardner was not only an immensely popular actress, but her beauty and sexual desire were well known. Jealousy, violent fights, drunkenness, suicide attempts by Sinatra and two intentional abortions were some of the problems the couple faced. On October 27, 1953, they decided to separate, which led to a third suicide attempt by Sinatra, prevented by a friend of the singer.

When she divorced Gardner, she found great support in Marilyn Monroe, who had also separated from her husband Joe DiMaggio. They became very close friends and Monroe even went to Sinatra's house to live for a while, shortly before the death of the actress.

Sinatra's magnetism materialized publicly in the spontaneous formation of a group of friends that Lauren Bacall called the “Rat Pack” or also the “Sinatra Clan”. This band was made up of a multitude of actors and actresses, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, Shirley MacLaine, David Niven, Don Rickles, Humphrey Bogart, who would say: "We admired each other and we didn't need anything else".

The parties and orgies of this group were famous, always accompanied by a lot of alcohol, drugs and prostitutes. Frank was the pack master , so he was admired and respected by the rest of the packers .

He married a third time to actress Mia Farrow in 1966, but the relationship would only last two years, so he married a fourth and final time to Barbara Marx (ex-wife of Zeppo Marx) in 1976.

Mob Relations

One of the most controversial and criticized aspects of Sinatra's life and that gave him the most problems in life was his relations with the mafia ^{[citation needed]}, reaching the point of being forced to testify in this regard in a committee of the House of Representatives on July 18, 1972. Although these relationships were true (he was a friend, for example, of the mobster Sam Giancana) no proof of their existence could ever be presented. that he had been involved in any illegal activity, but rather that they were a consequence of his projection as a singer, which would have led him to contact those who dominated the great concert halls of the United States and to use their support, reaching, for example, work for Giancana in numerous nightclubs.

Nevertheless, his relationship with Cosa Nostra was close from the beginning. One of his uncles, Babe Garavante, was a member of a gang that had its operating area in Bergen County, in northern New Jersey, and that was controlled by the then boss of the "Office" (a name given to the mob in New Jersey) Guarino "Willie" Moretti. Likewise, Sinatra's first wife, Nancy Barbato, was a cousin of one of Moretti's "soldiers" and Sinatra was invited to sing at his daughter's wedding. Mario Puzo would be based on this fact for one of the scenes of The Godfather, in which the singer "Johnny Fontane" He goes to sing at the wedding of Connie Corleone, daughter of Vito Corleone, Fontane's godfather, whom he later asks for help to be selected in a film that would increase his fame.

Moretti suffered from syphilis and his physical and mental health deteriorated. Fearing that he might talk too much, the family decided to liquidate him, a fact that was carried out by four hitmen on October 4, 1951, precisely the day that he had met Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin for lunch, who, accompanied by Sinatra himself, performed from time to time at Ben Marden's Riviera Club in New York, a venue owned by one of Moretti's “soldiers”.

There is also evidence that Sinatra maintained a great friendship with Lucky Luciano, considered the father of organized crime, whom he visited in Havana on a couple of occasions and later in his exile in Sicily. There is also evidence that he was the guest of honor, and sang, at the 1946 Christmas party that Luciano organized in Naples.

A 2,403-page dossier on Sinatra is kept in the FBI files.

Sinatra and Kennedy

Senator John F. Kennedy, a candidate for the presidency of the United States, was an admirer of the Rat Pack and of Sinatra, who was deeply involved in Kennedy's election campaign in 1959 when it was first decided that Kennedy would introduce his candidacy for president. Sinatra got engaged because he had great respect for his politics. Joseph P. Kennedy, the candidate's father, asked Sinatra to perform in a series of concerts to raise funds for the campaign. He also wanted Sinatra to contact his influential friends in show business to win their support for Kennedy. He suggested that he record a song for the campaign and they agreed to do a new version of the song High Hopes .

As a devotee of the Democratic Party, Sinatra campaigned tirelessly for Kennedy, raising funds at concerts and collecting old favors.

Sinatra's relationship with the Kennedys came into conflict in March 1960, when Frank decided to hire Albert Maltz to write the screenplay for The Execution of Private Slovik, the story of the only American soldier executed for desertion since the civil war, which Sinatra intended to direct and produce. Maltz was blacklisted for being one of ten in Hollywood who had refused to cooperate with the Un-American Activities Committee. The controversy angered Joseph P. Kennedy, especially when the New York and Boston cardinals told him that Sinatra's support of Maltz could harm his son's career in Catholic circles. Sinatra had to fire Maltz and continued his campaign for the Kennedys through performances, donations, and also hiring a private detective to uncover shady dealings with Richard Nixon.

John F. Kennedy tried to distance himself from Sinatra after he was nominated, but as Pierre Salinger (Kennedy's press officer) told a voter, Sinatra and his friends had helped the Democratic Party raise $1.3 million to remove the campaign deficit, and that had been an invaluable help. In this sense, once elected president, Sinatra and Peter Lawford were asked to produce the pre-inaugural ball for the presidential term.

Inspirations

His main and greatest inspiration was Bing Crosby, Sinatra declared himself a great fan of Crosby on many occasions, declaring in many interviews regarding Crosby.

"He was my hero, the father of my career. When in business we discuss who is the best we place Bing Crosby in the first place and then we fight to choose who of us occupies the second place."

Influence and Popularity

Iran

His great impact and worldwide popularity led many singers to imitate him, for example "Talat Mahmood" dubbed the "Frank Sinatra of India" . 4; Wadih al-Safi" a Lebanese singer considered an icon of Libyan culture and known in his town as & # 34; The Arab Frank Sinatra" or the large number of Sinatra followers in Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan or Iran. To cite an example, one of the most important events in Egypt was the Sinatra concert in 1979, considered by its inhabitants as one of the most important and memorable events.

Frank Sinatra and Princess Farah of Persia Iran, 1975

His enormous impact throughout Arabia was such that Abdel Halim Hafez one of the most popular singers in Egypt and one of the most important figures in Arabic music cited that Sinatra was his greatest musical influence, such was his admiration and fanaticism for Sinatra that he liked to emulate Frank Sinatra even in appearance and clothing, a fact that the journalist Hisham Yahya highlighted on many occasions. His great impact throughout Asia was such that he enjoyed many followers and imitators in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Turkey to name a few. few, for example in China, generated a large number of Chinese followers who imitated him, highlighting " Michael Ching" known in his locality as & # 34; China's Frank Sinatra " or " The Chinese Frank Sinatra".

Sinatra was given the pseudonym "the Voice." Frank Sinatra was responsible for awakening a fan phenomenon made up of hysterical teenage girls called " Bobby Soxers". Throughout his professional career, Sinatra recorded more than 1,300 songs and participated in more than fifty films. Sinatra's inspiration was Bing Crosby, from whom he quoted & # 34; Bing Crosby is the best singer in the world" during his stay in Spain.

The Bobby Soxers were portrayed as very enthusiastic to the point of hysteria. The newspapers of the time highlighted the great fanaticism and passion of the Bobby Soxers for Frank Sinatra, it was also reported that the Bobby Soxers waited so long to see Sinatra in concert that they experienced hunger, fatigue and dizziness. ^[10] The Bobby Soxers were portrayed as disinterested in the crisis of World War II. "

The United States Postal Service issued a 42-cent postage stamp honoring Sinatra in May 2008, commemorating the tenth anniversary of his death. May 13 is considered the" Frank Sinatra Day".

In Frank Sinatra Park, a 6-foot (1.80-meter) tall bronze statue of Sinatra was erected in the year 2021 on December 12. There are also several streets and highways named after him. Frank Sinatra in the US one of them "Frank Sinatra Drive" connecting "Cathedral City" and "Palm Desert" in California.

Musical career and legacy

The first sound recording that exists of Sinatra is from September 8, 1935 in a radio recording of the song titled Shine (in the Mills Brothers version) with the vocal group to which he belonged, the Hoboken Four, who participated in the popular program Major Bowes Amateur Hour.

Sinatra's musical career can be divided into three stages:

• The first stage would be that of the 1940s, in which his evolution as an orchestra singer (of the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey) was produced to a soloist singer for Columbia, usually with an orchestra led by Axel Stordahl.

Regarding the start of his musical career, critics have said:

Sinatra, like other peers, was replacing the syncopated character of the jazz of New Orleans by a way of chanting according to the four-time beat of the era swing; but in another sense, (...) it echoed the Italian belcantist style, which had been cornered both in the world of lyric singing, because of the veristic tendencies, as in the world of popular song, emerged in the opera and the vodevil. With the help of the microphone, and after the pioneering teaching of Crosby, Sinatra recovered a subtle way of singing, without stridences, respecting the text, attentive to the inflexions, with a sense of blond, vocalizing with great care and avoiding covering the sharpest notes to preserve the naturality of the emission.

• The second stage, the most praised, is his time as a singer for Capitol, which spans the 1950s; it was a fundamental period in his life in all aspects and meant his absolute consecration as number one of the popular song. The importance of the collaboration of arrangers such as Nelson Riddle and others was essential to transform the sound of Sinatra into a more modern one away from his previous era.

• The third stage, and the last, is that of his departure from Capitol to manage a record company of his own, Reprise. This stage is marked by its survival as an artist in the midst of the rise and consolidation of rock and roll.

• The Sinatra Doctrine was the name that the Soviet government of Mikhail Gorbachev used to describe its policy of allowing the countries of the Warsaw Pact to resolve their internal affairs and fix their political evolution. This doctrine, so named in honor of Frank Sinatra for the song My Way since it allowed these nations to define in their own way the solutions to their internal problems, in contrast to the previous Brézhnev Doctrine, which had served to justify the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Vocalist of the Harry James Orchestra (1939)

Frank Sinatra recorded ten songs in 1939 with the orchestra led by trumpeter Harry James for Brunswick and Columbia: "From the Bottom of My Heart" (recorded for Brunswick on July 13 in what would be their first studio recording), "Melancholy Mood", "My Buddy", "It's Funny to Everyone but Me", "All or Nothing At All", "On a Little Street in Singapore", "Ciribiribin", "The Hucklebuck& #34;, "Our Love" and "Castle Rock".

As would happen with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra, the vocalist is, in these cases, one more element of the orchestra, in which, if someone stood out, that was their leader, in both cases the trumpeters who gave their name to the same. The normal thing in these songs is that, after a trumpet introduction of the theme, Sinatra entered with the lyrics and then alternated with the interventions of the orchestra.

Sinatra's voice in these performances is, befitting his age, very clean. Her special quality for perfection in phrasing is already manifest. The interpretations are, however, not very prone to technical exhibitions, since the vocalist was forced to adjust to the tone of the orchestral music, a very soft and slow tone, very melodic, at the service of dancing as a couple. The lyrics, by the way, are very simple.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, many of these themes became enormously popular. The multiple compilations of Sinatra's work that are released systematically include songs from this period such as Melancholy Mood or All or Nothing At All.

The importance for Sinatra of this stage with Harry James has been characterized in the following terms:

"For the six months he spent with Harry," Louise Tobin explained, "Frank learned more about music than in all the years of his life until that time." (...) If Dorsey would have suggested the method to phrase the songs, James provided him with a model of how to present them with an emotional wrapper. Also James, Sinatra could have learned to mix the pop tenderness with the invectiva of blusstic root, to swing and to relate to the orchestra, to customize a melody and to hypnotize the audience.

Vocalist of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (1940-1942)

Sinatra joined Tommy Dorsey in January 1940, after the latter failed to replace his singer Jack Leonard with baritone Allan DeWitt. Sinatra's first recording with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra is from February 1, 1940 for the Victor label—his first recorded performance of him is from January 25 in Rockford, Illinois—and his last January 1942.

If Sinatra had any continuing, underlying influence in creating his own style, it was Tommy Dorsey's (his mastery of, for example, breath control was proverbial, so Sinatra tried to emulate him with the voice).

Dorsey (...) was an inspiration for Sinatra: his presence, musical perfectionism and insight for business were qualities that he himself would develop. (...) And the melodic virtuosity of Dorsey, its clean tone and its polished phrase were important influences in the evolution of Sinatra's initial vocal style.

His time with Dorsey marks a major change for Sinatra. Compared to the Harry James orchestra, closely linked to a swing directly aimed at a young audience, Dorsey's orchestra is more leisurely: its repertoire is ballads and the orchestra's playing is relaxed and precise. Consequently, the vocalist manages to place himself in the foreground, if not absolute, at least no longer as a simple accompaniment to the orchestra, as was the case with Harry James. In other words, it is with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra that Frank Sinatra definitively becomes a vocalist, with his own well-defined characteristics that would never leave him: precise phrasing and subjective interpretation of the lyrics. Dorsey conveyed to the young singer

the concept of interpreting a melody so that it could be immediately recognized, while being so personalized that it sounded like a creation made by or for the interpreter.

Otherwise, the color of the voice had transformed to a darker tonality and the interpretative aggressiveness had given way to a much more controlled rendering of the songs.

The arrangers, fundamental from now on in Sinatra's career, are directly responsible for Sinatra's leading role: Axel Stordahl, Sy Oliver, Paul Weston, etc.

However, the main factor that led to Sinatra's projection to national popularity was the regular appearance of the Dorsey orchestra on radio programs. A weekly NBC show called Fame and Fortune, which ran from October 1940 to April 1941 and featured the orchestra playing numbers by amateur composers, was heard by millions of people.

By May 1941, Sinatra had displaced Crosby on Billboard and Down Beat magazine's list of the greatest male singers.

Popular songs from this stage are I'll Never Smile Again (the biggest hit), Fools Rush In, Stardust, Everything Happens To Me, This Love of Mine, I'll Be Seeing You, This Is The Beginning of The End , East of The Sun, Without a Song, Blue Skies, Violets For Your Furs, The Night We Called It A Day, The Song Is You and Night And Day (the latter a classic by Cole Porter that Sinatra would record in a multitude of occasions).

The Columbia stage (1943-1952)

Also known as the Sinatra-Stordahl period, Frank Sinatra's recordings for the Columbia record company, many of them rehearsed in a certain sense in the singer's continuous live performances, represent his consolidation as a performer: the quality of the material on the one who works and the exceptional moment through which his voice passed, make this period a rival of the Capitol stage for many fans. Otherwise, the Stordhal-Sinatra partnership represents the most prolific period of the singer's career.

During these years, under the musical direction of Stordhal, Sinatra recorded with two orchestras of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) -1942-1944 and 1948- and, between 1944 and 1947, he dedicated exclusively to studio recordings and radio. Starting in 1949, he began to work with other musical directors.

Sinatra's basic achievement in this period consists in having become the quintessential representative of the interpretation of American popular music and, consequently, a figure of extraordinary influence in the field of international song. At the same time, his individual rise constituted a definitive coup de grace in the process of decline of the big bands, opening the doors to a new era of popular music whose domain corresponded to the vocalists. This is attested, for example, by the enormous success of the V-Discs (victory discs), made for private consumption by the US Armed Forces.

The use of various violins in the orchestra is characteristic of this stage, in contrast to his previous stage as a singer in dance bands where they were less used. The idea of his arranger Axel Stordahl, the use of strings helped create a more sensual atmosphere that broke with his previous style.

The style and tone is a progression from the previous stage: Sinatra is a melodic singer specializing in romantic lyrics, performed with enough expressiveness and attention to make those songs his own.

Some of the most representative songs of this period are I'll never smile again (1940), Nancy (with the Laughin' Face) (1945), How Deep Is the Ocean, Stella by Starlight, Begin the Beguine, If You Are but a Dream, fly me to the moon etc.

The Capitol Stage (1953-1961)

The Capitol Sinatra has a sense of the pace just announced before, a swing that has known to get rid of rhetorical conventions and that it can adopt a great momentum without renouncing the care of the phrase and the dynamics. (...) The obsessive study of Mabel Mercer and especially of Billie Holiday, who has been following since the end of the 1930s, have also been empowered to interpret versatile ballads throughout their emotional range.

Frank Sinatra's records for the Capitol record company constitute the most valued part of his musical production by critics and the public. It is, in addition to compilations and a Christmas album, a set of 15 original albums made between 1953 and 1961.

Sinatra's work for Capitol materialized in exploiting the possibilities of the relatively new LP format, creating concept albums from the grouping of songs linked either by theme or by tone (relaxed, swinging , romantic, etc.), using for this the corpus of the great popular songs of the 30s and 40s.

Sinatra made the most of the possibilities of the LP, imbuing the succession of songs of a coherent and superior argument. (...) Much of it is due to the final consolidation of the standard repertoire.

Despite having the record company's own producers, Sinatra behaved like the real producer during all the recordings, continually making decisions about the most appropriate takes to finally be incorporated into the records and suggesting possible improvements to the arrangers. his work.

However, the great architect of Sinatra's consolidation during this stage was the arranger and orchestral director Neslon Riddle, responsible for the creation of a new sound and style for the singer. Other important arrangers included Gordon Jenkins and Billy May.

The Reprise stage (1961-1991)

The stage of the years in Reprise coincided with the appearance of numerous problems for Sinatra in different areas: musical (with the devastating irruption of the Beatles and pop in general), political (with his relations with Kennedy), personal (legal problems in Las Vegas, the kidnapping of his son...) in addition to his constant film and musical activity. This varied and complex biographical problem is reflected in some way in his musical career over the years.

The discography of this last stage has received uneven consideration from critics. Basically, compared to its previous two stages, the Reprise stage is characterized by the variety of rehearsed styles, which give rise to a succession of albums that are difficult to consider homogeneously:

• First, there are the albums that try to connect with the new taste of the music consumer, either with a music that resumes the swing orchestration to approach the pop of the moment: for example, Ring-A- Ding Ding! (1961), already with songs with a lyric and a music that, although of a classic bill, try to sound a little more modern than that of the Capitol stage: Strangers in the Night (1966).

• Second, discs raised from a classic point of view, which connects them directly to the Capitol stage: for example, I remember Tommy (1961), All Alone (1962) and his collaborations with Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

• Thirdly, discs that could be called experimental, in the sense of planned in the margin of all fashion and all tradition: for example, Moonlight Sinatra (1966), Watertown (1970) and Trilogy (1980).

The result ranges from indisputable successes both commercially and specializedly, such as Septembers Of My Years, 1965, to the extraordinary and unexpected commercial success of his two albums of Duets, vilified by the specialized press, going through songs like My Way (version of the song Comme d'habitude by Claude François) and Strangers in the Night that went on to become classic songs in the singer's repertoire.

Sinatra shared the stage with Bing Crosby one of the most popular singers of the day and also shared the stage with Grace Kelly in High Society in 1956 High Society (1956 film) for MGM, earning $250,000 for his performance. Audiences packed into theaters to see the two most popular singers of the day Sinatra and Crosby together on screen for the first time, the film was a worldwide success and ended up grossing over $13 million at the box office, becoming a one of the highest grossing films of its year.

Sinatra starred opposite Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak in George Sidney's Pal Sid Joey (1957), for which Sinatra won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Santopietro believes that the scene where Sinatra sings to him "The Lady is a Tramp" to Hayworth was the high point of his film career. He then played comedian Joe E. Lewis in The Joker Is Wild (also in 1957), the song "All the Way"; it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

By 1958, Sinatra was one of the top ten highest-grossing actors in the United States, 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. "High Hopes," sung by Sinatra in the Frank Capra comedy A Hole in the Head (1959), won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and became a chart hit of successes. Heat 100 for 17 weeks.

Discography

Filmography

Musical tributes to Sinatra

• A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra by Oscar Peterson (1959)
• Perfectly Frank by Tony Bennett (1992)
• As Remember I It by Frank Sinatra Jr. (1996)
• Manilow Sings Sinatra by Barry Manilow (1998)
• All The Way a decade of the song Tv concert - (1999)
• Concert Sinatra a l'Auditori by Xavier Piqué (1999)
• Frank by Amy Winehouse (2003)
• Allow Us to Be Frank by Westlife (2004)
• Bolton Swings Sinatra by Michael Bolton (2006)
• Dear Mr. Sinatra by John Pizzarelli (2006)
• Jazz Moon by Xavier Piqué (2007)
• Concert Sinatra to the Palau by Xavier Piqué (2007)
• Something Stupid by Robbie Williams (2007)
• Frankly by Patricio Giménez (2007)
• That's life. by Adrian Barilari and Memphis (2007)
• My way Forever so Gipsy Kings
• Celine... Live In Las Vegas "All The Way" holographic duet Celine Dion with Sinatra (2015)
• Sinatra 100 by Grammy Awards Guest Singers: Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Adam Levine, John Legend, Carrie Underwood (2015).

Awards and distinctions

Oscars

Grammies

Emmy

Golden Globes

In popular culture

Frank's imprint on culture is so marked that his life even served as an inspiration to other authors. Sinatra itself is an element of popular culture, since his music was for the common people. In addition, his life inspired the American writer Mario Puzo to create the character Johnny Fontane for his novel The Godfather, since this character has certain parallels with Sinatra, even in his supposed relationship with the American Cosa Nostra.