 Francis Albert Sinatra was an American singer, actor and producer who was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide. Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to Italian immigrants, Sinatra began his musical career in the swing era with band leaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Sinatra found success as a solo artist after he signed with Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the Imbabi Soxers. He released his debut album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, in 1946. Sinatra's professional career had stalled by the early 1950s, and he turned to Las Vegas, where he became one of its best-known performers as part of the Rat Pack. His career was reborn in 1953 with the success of From Here to Eternity and his subsequent Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Sinatra released several critically lauded albums, including in The Wee Small Hours, 1955, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, 1956, Come Fly With Me, 1958, Only the Lonely, 1958, and Nice and Easy, 1960. Sinatra left capital in 1960 to start his own record label, Reprise Records, and released a string of successful albums. In 1965 he recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra, A Man in His Music, and scored hits with Strangers in the Night and My Way. After releasing Sinatra at the Sands, recorded at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Vegas with frequent collaborator Count Basie in early 1966, the following year he recorded one of his most famous collaborations with Tom Jobim, the album Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim. It was followed by 1968's collaboration with Duke Ellington. Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971, but came out of retirement two years later and recorded several albums and resumed performing at Caesars Palace, and reached success in 1980 with New York, New York. Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally until a short time before his death in 1998. Sinatra forged a highly successful career as a film actor. After winning an Academy Award for From Here to Eternity, he starred in The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955, and received critical acclaim for his performance in The Manchurian Candidate, 1962. He appeared in various musicals such as On the Town, 1949, Guys and Dolls, 1955, High Society, 1956, and Pal Joey, 1957, and toward the end of his career he became associated with playing detectives, including the title character in Tony Rome, 1967. On television, the Frank Sinatra show began on ABC in 1950, and he continued to make appearances on television throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Sinatra was also heavily involved with politics from the mid-1940s, and actively campaigned for presidents such as Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, though before Kennedy's death Sinatra's alleged mafia connections led to his being snubbed. While Sinatra never formally learned how to read music, he had a natural, intuitive understanding of it, and he worked very hard from a young age to improve his abilities in all aspects of music. A perfectionist, renowned for his impeccable dress sense and cleanliness, he always insisted on recording live with his band. His bright blue eyes earned him the popular nickname O. L. Blue Eyes. Sinatra led a colorful personal life, and was often involved in turbulent affairs with women, such as with his second wife Ava Gardner. He went on to marry Mia Farrow in 1966 and Barbara Marx in 1976. Sinatra had several violent confrontations, usually with journalists he felt had crossed him, or work bosses with whom he had disagreements. He was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983, was 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. After his death, American music critic Robert Christgaw called him the greatest singer of the 20th century and he continues to be seen as an iconic figure. Early Life Francis Albert Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, in an upstairs tenement at 415 Monroe Street in Hoboken, New Jersey. In June, band leader Harry James, who had heard Sinatra sing on Dance Parade, signed a two-year contract of $75 a week one evening after a show at the Paramount Theater in New York. 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 of the record were sold, and further records released with James through 1939, such as All Or Nothing at All, also had weak sales on their initial release. 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, Syrra Buriban and Every Day of My Life. Tommy Dorsey Years, 1939-1942 Sinatra became increasingly frustrated with the status of 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 Sonny Kola persuaded him to stay with the group, but in November 1939 he left James to replace Jack Leonard as the lead singer of the Tommy Dorsey Band. Sinatra signed a contract with Dorsey for $125 a week at Palmer House in Chicago, and James agreed amicably to release Sinatra from his contract. On January 26, 1940, he made his first public appearance with the band at the Coronado Theater in Rockford, Illinois, opening the show with Stardust. Dorsey recalled, �You could almost feel the excitement coming up out of the crowds when the kids stood up to sing. Remember, he was no Madden A. Idle. 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.� 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. Sinatra later said that �The only two people I've ever been afraid of are my mother and Tommy Dorsey.� Though Kelly claims that Sinatra and drummer Buddy Rich were bitter rivals, 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. In his first year with Dorsey, Sinatra recorded over 40 songs. Sinatra's first vocal hit was the song Polka Dots and Moonbeams in late April 1940. Two more chart appearances followed with Say It and Imagination, which was Sinatra's first top ten hit. His fourth chart appearance was I'll Never Smile Again, topping the charts for 12 weeks beginning in mid-July. 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.� 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 a ranger and conductor. Sinatra first heard the recordings at the Hollywood Palladium in 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.� After the 1942 recordings, Sinatra believed he needed to go solo, with an insatiable desire to compete with Bing Crosby, but he was hampered by his contract which gave Dorsey 43% of Sinatra�s lifetime earnings in the entertainment industry. A legal battle ensued, eventually settled in August 1943. On September 3, 1942, Dorsey bid farewell to Sinatra, reportedly saying as Sinatra left, �I hope you fall on your ass.� He replaced Sinatra with singer Dick Hames.Rumors began spreading in newspapers that Sinatra�s mobster godfather, Willie Moretti, coerced Dorsey to let Sinatra out of his contract for a few thousand dollars, holding a gun to his head. Sinatra persuaded Stordahl to leave Dorsey with him and become his personal arranger, offering him $650 a month, five times the salary of Dorsey. Dorsey and Sinatra, who had been very close, never patched up their differences before Dorsey�s death in 1956, worsened by the fact that Dorsey occasionally made biting comments to the press such as �He�s the most fascinating man in the world, but don�t put your hand in the cage.� On set of Sinatra Mania and Roll in World War II, 1942-1945. By May 1941, Sinatra topped the male singer polls in Billboard and downbeat magazines. His appeal to Bobby Soxhurst, as teenage girls of that time were called, revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had been recorded mainly for adults up to that time. The phenomenon became officially known as Sinatra Mania after his legendary opening at the Paramount Theatre in New York on December 30, 1942. According to Nancy Sinatra, Jack Benny later said, �I thought the god damned building was going to cave in. I never heard such a commotion. All this for a fellow I never heard of.� 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 Whiteman due to his popularity. He became known as Swoon Atra or The Voice, and his fans Sinatra ticks. 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. 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. When Sinatra returned to the Paramount in October 1944 only 250 persons left the first show, and 35,000 fans left outside cost a near riot, known as the Columbus Day Riot, outside the venue because they were not allowed in. Such was the Bobby Sockser 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 accost his person in the form of stealing clothing he was wearing, most commonly his bow tie. Sinatra signed with Columbia Records as a solo artist on June 1, 1943 during the 1942-44 musician�s strike. Columbia Records re-released Harry James and Sinatra�s August 1939 version of �All� or �Nothing� at all, which reached number two on June 2, and was on the best-selling list for 18 weeks. He initially had great success, and performed on the radio on your hit parade from February 1943 until December 1944, 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. These first sessions were on June 7, June 22, August 5, and November 10, 1943. Of the nine songs recorded during these sessions, seven charted on the best-selling list. That year he also made his first solo nightclub appearance at New York�s Ryu Bomba, 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. 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, Perry Como, Bob Eberle, and Dick Hames. Sinatra did not serve in the military during World War II. On December 11, 1943, he was officially classified 4F, registrant not acceptable for military service, by his draft board because of a perforated eardrum. However, Army Files reported that Sinatra was not acceptable material from a psychiatric viewpoint, but his emotional instability was hidden to avoid undue unpleasantness for both the selectee and the induction service. Briefly, there were rumors reported by columnist Walter Winchell that Sinatra paid $40,000 to avoid the service, but the FBI found this to be without merit. Toward the end of the war, Sinatra entertained the troops during several successful overseas USO tours with comedian Phil Silvers. During one trip to Rome he met the Pope, who asked him if he was an operatic tenor. Sinatra worked frequently with the popular Andrews sisters in radio the 1940s, and many USO shows were broadcast to troops via the Armed Forces Radio Service, AFRS. In 1944 Sinatra released I Couldn't Sleep a Wink last night as a single and recorded his own version of Crosby's White Christmas, and 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. Columbia Years and Career Slump, 1946-1952 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. In 1946 Sinatra released O. What it seemed to be, day by day, they say it's wonderful, five minutes more and the coffee song as singles, and launched his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, which reached number one on the billboard chart. William Ruleman of All Music noted 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. He was soon selling 10 million records a year. 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 fanbuss at the time, which consisted of teenage girls. 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 Arland's and Jerome Kern's All the Things You Are. Mam Celle, composed by Edmund Golding with lyrics by Mack Gordon for the film The Razor's Edge, 1946, was released a single. Sinatra had competition, versions by Art Lund, Dick Hames, Dennis Day, and the Pied Pipers also reached the top 10 of the billboard charts. 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. Granada describes as one of the highlights of Sinatra's Columbia epoch. Sinatra's third album, Christmas Songs by Sinatra, was originally released in 1948 as a 7-8 rpm album set, and a 10 LP record was released two years later. 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, it was announced to the public that Sinatra would donate his $100,000 in wages from the film to the church. By the end of 1948, Sinatra had slipped to fourth on Downbeat's annual poll of most popular singers, behind Billy Eckstein, Frankie Lane and Bing Crosby. And in the following year he was pushed out of the top spots in polls for the first time since 1943. Frankly sentimental, 1949, was panned by Downbeat, who commented that for all his talent, it seldom comes to life. Though The Hucklebuck reached the top 10, it was his last single release under the Columbia label. Sinatra's last two albums with Columbia, dedicated to You and Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra, were released in 1950. Sinatra would later feature a number of the Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra albums songs, including Lover, It's Only a Paper Moon, It All Depends on You, on his 1961 capital release, Sinatra's Swingin' Session. Cementing the low of his career was the death of publicist George Evans from a heart attack in January 1950 at 48. According to Jimmy Van Huisen, 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. Sinatra's reputation continued to decline as reports broke out in February of his affair with Ava Gardner and the destruction of his marriage to Nancy, though he insisted that his marriage had long been over even before he had met Gardner. 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 suffering a submucosal hemorrhage of the throat. Evans once noted that whenever Sinatra suffered from a bad throat and loss of voice it was always due to emotional tension which absolutely destroyed him. 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. Rejected by Hollywood, he turned to Las Vegas and made his debut at the Desert Inn in September 1951, and also began singing at the Riverside Hotel in Reno, Nevada. Sinatra became one of Las Vegas's pioneer entertainers, and a prominent figure on the Vegas scene throughout the 1950s and 1960s onwards, a period described by Rojek as the a 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. Sinatra would fly to Las Vegas from Los Angeles in Van Huisen's single-engine plane. On October 4, 1953, Sinatra made his first performance at the Sands Hotel and Casino, after an invitation by the manager Jack Endratter, who had previously worked at the Copa in New York. Sinatra typically performed there three times a year, and later acquired a share in the hotel. Sinatra's decline in popularity was evident at his concert appearances. At a brief run at the Paramount in New York he drew small audiences. At the Desert Inn in Las Vegas he performed to half-filled houses of wild caters and ranchers. At a concert at Shea Paris in Chicago, only 150 people in a 1,200-seat capacity venue turned up to see him. By April 1952 he was performing at the Kauai County Fair in Hawaii. Sinatra's relationship with Columbia Records was also disintegrating, with Ondar executive Mitch Miller claiming he couldn't give away the singer's records. Though several notable recordings were made during this time period, such as if I could write a book in January 1952, which Granada sees as a turning point, forecasting his later work with its sensitivity, Columbia and MCA dropped him later that year. His last studio recording for Columbia, Why Try to Change Me Now, was recorded in New York on September 17, 1952, with orchestra arranged and conducted by Percy Faith. Journalist Bert Boyar observed, Sinatra had had it. It was sad. From the top to the bottom in one horrible lesson. Career revival and the capital years, 1953-1962. The release of the film From Here to Eternity in August 1953 marked the beginning of a remarkable career revival. Santo Pietro notes that Sinatra began to bury himself in his work, with an unparalleled frenetic schedule of recordings, movies and concerts, in what authors Anthony Summers and Robin Swan describe as a new and brilliant phase. On March 13, 1953, Sinatra met with Capitol Records Vice President Alan Livingston and signed a seven-year recording contract. His first session for Capitol took place at KHJ Studios at Studio C, 5515 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, with Axel Stordahl conducting. The session produced four recordings, including I'm Walking Behind You, Sinatra's first Capitol single. 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. After recording the first song, I've Got the World on a String, Sinatra offered Riddle a rare expression of praise, beautiful, and after listening to the playbacks, he could not hide his enthusiasm, exclaiming, I'm back, baby, I'm back. In subsequent sessions in May and November 1953, Sinatra and Riddle developed and refined their musical collaboration, with Sinatra providing specific guidance on the arrangements. 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, songs which became staples of his later concerts. At same month, Sinatra and Doris Day released the single Young at Heart, which reached number two and was awarded Song of the Year. In March, he recorded and released the single Three Coins in the Fountain, a powerful ballad that reached number four. Sinatra's second album with Riddle, Swing Easy, which reflected his love for the jazz idiom according to Grenada, 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. Swing Easy, was named album of the year by Billboard, and he was also named favorite male vocalist by Billboard, Downbeat, and Metronome that year. Sinatra came to consider Riddle the greatest arranger in the world, and Riddle, who considered Sinatra a perfectionist, offered equal praise of the singer, observing, It's not only that his intuitions as to tempi, phrasing, and even configuration are amazingly right, but his taste is so impeccable, there is still no one who can approach him. In 1955 Sinatra released In the Wee Small Hours, his first 12 LP, featuring songs such as In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning, Mood Indigo, Glad to Be Unhappy and When Your Lover Has Gone. According to Grenada it was the first concept album of his to make a single persuasive statement, with an extended program and melancholy mood. Sinatra embarked on his first tour of Australia the same year. Another collaboration with Riddle resulted in the development of songs for Swingin' Lovers, sometime seen as one of his best albums, which was released in March 1956. It features a recording of I've Got You Under My Skin by Cole Porter, something which Sinatra paid meticulous care to, taking a reported 22 takes to perfect. His February 1956 recording sessions inaugurated the studios at the Capitol Records Building, complete with a 56-piece symphonic orchestra. According to Grenada his recordings of Night and Day, 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 away from my door in April demonstrated his brilliance as a syncopational improviser. Riddle noted 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 Q-tricks with the lyrics. His penchant for conducting was displayed again in 1950's IXS Frank Sinatra conducts tone poems of color, an instrumental album that has been interpreted to be a catharsis to his failed relationship with Gardner. Also that year, Sinatra sang at the Democratic National Convention, and performed with the Dorsey Brothers for a week soon afterwards at the Paramount Theatre. In 1957, Sinatra released Close to You, a Swingen affair, and Where Are You? His first album in stereo, with Gordon Jenkins. Grenada 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 stands 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. For Grenada, Sinatra's a Swingen affair, and Swing music predecessor songs for Swingen lovers, solidified Sinatra's image as a Swinger, from both a musical and visual standpoint. Buddy Colette considered the Swing albums to have been heavily influenced by Sammy Davis, Jr., and noted that when he worked with Sinatra in the mid-1960s he approached a song much differently than he had done in the early 1950s. On June 9, 1957, he performed in a 62-minute concert conducted by Riddle at the Seattle Civic Auditorium, his first appearance in Seattle since 1945. The recording was first released as a bootleg, but in 1999 Artani's Entertainment Group officially released it as the Sinatra 57 in concert live album, after Sinatra's death. In 1958 Sinatra released the album Come Fly With Me with Billy May. It reached the top spot on the Billboard album chart in its second week, remaining at the top for five weeks, and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the inaugural Grammy Awards. The title song, Come Fly With Me, written especially for him, would become one of his best known standards. On May 29 he recorded seven songs in a single session, more than double the usual yield of a recording session, and an eighth was planned, lush life, but Sinatra found it too technically demanding. In September, Sinatra released Frank Sinatra's Sings for Only the Lonely, a stark collection of introspective saloon songs and blues-tinged ballads which proved a huge commercial success, spending 120 weeks on Billboard's album chart and peaking at number one. 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. In 1959, Sinatra released Come Dance With Me, a highly successful, critically acclaimed album which stayed on Billboard's pop album chart for 140 weeks, peaking at number two. It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, as well as Best Vocal Performance, Mail and Best Arrangement for Billy May. He also released No One Cares in the same year, a collection of brooding, lonely torch songs, which critic Steven Thomas Irlewine 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. In the words of Kelly, by 1959, Sinatra was not simply the leader of the rat pack but had assumed the position of I.L. Padrone in Hollywood. He was asked by 20th Century Fox to be the master of ceremonies at a luncheon attended by President Nikita Khrushchev on September 19, 1959. Nice and Easy, a collection of ballads, topped the Billboard chart in October 1960 and remained in the charts for 86 weeks, winning critical plaudits. Grenada noted the lifelike ambience sound quality of Nice and Easy, the perfection in the stereo balance, and the bold, bright and snappy sound of the band. He highlighted the close, warm and sharp feel of Sinatra's voice, particularly on the songs September in the Rain, I Concentrate on You, and My Blue Heaven. Reprise Years, 1961-1981 Sinatra grew discontented at capital, and fell into a feud with Alan Livingston, which lasted over six months. He decided to form his own label, Reprise Records and, in an effort to assert his new direction, temporarily parted with Riddle, May and Jenkins, working with other arrangers such as Neil Hefty, Don Costa and Quincy Jones. Under Sinatra the company developed into a music industry powerhouse, and he later sold it for an estimated $80 million. His first album on the label, Ring A Ding Ding, 1961, was a major success, peaking at number four on Billboard. 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 Rivers Mavis and Joey Lewis's It Is Now Post Time. On September 11 and 12, 1961, Sinatra recorded his final songs for capital. In an effort to maintain his commercial viability in the 1960s, Sinatra recorded Elvis Presley's hit Love Me Tender, and later recorded works by Paul Simon such as Mrs. Robinson, The Beatles, Something, Yesterday and Joni Mitchell, both sides, Now. 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 entire reprise period. Frank Sinatra, Jr., who was present during the recording, noted that a huge orchestra, which Nancy Sinatra stated opened a whole new era in pop music, with orchestras getting bigger, embracing a lush string sound. Sinatra and Count Basie collaborated for the album Sinatra Basie the same year, 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. The two became frequent performers together, and appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965. 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. 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 35mm film designed for movie soundtracks. Grenada considers the album to have been impeachable sick, one of the very best of the Sinatra Riddle ballad albums, in which Sinatra displayed an impressive vocal range, particularly in O. L. Man River, in which he darkened the hue. In 1964 the song My Kind of Town was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Sinatra released softly, as I Leave You, and collaborated with Bing Crosby and Fred Wearing on America, I Hear You Singing, a collection of patriotic songs recorded as a tribute to the assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Sinatra increasingly became involved in charitable pursuits in this period. In 1961 and 1962 he went to Mexico, with the sole purpose of putting on performances for Mexican charities, and in July 1964 he was present for the dedication of the Frank Sinatra International Youth Center for Arab and Jewish Children in Nazareth. 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.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 African Americans. The Rat Pack concert was broadcast live via satellite to numerous movie theaters across America. The album September of My Years was released September 1965, and went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Album of the Year. Grenada 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. One of the album's singles, It Was a Very Good Year, won the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male. A career anthology, A Man and His Music, followed in November, winning album of the year at the Grammys the following year. In 1966 Sinatra released That's Life, with both the single of That's Life and album becoming top 10 hits in the US on Billboard's pop charts. Strangers in the Night went on to top the Billboard and UK pop singles charts, winning the award for Record of the Year at the Grammys. 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. Sinatra pulled out from the Sands the following year, when he was driven out by its new owner Howard Hughes, after a fight. Sinatra started 1967 with a series of recording sessions with Antonio Carlos Jobim. He recorded one of his most famous collaborations with Jobim, the Grammy-nominated album Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim, which was one of the best-selling albums of the year, behind the Beatles' SGT Peppers Lonely Hearts Club band. According to Santo Pietro 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. Writer Stan Cornyn noted that Sinatra sang so softly on the album that it was comparable to the time that he suffered from a vocal hemorrhage in 1950. Sinatra also released the album The World We Knew, which features a chart-topping duet of something stupid with daughter Nancy Dot in December, Sinatra collaborated with Duke Ellington on the album Francis A. and Edward K. According to Granada, the recording of Indian Summer on the album was a favorite of Riddles, noting the contemplative mood which is heightened by a Johnny Hodges alto sax solo that will bring a tear to your eye. With Sinatra in mind, singer-songwriter Paul Ancher wrote the song My Way, using the melody of the French cum-de-habitude, as usual, composed by Claude François and Jacques Riveau. Sinatra recorded it just after Christmas 1968. My Way, Sinatra's best-known song on the reprise label, was not an instant success, charting at number 27 in the US and number 5 in the UK, but 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. Sinatra told songwriter Irvin Drake in the 1970s that he detested singing the song, because he believed audiences would think it was a self-aggrandizing tribute, professing that he hated boastfulness in others. Retirement and Return, 1970-1981 In 1970, Sinatra released Watertown, one of his most acclaimed concept albums, with music by Bob Goddio, of the Four Seasons, and lyrics by Jake Holmes. However, it sold a mere 30,000 copies that year and reached a peaked chart position of 101. He left Caesar's Palace in September that year after an incident where executive Sanford Waterman pulled a gun on him. He performed several charity concerts with Count Basie at the Royal Festival Hall in London. On November 2, 1970, Sinatra recorded the last songs for reprise records before his self-imposed retirement, announced the following June at a concert in Hollywood to raise money for the motion picture and TV Relief Fund. He finished the concert with a rousing performance of That's Life, and stated excuse me while I disappear as he left the stage. He told Life journalist Thomas Thompson that �I've got things to do, like the first thing is not to do at all for eight months, maybe a year,� while Barbara Sinatra later claimed 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. 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. In 1973, Sinatra came out of his short-lived retirement with a television special and album. The album, entitled �OL Blue Eyes� is back, arranged by Gordon Jenkins and Don Costa, was a success, reaching number 13 on Billboard and number 12 in the UK. The television special, �Magnivox� 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. That Christmas he performed at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, and returned to Caesars Palace the following month in January 1974, despite previously vowing to perform there again sick. He began what Barbara Sinatra describes as �a massive comeback tour of the United States, Europe, the Far East and Australia.� In July, while on a second tour of Australia, he caused an uproar by describing journalists there who were aggressively pursuing his every move and pushing for a press conference as �bums, parasites, fags, and buck and a half hookers.� After he was pressured to apologize, Sinatra instead insisted that the journalists apologize for �15 years of abuse I have taken from the world press.� In the end, Sinatra�s lawyer, Mickey Rudin, arranged a final concert which was televised to the nation, and Sinatra was given the opportunity to say �I love your attitude, I love your booze� to the Australian people. 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 band leader Woody Herman and the young thundering herd, who accompanied Sinatra on a European tour later that month. In 1975, Sinatra performed in concerts in New York with Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald, and at the London Palladium with Basie and Sarah Vaughn, and in Tehran at Ariamere Stadium, giving 140 performances in 105 days. In August he held several consecutive concerts at Lake Tahoe together with the newly risen singer John Denver, who became a frequent collaborator. Sinatra had recorded Denver�s Leaving on a Jet Plane and My Sweet Lady for Sinatra & Company, 1971, and according to Denver, his song �A Baby Just Like You� was written at Sinatra�s request for his new grandchild, Angela. 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 20 years, when they performed at the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. 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 Hebrew University in Israel and an honorary doctor of humane letters from the University of Nevada. Sinatra continued to perform at Caesar�s 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. He cancelled two weeks of shows and spent time recovering from the shock in Barbados. In March, he performed in front of Princess Margaret at the Royal Albert Hall in London, raising money for the NSPCC. On March 14 he recorded with Nelson Riddle for the last time, recording the songs Linda, Sweet Lorraine and Barbara. 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. In 1978, Sinatra filed a $1 million lawsuit against a land developer for using his name in the Frank Sinatra Drive Center in West Los Angeles. During a party at Caesar�s in 1979, he was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award, while celebrating 40 years in show business and his 64th birthday. That year, former President Gerald Ford awarded Sinatra the International Man of the Year Award, and he performed in front of the Egyptian pyramids for Enwar Siddat, which raised more than $500,000 for Siddat�s wife�s charities. 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 era and rock era. 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. The album garnered six Grammy nominations winning for Best Liner Notes and peaked at number 17 on Billboard�s album chart and spawned yet another song that would become a signature tune, theme from New York, New York. That year, as part of the Concert of the Americas, he performed in the Maracena Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which broke records for the largest live-paid audience ever recorded for a solo performer. 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 capital years. Also in 1981, Sinatra was embroiled in controversy when he worked a 10-day engagement for $2 million in Sun City, in the internationally unrecognized Boputaswana, 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. Later career, 1982-1998. Santo Pietro stated that by the early 1980s, Sinatra�s voice had coarsened, losing much of its power and flexibility, but audiences didn�t care. In 1982, he signed a $16 million three-year deal with the Golden Nugget of Las Vegas. Kelly 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. That year he made a reported further $1.3 million from the Showtime television rights to his Concert of the Americas in the Dominican Republic, $1.6 million 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. He put on a performance at the White House for the Italian Prime Minister, and performed at the Radio City Music Hall with Luciano Pavarotti and George Shearing. Sinatra was selected as one of the five recipients of the 1983 Kennedy Center Honours, alongside Katharine Dunham, James Stewart, Elia Kazan and Virgil Thompson. 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. On September 21, 1983, Sinatra filed a $2 million court case against Kitty Kelly, suing her in punitive damages, before her unofficial biography, his way, was even published. The book became a bestseller for all the wrong reasons and the most eye-opening celebrity biography of our time, according to William Sapphire of The New York Times. 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. According to Kelly, the family detested her and the book, which took its toll on Sinatra�s health. Kelly claims that Tina Sinatra blamed her for her father�s colon surgery in 1986. He was forced to drop the case on September 19, 1984, with several leading newspapers expressing concerns about his views on censorship. 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. The album was a substitute for another Jones project, an album of duets with Lena Horne, which had to be abandoned. In 1986, Sinatra collapsed on stage while performing in Atlantic City and was hospitalized for diverticulitis, which left him looking frail. Two years later, Sinatra reunited with Martin and Davis, Jr., and went on the Rat Pack reunion tour, during which they played a number of large arenas. When Martin dropped out of the tour early on, a rift developed between them and the two never spoke again. 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. Sinatra maintained an active touring schedule in the early 1990s, performing 65 concerts in 1990, 73 in 1991 and 84 in 1992 in 17 different countries. In 1993, Sinatra returned to Capitol Records in the recording studio for duets, which became his best-selling album. The album and its sequel, duets too released the following year, would see Sinatra remake his classic recordings with popular contemporary performers, who added their vocals to a pre-recorded tape. During his tours in the early 1990s, his memory failed him at times during concerts, and he fainted on stage in Richmond, Virginia, in March 1994. His final public concerts were held in Fukuoka Dome in Japan on December 1920, 1994. The following year, Sinatra sang for the very 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. Esquire reported of the show that Sinatra was clear, tough, on the money and in absolute control. 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 attitude. Rock and roll plays at being tough, but this guy is the boss the chairman of boss. I'm not going to mess with him, are you? In 1995, to mark Sinatra's 80th birthday, the Empire State Building glowed blue. 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 Salten Pippa singing his songs. At the end of the program Sinatra graced the stage for the last time to sing the final notes of the theme from New York, New York with an ensemble. In recognition of his many years of association with Las Vegas, Frank Sinatra was elected to the Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997. Sinatra, the musician. While Sinatra never formally learned how to read music, he had a fine, natural understanding of it, and he worked very hard from a young age to improve his abilities in all aspects of music. He did, however, learn to follow a lead sheet 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. Grenada 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. Sinatra was an aficionado of classical music, and would often request classical strains in his music, inspired by composers such as Puccini and Impressionist masters. His personal favorite was Ralph von Williams. He would insist on always recording live with the band because it gave him a certain feeling to perform live surrounded by musicians. By the mid-1940s, such was his understanding of music that after hearing an aircheck 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, air for oboe, air for English horn, air for flute, air for bassoon, slow dance and theme and variations. The works, which combine elements of jazz and classical music were considered by Wilder to have been among the finest renditions and recordings of his compositions past or present. At one recording session with a ranger Kloss Ogerman and an orchestra, Sinatra heard a couple of little strangers in the string section, prompting Ogerman to make corrections to what were thought to be copyist's errors. Critic Jean 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 and Company, 1971, considering him to have worded the lyrics in the way that he had intended when writing them to perfection. Voice coach John Quinlan was impressed by Sinatra's vocal range, remarking, He has far more voice that people think he has. He can vocalize to a B-flat on top in full voice, and he doesn't need a mic either. As a singer, early on he was primarily influenced by Bing Crosby, but later believed that Tony Bennett was the best singer in the business. Bennett also praised Sinatra himself, claiming that as a performer, he had perfected the art of intimacy. According to Nelson Riddle, Sinatra had a fairly rangy voice, 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. Despite his heavy New Jersey accent, according to Richard Schuller, when Sinatra sang his accent was virtually undetectable, with his diction becoming precise and articulation meticulous. His timing was impeccable, allowing him, according to Charles L. Granada, to toy with the rhythm of a melody, bringing tremendous excitement to his reading of a lyric. 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, and Sinatra regularly swam and held his breath underwater, thinking of song lyrics to increase his breathing power. Arranger Nelson Riddle found Sinatra to be a perfectionist who drove himself and everybody around him relentlessly, and stated that his collaborators approached him with a sense of uneasiness because of his unpredictable and often volatile temperament. Granada 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. 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. 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. He once told Sammy Kinn, who wrote songs for Anchors Away, If You're Not There Monday, I'm Not There Monday. Over the years he recorded 87 of Kinn's songs, of which 24 were composed by Jules Stein, and 43 by Jimmy Van Huisen. The Kinn-Stein partnership lasted from 1942 until 1954, when Van Huisen succeeded him as Sinatra's main composer. 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. If it were a mellow love song, he would ask for Gordon Jenkins. If it were a rhythm number, he would think of Billy May, or perhaps Neil Hefty or some other favored arranger. Jenkins considered Sinatra's musical sense to be unerring. His changes to Rital's charts would frustrate Rital, yet he would usually concede that Sinatra's ideas were superior. 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? 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. Sinatra's split with Gardner in the fall of 1953 had a profound impact on the types of songs he sang and 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 about me, my one and only love and there will never be another you, which Rital believed was the direct influence of Ava Gardner. Lar comments that the new Sinatra was not the gentle boy balladier of the forties. Fragility had gone from his voice, to be replaced by a virile adult's sense of happiness and hurt. Author Granada considered Sinatra to have been 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 1,000 recordings. Recording sessions would typically last three hours, though Sinatra would always prepare for it by spending at least an hour by the piano beforehand to vocalise, followed by a short rehearsal with the orchestra to ensure the balance of sound. During his Columbia years Sinatra would use a RCA 44 microphone, which Granada describes as the old fashioned microphone which is closely associated with Sinatra's crooner image of the 1940s, though when performing on talk shows later he would use a bullet shaped RCA 77. At Capitol he used a new menu 47, an ultra sensitive microphone which better captured the timbre and tone of his voice. In the 1950s, Sinatra's career was facilitated by developments in technology. As disc jockey Jonathan Schwartz said, never before had there been an opportunity for a popular singer to express emotions at an extended length. In the words of author John Larr, as many as 16 songs could be held by the 12 inch LP, and this allowed Sinatra to use song in a novelistic way, turning each track in a kind of chapter, which built in counterpoint moods to illuminate a larger theme. Santo Pietro writes that through the 1950s, well into the 1960s, every Sinatra LP was a masterpiece of one sort of another, whether uptempo, torch song, or Swingen affairs. Track after track, the brilliant concept albums redefined the nature of pop vocal art. Film career debut, musical films and career slump, 1941- 1952 Sinatra attempted to pursue an acting career in Hollywood in the early 1940s. While films appealed to him, being exceptionally self-confident, he was rarely enthusiastic towards his own acting, once remarking that pictures stink. Sinatra made his film debut in 1941, performing in an uncredited sequence in Las Vegas Nights, singing I'll Never Smile Again with Tommy Dorsey's The Pied Pipers. In 1943 he had a cameo role along with Duke Ellington and Count Basie in Charles Barton's Reveille with Beverly, making a brief appearance singing Night and Day. The following year he was given his leading roles in Higher and Higher and Step Lively for RKO Pictures. In 1945, Metro Goldwyn Mayer cast Sinatra opposite Gene Kelly and Catherine Grayson in The Technicolor Musical Anchors Away, in which he played a sailor on leave in Hollywood for four days. A major success, 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. In 1946, Sinatra briefly appeared at the end of Richard Worf's commercially successful Till the Clouds role by, A Technicolor Musical Biopic of Jerome Kern, in which he sang O.L. Man River. In 1949, Sinatra C.O. starred with Gene Kelly in The Technicolor Musical Take Me Out to the Ball Game, a film set in 1908, in which Sinatra and Kelly play baseball players who are part-time vote-avillians. He teamed up with Kelly for a third time in On the Town, playing a sailor on leave in New York City. Today the film is rated very highly by critics, and in 2006 it ranked number 19 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals. Both Double Dynamite, 1951, an RKO Irving Cummings comedy produced by Howard Hughes, and Joseph Pevney's Meet Danny Wilson, 1952, failed to make an impression. The New York World Telegram and Sun ran the headline Gone on Frankie in 42, Gone in 52. Career Comeback and Prime, 1953-1959. Fred Zinnie Mons from Here to Eternity 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. Sinatra had long been desperate to find a film role which 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. During production, Montgomery Clift became a close friend, and Sinatra later professed that he learned more about acting from him than anybody I ever knew before. After several years of critical and commercial decline, his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor when helped him regain his position as the top recording artist in the world. 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. In 1954 Sinatra starred opposite Doris Day in the musical film Young at Heart, and earned critical praise for his performance as a psychopathic killer posing as an FBI agent opposite Sterling Hayden in the film Noir Suddenly. 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 and the man with the golden arm, 1955. After roles in Guys and Dolls, and The Tender Trap, Sinatra was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a leading role for his role as Hospital Orderly in Stanley Kramer's debut picture, not as a stranger. During production, Sinatra got drunk with Robert Mitchum and Broderick Crawford and trashed Kramer's dressing room. Kramer vowed to never hire Sinatra again at the time, and later regretted casting him as a Spanish guerrilla leader in The Pride and the Passion, 1957. In 1956 Sinatra featured alongside Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly in High Society for MGM, earning a reported $250,000 for the picture. The public rushed to the cinemas to see Sinatra and Crosby together on screen, and it ended up earning over $13 million at the box office, becoming one of the highest-grossing pictures of 1956. In 1957, Sinatra starred opposite Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak in George Sidney's Pal Joey, for which he won for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Santo Pietro considers the scene in which Sinatra sings The Lady is a Tramp to Hayworth to have been the finest moment of his film career. He next portrayed comedian Joey Lewis in The Joker Is Wild, the song all the way won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. By 1958 Sinatra was one of the ten biggest box office draws in the United States, appearing with Dean Martin and Shirley McClane in Vincent T. Minnelli's Some Came Running and Kings Go Forth 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, lasting on the hot 100 for 17 weeks. Later career, 1960-1988. Due to an obligation he owed to 20th Century Fox for walking off the set of Henry King's Carousel, 1956, in 1960 Sinatra starred opposite Shirley McClane, Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jordan in Can Can. He earned $200,000 and 25% of the profits for the performance. Later that year he starred in the Las Vegas set Ocean's Eleven the first film to feature the Rat Pack together in the start of a new era of screen cool for Santo Pietro. Sinatra personally financed the film, and paid Martin and Davis junior fees of $150,000 and $125,000 respectively, some's considered exorbitant for the period. In 1962, Sinatra had a leading role opposite Lawrence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate, which he considered to be the role he was most excited about and the high point of his film career. 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. He appeared with the Rat Pack in The Western Sgt. III following it with Four for Texas in 1963. For his performance in Come Blow Your Horn, he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Though 1965's Von Ryan's Express was a major success, and he had directed none but The Brave that year, in the mid-1960s, Brad Dexter wanted to breathe new life in Sinatra's film career by helping him display the same professional pride in his films as he did his recordings. On one occasion, he gave Sinatra Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange, 1962, to read, with the idea of making a film, but Sinatra thought it had no potential and did not understand a word. In the late 1960s, Sinatra became known for playing detectives, including Tony Rome in Tony Rome, 1967, and its sequel Lady in Cement, 1968. He also played a similar role in 1968's The Detective. In 1970, Sinatra starred opposite George Kennedy in The Western Dirty Dingus McGee, an abysmal affair according to Santo Pietro, which was panned by the critics. Sinatra had intended to play Detective Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry, 1971, but had to turn the role down due to developing Dupa Trends' contracture in his hand. Sinatra's last major film role was opposite Faye Dunaway in Brian G. Hutton's The First Deadly Sin, 1980. Santo Pietro noted 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. Television and Radio Career After beginning on the major Bose amateur hour radio show with The Hoboken 4 in 1935, and later WNEW and WAAT in Jersey City, Sinatra became the star of various radio shows of his own on NBC and CBS from the early 1940s to the mid-1950s. In 1942 Sinatra hired a ranger 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. By the end of 1942 he was named the most popular male vocalist on radio in a downbeat poll. Early on he frequently worked with the popular Andrews sisters on radio, and they would appear as guests on each other's shows, as well as on many USO shows broadcast to troops via the Armed Forces Radio Service, AFRS. He appeared as a special guest in the sisters ABC 8 to the Bar Ranch series, while the trio in turn guested on his songs by Sinatra series on CBS. Sinatra had two stints as a regular member of cast of Your Hit Parade, his first was from 1943 to 1945, and second was from 1946 to May 28, 1949, during which he was paired with the then new girl singer, Doris Day. Starting in September 1949, the Bidando advertising agency produced a radio series starring Sinatra for Lucky Strike called Light Up Time some 176 15-minute shows which featured Frank and Dorothy Kirsten singing which lasted through to May 1950. 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. Santo Pietro writes that Sinatra simply never appeared fully at ease on his own television series, his edgy, impatient personality conveying a pent-up energy on the verge of exploding. In 1953 Sinatra starred in the NBC radio program Rocky Fortune, portraying Rocco Fortunato, aka Rocky Fortune, a footloose and fancy-free temporary worker for the gridly employment agency who stumbles into crime-solving. The series aired on NBC Radio Tuesday nights from October 1953 to March 1954. In 1957, Sinatra formed a three-year $3 million 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 $7 million. 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. In return, Sinatra later made numerous appearances on the Dean Martin show and Martin's TV specials. Sinatra's fourth and final Timex TV special, Welcome Home Elvis was broadcast in March 1960, which earned massive viewing figures. 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� which fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. ACBS News special about the singer's 50th birthday, Frank Sinatra, A Man and His Music, was broadcast on November 16, 1965, and garnered both an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award. According his musical collaboration with Jobim and Ella Fitzgerald in 1967, Sinatra appeared in the TV special, A Man and His Music and Ella and Jobim, which was broadcast on CBS on November 13. When Sinatra came out of retirement in 1973, he released both an album and appeared in a TV special named �OL Blue Eyes��s Back. The TV special was highlighted by a dramatic reading of Send in the Clowns and a song and dance sequence with former CO-star Gene Kelly. In the late 1970s, John Denver appeared as a guest in the Sinatra and Friends ABC TV special, singing September song as a duet. In 1977, Sinatra starred as a detective in Contract on Cherry Street, cited as his one-starring role in a dramatic television film. Ten years later, he made a guest appearance opposite Tom Selick in Magnum, P.I.Dot, playing a retired policeman who teams up with Selick to find his granddaughter's murderer. Shot in January 1987, the episode aired on CBS on February 25. Personal Life Sinatra had three children, Nancy, Frank Jr., 1944-2016, and Tina, all with his first wife, Nancy Sinatra, Ne Barbato, born September 11, 1917, M.1939-1951. Sinatra had met Barbato in Long Branch, New Jersey in the late 1930s, where he spent most of the summer working as a lifeguard. He agreed to marry her after an incident at the Rustic Cabin which led to his arrest. Sinatra had numerous extramarital affairs, and gossip magazines published details of affairs with women including Marilyn Maxwell, Lana Turner and Joy Lansing. Sinatra was married to Hollywood actress Ava Gardner from 1951 to 1957. It was a turbulent marriage, with many well-publicized fights and altercations, and Gardner aborted a child in November 1952. The couple formally announced their separation on October 29, 1953, through MGM. Gardner filed for divorce in June 1954, at a time when she was dating Matador Luis Miguel Dominguan, but the divorce was not settled until 1957. Sinatra continued to feel very strongly for her, and they remained friends for life. He was still dealing with her finances in 1976. Sinatra reportedly broke off engagements to Lauren Bacall in 1958, and Juliet Prowse in 1962. He married Mia Farrow on July 19, 1966, a short marriage which ended with divorce in Mexico in August 1968. They remained close friends for life, and in a 2013 interview Farrow admitted that Sinatra might be the father of her son, Ronan Farrow. Sinatra was lastly married to Barbara Marx from 1976 until his death. The couple married at Sunnylands, in Rancho Mirage, California, the estate of media magnate Walter Annenberg, on July 11, 1976. Sinatra was close friends with Jilly Rizzo, songwriter Jimmy Van Huisen, golfer Ken Venturi, comedian Pat Henry and baseball manager Leo de Rocher. In his spare time, Sinatra enjoyed listening to classical music, and would attend concerts when he could. He swam daily in the Pacific Ocean, finding it to be therapeutic and giving him much-needed solitude. He would often play golf with Venturi at the course in Palm Springs, where he lived, and liked painting, reading and building model railways. Though Sinatra was critical of the Church on numerous occasions, and had an Albert Einstein-like view of God in his earlier life, he turned to the Roman Catholic Church for healing after his mother died in a plane crash in 1977. He died as a practicing Catholic and had a Catholic burial. Style and Personality Sinatra was noted for his impeccable sense of style. He always dressed immaculately, both in his professional and private life. He believed that as he was the best, he had to give his best to the audience, and would wear expensive custom-tailored tuxedos on stage as a sign of respect and to look important. He spent lavishly on stylish pinstripe suits and other clothing, and later admitted that clothing made him feel wealthy and important, bolstering his ego. 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. His deep blue eyes earned him the popular nickname O.L. Blue Eyes. For Santo Pietro, Sinatra was the personification of America in the 1950s, cocky, eye on the main chance, optimistic, and full of the sense of possibility. Barbara Sinatra wrote that 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 diffused with humor. Carrie Grant, a good friend of Sinatra's, 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. Joe Carroll Denison commented that he possessed great inner strength, and that his energy and drive was enormous. A workaholic, he reportedly only slept for four hours a night on average. Throughout his life, Sinatra had mood swings and bouts of mild to severe depression, admitting to an interviewer in the 1950s that I have an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as elation. Barbara Sinatra stated that he would snap at anyone for the slightest misdemeanor, while Van Huisen said that when Sinatra got drunk it was best to disappear. 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, according to Rojak he was capable of deeply offensive behavior that smacked of a persecution complex. 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, and for a confrontation with Washington Post journalist Maxine Cheshire in 1973, in which he implied that she was a cheap prostitute. Yet Sinatra was known for his generosity, particularly after his comeback. Kelly notes that when Lee Jacob 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. In another instance, after a heated argument with manager Bobby Burns, rather than apologize, Sinatra bought him a brand-new Cadillac. Alleged organized crime links and Calneva Lodge. Sinatra became the stereotype of the tough working-class Italian-American, something which he embraced. Sinatra commented that if it had not been for his interest in music he would probably have ended in a life of crime. In his early days, Mafia boss Willie Moretti, Sinatra's godfather and notorious under-boss of the Genovese crime family, helped him for kickbacks and was reported to have intervened in releasing him from his contract with Tommy Dorsey. Sinatra was present at the Mafia Havana Conference in 1946, and when the press learned it of Sinatra being in Havana with Lucky Luciano, one newspaper published the headline, Shame, Sinatra. He was reported to be a good friend of Sam Giancana, and the two were seen playing golf together. Kelly quotes Joe Carroll-Silvers in saying that Sinatra adored Bugsy Siegel, and would boast about him to friends and how many people he had killed. Kelly claims that Sinatra and mobster Joseph Fisketti had been good friends from 1938 onward, and acted like Sicilian brothers. She also states that Sinatra and Hank Sonecola were financial partners with Mickey Cohen in the gossip magazine Hollywood Night Life. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, kept records amounting to 2,403 pages on Sinatra, becoming a natural target with his alleged mafia ties, his ardent New Deal politics and his friendship with John F. Kennedy. The FBI kept Sinatra 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. The FBI documented that Sinatra was losing esteem with the mafia as he grew closer to President Kennedy, whose younger brother attorney General Robert Kennedy was leading a crackdown on organized crime. Sinatra denied mafia involvement, declaring that �any report that I fraternized with goons or racketeers is a vicious lie.� In 1960, Sinatra bought a share in the Calnevillage and Casino, a casino hotel which straddles the border between Nevada and California on the north shores of Lake Tahoe. Though it only opened between June and September, Sinatra built the Celebrity Room Theatre, which attracted the other Rat Pack members � Red Skelton, Marilyn Monroe, Victor Borga, Joe E. Lewis, Lucille Ball, Lena Horne, Juliet Prouse, the McGuire sisters and others. By 1962 he reportedly held a 50% share in the hotel. Sinatra's gambling license was temporarily stripped by the Nevada Gaming Control Board in 1963 after Giancana was spotted on the premises. Due to ongoing pressure from the FBI and Nevada Gaming Commission on mobster control of casinos, Sinatra agreed to give up his share in Calneva and the Sands. That year, Sinatra's son, Frank Sinatra, Jr., was kidnapped, but was eventually released unharmed. Sinatra restored his gaming license in February 1981, following support from Ronald Reagan. Politics and Activism Sinatra held differing political views throughout his life. His mother, Dolly Sinatra, 1896-1977, was a Democratic Party ward leader. Sinatra met President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, and subsequently heavily campaigned for the Democrats in the 1944 presidential election. According to Joe 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. He was outspoken about racism, particularly toward blacks and Italians, from early on. In November 1945 Sinatra was invited by the mayor of Gary, Indiana, to try to settle a strike by white students of Frobel High School against the pro-negro policies of the new principal. His comments, while praised by liberal publications, led to accusations by some that he was a communist, which he strongly denied. In the 1948 presidential election, Sinatra actively campaigned for President Harry S. Truman. In 1952 and 1956, he also campaigned for Adlai Stevenson. Of all the U.S. presidents he associated with during his career, he was closest to John F. Kennedy.Sinatra often invited Kennedy to Hollywood and Las Vegas, and the two would womanize and enjoy parties together. In January 1961 Sinatra and Peter Lofford organized the inaugural gala in Washington, D.C., held on the evening before President Kennedy was sworn into office.In 1962, Sinatra was snubbed by Kennedy during his visit to Palm Springs when he decided to stay with the Republican Bing Crosby, due to FBI concerns about Sinatra's alleged connections to organized crime. Sinatra had invested a lot of his own money in upgrading the facilities at his home in anticipation of the president's visit, fitting it with a heliport, which he later reportedly smashed up with a sledgehammer upon being rejected. Despite the snub, when he learned of Kennedy's assassination he reportedly sobbed in his bedroom for three days.When Sinatra learned that Kennedy's killer Lee Harvey Oswald had watched suddenly just days before the assassination, he withdrew it from circulation, and it only became distributed again in the late 1980s. Sinatra worked with Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968, 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.He officially changed allegiance in July 1972 when he supported Richard Nixon for reelection in the 1972 presidential election. In the 1980 presidential election, Sinatra supported Ronald Reagan and donated $4 million to Reagan's campaign. Sinatra arranged Reagan's presidential gala, as he had done for Kennedy 20 years previously. In 1985, Reagan presented Sinatra with the presidential medal of freedom, remarking, �His love of country, his generosity for those less fortunate, make him one of our most remarkable and distinguished Americans.� Santo Pietro notes that Sinatra was a �a lifelong sympathizer� with Jewish causes. He was awarded the Halzer Memorial Award by the Los Angeles Jewish Community in 1949. He gave a series of concerts in Israel in 1962, and donated his entire $50,000 fee for appearing in a cameo role in Casta Giant Shadow, 1966, to the Youth Center in Jerusalem. On November 1, 1972, he raised $6.5 million in bond pledges for Israel, and was given the medallion of valor for his efforts. The Frank Sinatra Student Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was dedicated in his name in 1978. From his youth, Sinatra displayed sympathy for African Americans and worked both publicly and privately all his life to help them win equal rights. He blamed racial prejudice on the parents of children. Sinatra played a major role in the desegregation of Nevada hotels and casinos in the 1950s and 1960s. At the Sands in 1955, Sinatra went against policy by inviting Nat King Cole into the dining room, and in 1961, after an incident where an African-American couple entered the lobby of the hotel and were blocked by the security guard, Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. forced the hotel management to begin hiring black waiters and busboys. 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 Sinatra, Jr., King sat weeping in the audience at one of his father's concerts in 1963 as Sinatra sang O El Man River, a song from the musical show Boat that is sung by an African-American stevedore. When he changed his political affiliations in 1970, Sinatra became less outspoken on racial issues. Though he did much towards racial causes, it did not stop the occasional racist jib from him and the other Rat Pack members toward Davis at concerts. DEATH Sinatra died with his wife at his side at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on May 14, 1998, aged 82, after a heart attack.Sinatra had ill health during the last few years of his life, and was frequently hospitalized for heart and breathing problems, high blood pressure, pneumonia and bladder cancer. He was further diagnosed as having dementia. He had made no public appearances following a heart attack in February 1997. Sinatra's wife encouraged him to fight while attempts were made to stabilize him, and his final words were, �I�m losing.� Sinatra�s daughter, Tina, later wrote that she and her sister, Nancy, 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. The night after Sinatra�s death, the lights on the Empire State Building in New York City were turned blue. Also right after Sinatra�s death, the lights on the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honor, and the casinos stopped spinning for a minute. Sinatra�s funeral was held at the Roman Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, California, on May 20, 1998, with 400 mourners in attendance and thousands of fans outside. Gregory Peck, Tony Bennett and Sinatra�s son, Frank Jr., addressed the mourners, who included many notable people from film and entertainment.Initra was buried in a blue business suit with mementos from family members cherry-flavored lifesavers, Tootsie Rolls, a bottle of Jack Daniels, a pack of camel cigarettes, a zippo lighter, stuffed toys, a dog biscuit, and a roll of dimes that he always carried next to his parents in Section B8 of Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California. His close friends Jilly Rizzo and Jimmy Van Huisen are buried nearby. The words �the best is yet to come,� plus �beloved husband and father� are imprinted on Sinatra�s grave marker. Significant increases in recording sales worldwide were reported by Billboard in the month of his death. Legacy and Honours American music critic Robert Christgore referred to Sinatra as �the greatest singer of the 20th century.� His popularity was later matched only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson. For Santo Pietro, Sinatra was the �greatest male pop singer� in the history of America, who amassed unprecedented power on screen and off, and seemed to exemplify the common man, an ethnic 20th century American male who reached the top of the heap, yet never forgot his roots. Santo Pietro argues that Sinatra created his own world, which he was able to dominate his career was centered around power, perfecting the ability to capture an audience. Composer Gus Levine 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. 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. 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 as him. Sinatra continues to be seen as one of the icons of the 20th century. And has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in film and music. There are stars on east and west sides of the 1600 block of Vine Street respectively, and one on the south side of the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard for his work Indiana television. In Sinatra�s native New Jersey, Hobokin�s Frank Sinatra Park, the Hobokin Post Office and a residence hall at Montclair State University were named in his honour. 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, and the Frank Sinatra Hall at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, California, dedicated in 2002. Win Resorts Encore Las Vegas Resort features a restaurant dedicated to Sinatra which opened in 2008. Items of memorabilia from Sinatra�s life and career are displayed at USC�s Frank Sinatra Hall and Win Resorts Sinatra Restaurant.Here the Las Vegas Strip is a road named Frank Sinatra Drive in his honour. The United States Postal Service issued a 42 cent postage stamp in honour of Sinatra in May 2008, commemorating the 10th anniversary of his death. The United States Congress passed a resolution introduced by Rep. Mary Bono Mack on May 20, 2008, designating May 13 as Frank Sinatra Day to honour his contributions to American culture. Sinatra received three honorary degrees during his lifetime. In May 1976, he was invited to speak at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, UNLV, graduation commencement held at Sam Boyd Stadium. It was at this commencement that he was bestowed an honorary doctorate litterarum humanarum by the University. During his speech, Sinatra noted that his education had come from the School of Hard Knocks and was suitably touched by the award. He went on to describe 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.� A few years later in 1984 and 1985, Sinatra also received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Loyola Marymount University as well as an honorary doctorate of engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology. Film and television portrayals Sinatra has been portrayed on numerous occasions in film and on television. A television miniseries based on Sinatra�s life, titled Sinatra, was aired by CBS in 1992. Sinatra 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 Kasnoff as Sinatra. Sinatra was written by Abhi Mann and Philip Mastrosimone, and produced by Sinatra�s daughter, Tina. Sinatra has subsequently been portrayed on screen by Ray Liotta, The Rat Pack, 1998, James Russo, Stealing Sinatra, 2003, Dennis Hopper, The Night We Called It a Day, 2003, and Robert Nepper, My Way, 2012, and Spoofed by Joe Piscopo and Phil Hartman on Saturday Night Live. A biographical film directed by Martin Scorsese has long been in production. A 1998 episode of the BBC documentary series Arena, The Voice of the Century, focused on Sinatra. Alex Chibney directed a four-part biographical series on Sinatra, All or Nothing at All, for HBO in 2015. A musical tribute was aired on CBS television in December 2015 to mark Sinatra�s centenary.