Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to Italian immigrants, Sinatra began his musical career in the swing era with bandleaders 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 "bobby 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 residency performers as part of The Rat Pack. His career was reborn in 1953 with the success of From Here to Eternity, with his performance subsequently winning an Academy Award and Golden Globe 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 'n' Easy (1960).
Sinatra left Capitol 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 and His Music, and released the tracks "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 & 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), winning another Golden Globe for the latter. Toward the end of his career, he became associated with playing detectives, including the title character in Tony Rome (1967). Sinatra would later receive the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1971. 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 an impressive 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 dress sense and performing presence, he always insisted on recording live with his band. His bright blue eyes earned him the popular nickname "Ol' 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 Christgau called him "the greatest singer of the 20th century", and he continues to be seen as an iconic figure.
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, the lights at 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. Sinatra was buried in a blue business suit with mementos from family members—cherry-flavored Life Savers, Tootsie Rolls, a bottle of Jack Daniel's, 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 B-8 of Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.
His close friends Jilly Rizzo and Jimmy Van Heusen are buried nearby. The words "The Best Is Yet to Come", plus "Beloved Husband & Father" are imprinted on Sinatra's grave marker. Significant increases in recording sales worldwide were reported by Billboard in the month of his death.
A Cottage for Sale
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Is lonely and silent
The shades are all drawn
And my heart is heavy as I gaze upon
A cottage for sale the lawn we were proud of
Is waving in hay a beautiful garden
Has withered away where you planted roses
The weeds seem to say
A cottage for sale from every single window
I see your face but when I reach the window
There's empty space the key's in the mailbox
The same as before but no one is waiting
For me anymore the end of our story
Is there on the door a cottage for sale
The lyrics to Frank Sinatra's song Cottage for Sale tell the story of a lonely man who comes across a once beautiful cottage that is now abandoned and for sale. The opening lines describe the cottage as a "dream castle" but it is now "lonely and silent" with the "shades drawn." The man's heart is heavy as he observes the state of the cottage, the once prideful lawn is now covered in hay, and the "beautiful garden has withered away" where roses were once planted, the weeds take over.
From every window, the man sees the face of his lost love but when he reaches the window, he is met with "empty space." The key is still in the mailbox, but no one is waiting for him anymore. The song ends with the man accepting the end of their story, which is symbolically illustrated through the cottage being up for sale.
The song carries a sense of sadness and longing for a past that can never be regained. It speaks to the memories we create and the painful feelings that come with losing a significant other. The cottage for sale represents the end of an era, the end of a love that once flourished.
Line by Line Meaning
A little dream castle, with every dream gone
A small, charming house that was once filled with dreams is now empty and lifeless.
Is lonely and silent, the shades are all drawn
The house is quiet, and its windows are covered, implying that no one inhabits it anymore.
And my heart is heavy, as I gaze upon a cottage for sale
The singer feels intense sorrow and regret as he looks at this abandoned house that once held so many loving memories.
The lawn we were proud of is waving in hay
The once well-maintained yard has now overgrown with weeds and grass.
A beautiful garden has withered away
The once carefully tended flower beds have all dried up and withered away.
Where you planted roses, the weeds seem to say, A cottage for sale
The location where flowers were once planted is now overrun with weeds, serving as a reminder of the painful past.
From every single window, I see your face
The singer gets flashbacks of his loved one and can't help but think of her with agony every time he sees the house.
But when I reach the window, there's empty space
However, when he ventures up to the window, what he finds is nothing but emptiness and disappointment.
The key's in the mailbox, the same as before
The home is still accessible as it used to be, yet no one seems to care anymore about it or be interested.
But no one is waiting for me anymore
The singer knows that even if he goes in, he won't be greeted by the person who made it home once upon a time.
The end of our story is there on the door, A cottage for sale
The ultimate symbol of loss and sadness, the door being closed for sale, represents the end of the story for the singer and his loved one.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Köln Nantes
hello from France ! thanks a lot ! it s the first time I' m listening to this version by Frank Sinatra ! it sounds like the songs in the beautiful album "only for the lonely"...
I know and I like very much too "a cottage for sale" by Natalie Cole . it's so different :-)
Sinatra 80
My pleasure!
Nick Battistella, Sinatra & More!
Koln yes different indeed! It’s an upbeat take on such a sad and intimate lyric. Still nice though. Sinatra does it justice. Check out the version by Willie Nelson.
Neil Cassner
😢