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.
Change Partners
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With the same fortunate man?
You have danced with him since the music began
Won't you change partners and dance with me?
Must you dance quite so close
With your lips touching his face?
Can't you see
Won't you change partners and dance with me?
Ask him to sit this one out and while you're alone
I'll tell the waiter to tell him he's wanted on the telephone
You've been locked in his arms ever since heaven-knows-when
Won't you change partners and then
You may never want to change partners again
Won't you change partners and then
You may never want to change partners again
The lyrics of Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Change Partners" talk about a man who is trying to persuade a woman to dance with him instead of her current dance partner. The singer observes that the woman has been dancing with the same man since the music began and wonders if she couldn't change partners and dance with him instead. He goes on to ask her if she needs to dance so closely with her current partner, touching his face with her lips, and expresses how he longs to take his place.
The singer's desperation increases as he tries to persuade the woman to dance with him. He suggests that she asks her current partner to sit out this dance, and if she agrees, he will tell the waiter to ask him to come to the phone. The man is trying to separate the woman from her partner so that they can dance, perhaps even hoping that it will be the start of a new romance.
In the end, the singer urges the woman to change partners and assures her that after she has done so, she may never want to change partners again. The lyrics suggest that the man is confident in his ability to impress the woman with his dance moves and that he sees dancing as more than just a physical activity but rather a way of expressing emotions and possibly forging new romantic connections.
Line by Line Meaning
Must you dance every dance
With the same fortunate man?
Are you bound to dance with the same man every time?
You have danced with him since the music began
You have been dancing with him since the beginning of the music
Won't you change partners and dance with me?
Won't you exchange partners and dance with me instead?
Must you dance quite so close
With your lips touching his face?
Do you have to dance so intimately with him?
Can't you see
I'm longing to be in his place?
Can't you see that I wish to be in his stead?
Ask him to sit this one out and while you're alone
I'll tell the waiter to tell him he's wanted on the telephone
Request him to abstain while you make your way to me, and I'll ask the waiter to say he's needed on the phone
You've been locked in his arms ever since heaven-knows-when
You have been embraced by him for a very long time
Won't you change partners and then
You may never want to change partners again
Won't you swap partners, and after experiencing something new, never again feel like exchanging partners
Lyrics © IMAGEM U.S. LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: IRVING BERLIN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Canal Loudian
Must you dance every dance
With the same fortunate man?
You have danced with him since the music began,
Won't you change partners and dance with me?
Must you dance quite so close,
With your lips touching his face?
Can't you see I'm longing to be in his place?
Won't you change partners and dance with me?
Ask him to sit this one out,
And while you're alone,
I'll tell the waiter to tell him
He's wanted on the telephone,
You've been locked in his arms
Ever since heaven-knows-when,
Won't you change partners and then,
You may never want to change partners again.
Ask him to sit this one out,
And while you're alone,
I'll tell the waiter to tell him
He's wanted on the telephone,
You've been locked in his arms
Ever since heaven-knows-when,
Won't you change partners and then,
You may never have to change partners again.
Compositor
Dawit Seo
Must you dance every dance
With the same fortunate man?
You have danced with him since the music began,
Won't you change partners and dance with me?
Must you dance quite so close,
With your lips touching his face?
Can't you see I'm longing to be in his place?
Won't you change partners and dance with me?
Ask him to sit this one out,
And while you're alone,
I'll tell the waiter to tell him
He's wanted on the telephone,
You've been locked in his arms
Ever since heaven-knows-when,
Won't you change partners and then,
You may never want to change partners again.
Ask him to sit this one out,
And while you're alone,
I'll tell the waiter to tell him
He's wanted on the telephone,
You've been locked in his arms
Ever since heaven-knows-when,
Won't you change partners and then,
You may never have to change partners again.
Pepper Williams
This is by far the greatest version of this great classic! First of all, Frank's voice is perfect and unmistakable. Second, the flawless arrangement was done by one of the first arrangers I listened to, (and studied) while in college.
fob1xxl
Frank and Jobim were "MAGIC" together. Never loses it's magic!
Pam Tebelman
Jobim would make anybody sound good!
MD
@Pam TebelmanAnd likewise with Frank. Both were at the absolute peak of their industry.
Francesco Chelini
Music reachin' the highest level...Pure magic
sasa
Que coisa mais linda! Isso é obra de arte em forma de música. RIP Frank Sinatra and Tom Jobim.
trjuniortc
Concordo totalmente com vc.
David Levine
By any artist this song is great. Sinatra makes it so you never want it to end.
Carl Trotter
As with Fred Astaire, especially in both the movies context and the following 'hypnotic dance'.
David Brown
Well said