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.
Chickery Chick
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
"Chick-chick" all day
Soon that chick got sick and tired of just "chick-chick"
So one morning he started to say:
"Chickery chick, cha-la, cha-la
Check-a-la romey in a bananika
Bollika, wollika, can't you see
Every time you're sick and tired of just the same old thing
Sayin' just the same old words all day
Be just like the chicken who found something new to sing
Open up your mouth and start to say
Oh!
"Chickery chick, cha-la, cha-la
Check-a-la romey in a bananika
Bollika, wollika, can't you see
Chickery chick is me?"
The lyrics of Frank Sinatra's Chickery Chick tell the story of a chicken who is tired and bored of just saying "chick-chick" all day long. This chicken has had enough of the monotony and decides to experiment with other sounds and words. One day, he starts saying "Chickery chick, cha-la, cha-la, Check-a-la romey in a bananika, Bollika, wollika, can't you see, Chickery chick is me?"
The message of the song is to encourage people to be creative and experiment with new things when they are feeling bored and tired of their routine. The chicken in the song is an example of someone who was not content with the status quo and decided to break free from it. The catchy refrain encourages us to do the same.
Line by Line Meaning
Once there lived a chicken who would say "chick-chick"
There existed a chicken which would make a constant sound of "chick-chick"
"Chick-chick" all day
The chicken had been making the sound continuously throughout the day
Soon that chick got sick and tired of just "chick-chick"
The chicken became exhausted with the monotonousness of its sound production
So one morning he started to say:
One morning, the chicken began to produce a different sound instead of the "chick-chick" sound
"Chickery chick, cha-la, cha-la
The chicken started singing a new sound "Chickery chick, cha-la, cha-la"
Check-a-la romey in a bananika
The chicken introduced a new set of nonsense words
Bollika, wollika, can't you see
The sound production rhythm had been altered by the addition of new sounds
Chickery chick is me?"
The chicken found a new identity with its sound production
Every time you're sick and tired of just the same old thing
Whenever you become restless with the repetitiveness of a situation
Sayin' just the same old words all day
Repeating just the same phrases throughout the day
Be just like the chicken who found something new to sing
Try to be like the chicken that discovered new ways of expression
Open up your mouth and start to say
Start making new sounds
Oh!
Expressing enthusiasm towards trying out new expressions
Lyrics © MUSIC SALES CORPORATION, BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: SID LIPPMAN, SYLVIA DEE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Hewhowalksbehindtherows
My grandfather recently died a week and a half ago at the age of 88, and throughout my childhood and early teen years he would sing this song to my older brothers, myself and my cousins. I remember when I was in sixth grade, he had both him and I sing it (the chorus) for the women who worked in the office at the school as he was picking me up early for an doctors or a dentist's appointment. It was embarrassing at the time, but now one of my favorite memories.
@martinforrester8249
My mother used to sing this to me when I was 4 years old. I'm 77 now, such fond memories of a wonderful person. X
@triplea5860
My father would always sing this to me at any random time during my childhood days. Enough times it just took on me. Never knowing it was a Sinatra song either. My father never mentioned, just would sing it. I'm 43 now soon to be 44 in like 3 months. I actually lost my dad when I was 14, but I always remembered the lyrics. Not till I was way older already an adult did I decide to just quickly research it one day, and sure enough I swiftly learned it was a Sinatra song. Funny though before learning it was a Sinatra song, that I always remembered the song, the lyrics word for word. Even started singing it to my own boys... Lol (Miss ya Pops)
🦅🅰️Wake🅰️Ware🅰️Lert🇺🇸
@fayemillet137
Omg, remember this song when I was 6 yrs. Old, now 82.
@Christforjo
Great memories...I love this. I and a friend sang this for a school assembly in 1948. Well, she 'froze' so I had to sing alone....not pleasant!!😁
@joanmiller1204
I see others have had the same memory burst as I had this afternoon, driving down the road, thinking of my grocery list. I don't think I've thought about this tune in 50 years (I'm 80). Knew it as a little girl, enjoyed the crazy post WWII lyrics. Now I've had to send them on, along with this link, to my adult grandchildren, who will think their grandmother has finally tapped out and gone bonkers. lol!
@pamelacannon5087
my Daddy taught this song to me when I was a little girl and I didn't know it was a real song till I looked it up just now imagine that at age 61 lol !!!!
@skoot2u
Just one of those lovely memories that make life worthwhile.
@stefanicusrex7320
My Farfar (dad's dad) taught me this when I was 7ish ... I've sung it out randomly through my entire life, and like you thought it just a nonsense thing that he just did (he was good at that)! and then a hankering came over me to look it up and lo! <3
@debbieanderson6174
My dad taught this to me as well, I’m 63!