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.
Dont Blame Me
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I've hung around you just like a fool
Falling head and heels in love like a kid out of school.
My poor heart is in an awful state now
But it's too late now to call a halt
So if I become a nuisance it's all your fault!
Don't blame me for falling in love with you
I'm under your spell but how can I help it!
Don't' blame me!
Can't you see when you do the things you do!
If I can't conceal the thrill that I'm feeling,
Don't blame; me.
Ican't help it if that doggoned moon above
Makes me need someone like you to love!
Blame your kiss as sweet as a kiss can be
And blame all your charms that melt in my arms
But don't blame me.
I like every single thing about you
Without a doubt you are like a dream
In my mind I find a picture of us as a team
Ever since the hour of our meeting
I've been repeating a silly phrase
Hoping that you'll understand me one of these days.
Don't blame me for falling in love with you
I'm under your spell but how can I help it!
Don't' blame me!
Can't you see when you do the things you do!
If I can't conceal the thrill that I'm feeling,
Don't blame; me.
Ican't help it if that doggoned moon above
Makes me need someone like you to love!
Blame your kiss as sweet as a kiss can be
And blame all your charms that melt in my arms
But don't blame me.
In "Don't Blame Me," Frank Sinatra laments his adoration for someone who has entranced him so deeply that he is powerless against it. The first verse conveys that Sinatra is hopelessly in love with this individual and has made himself foolish in their presence, comparing himself to a lovesick schoolboy. The second verse declares that his heart is in a mess, but he is now too far gone to put a stop to it. Sinatra apologizes at the end of the verse if he becomes a nuisance because he is aware that his infatuation may begin to be a burden.
In the chorus, he urges his sweetheart not to blame him for his emotions. He is under their spell entirely and can't resist it, indicating that the individual is in control of his feelings, but he doesn't mind. He also requests that the individual understand he can't help that he is drawn to them due to the moon's influence. Finally, he tells them to blame their sweet kiss and enticing charms for his emotions, but not to blame him. The melody of this song, combined with Sinatra's beautiful performance, communicates the chorus's message of love and admiration for someone who has captured his heart.
Line by Line Meaning
Ever since the lucky night I found you
From the night I found you, I have been enchanted by your presence.
I've hung around you just like a fool
I have been foolishly attached to you since then.
Falling head and heels in love like a kid out of school.
I fell deeply in love with you just like a child without any care.
My poor heart is in an awful state now
My heart is in a terrible condition right now.
But it's too late now to call a halt
But it's too late to stop the way I feel about you.
So if I become a nuisance it's all your fault!
So if it seems like I am a nuisance, it is all because of how strongly I feel about you.
Don't blame me for falling in love with you
Please do not hold me responsible for loving you so much.
I'm under your spell but how can I help it!
I feel helpless because I am under your spell and cannot resist you.
Don't' blame me!
Please do not hold me responsible for how you make me feel.
Can't you see when you do the things you do!
You need to realize that you are the one who makes me feel this way when you do the things you do.
If I can't conceal the thrill that I'm feeling,
If I cannot hide the excitement that you bring out in me,
Don't blame; me.
Please do not hold me responsible for how you make me feel.
Ican't help it if that doggoned moon above
I cannot control the effect the moon above has on me.
Makes me need someone like you to love!
It makes me need someone like you to love.
Blame your kiss as sweet as a kiss can be
Please credit your sweet kisses for stirring up these emotions in me.
And blame all your charms that melt in my arms
Also, credit your charms that melt me in your arms.
But don't blame me.
But please do not hold me responsible for feeling this way about you.
I like every single thing about you
I find everything about you enchanting.
Without a doubt you are like a dream
You are like a dream come true without any doubts.
In my mind I find a picture of us as a team
I envision us as a perfect team in my mind.
Ever since the hour of our meeting
From the moment we met,
I've been repeating a silly phrase
I keep repeating a silly phrase over and over again.
Hoping that you'll understand me one of these days.
I hope that you will finally understand how I feel about you someday.
Lyrics © DistroKid, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: DOROTHY FIELDS, JIMMY MC HUGH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
James McEwan
One of my all time favourites - the song was written in 1933 by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields - this was recorded for Sinatra's radio show called To Be Perfectly Frank which ran from November 1953 to July 1954 and was broadcast on 15th December 1953, so you were pretty close with your guess
VincentDS
Excellent interpretation. I would rank it along with Perry Como's rendition and Barbara Cook's.
Caren L Goold
Played at a wedding yesterday. Can't get the words out of my mind...
Peter Shaw
Caren L Goold t
Minerva
Beautiful musica !
Jay Weekes
wow...beautifully done.
Peter Shaw
Lovely song sung by a guy who meant it.
JoggingOnTheMoon
@Jamesmac30 thanks for the info james - always good to learn something from a Sinatraphile. i wish frank had recorded a few albums with this kind of backing band - really sublime stuff.
Faustin kibabou kibamba
Thanks Frank...a beautiful song !!!!,no comment !
JadeZee
Sinatra a couple of years away from recreating pop music with nelson riddle....a couple of years that with Ava Gardner....would forever change him.....AND his voice.
coincidence?