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.
Hello Young Lovers
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I hope your troubles are few
All my good wishes go with you tonight
I've been in love like you
Be brave young lovers and follow your star
Be brave and faithful and true
Cling very close to each other tonight
I know how it feels to have wings on your heels
And to fly down the street in a trance
You fly down a street on a chance that you'll meet
And you meet, not really by chance
Don't cry young lovers whatever you do
Don't cry because I'm alone
All of my mem'ries are happy tonight
I've had a love of my own
I've had a love of my own like yours
I've had a love of my own
"Hello Young Lovers" is a beautiful and sentimental ballad by Frank Sinatra, a song that whimsically yet genuinely cherishes the hope, excitement, and ache of new love. Simultaneously relatable and aspirational, the lyrics provide both comfort and guidance to anyone taking the delicate first steps into a relationship. Through his words, Sinatra seems to be saying that though he may be older and more experienced, he still remembers the thrill of new romance and understands the ardent desire for connection as well as the heartache that inevitably accompanies it.
The song offers words of wisdom and encouragement to "young lovers" everywhere, telling them to be "brave" and "faithful" as they explore the complex and exhilarating terrain of love. Even though Sinatra acknowledges that love can bring its share of pain, he emphasizes the importance of staying positive and hopeful, of celebrating good memories and not dwelling on heartbreak. His own history of love, both happy and sad, lends weight to his advice, making the song a comforting and encouraging anthem for anyone in the midst of a new relationship.
Overall, "Hello Young Lovers" is a soaring tribute to the power and beauty of love, a song that recognizes both its joys and sorrows yet remains steadfast in its belief that, ultimately, the effort is always worth it.
Line by Line Meaning
Hello young lovers whoever you are
Greetings to all young lovers, regardless of your identity
I hope your troubles are few
I wish for you to have minimal problems
All my good wishes go with you tonight
My sincere blessings accompany you this evening
I've been in love like you
I have experienced love similar to yours
Be brave young lovers and follow your star
Have courage, young lovers, and pursue your goals
Be brave and faithful and true
Remain courageous, loyal and honest
Cling very close to each other tonight
Stay close together this evening
I've been in love like you
I have felt the same love as you
I know how it feels to have wings on your heels
I understand the exhilaration of love
And to fly down the street in a trance
To travel through the roads hypnotized by love
You fly down a street on a chance that you'll meet
You wander along a path anticipating for love
And you meet, not really by chance
And there, you find love that may not have happened by coincidence
Don't cry young lovers whatever you do
Please do not weep, young lovers, under any circumstance
Don't cry because I'm alone
Do not lament my solitude
All of my mem'ries are happy tonight
I recollect joyful memories this evening
I've had a love of my own
I had experienced love similar to yours
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Written by: Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
ANDRES FERRARI
Personally, I love this version of this song. It is sung through the eyes and voice of someone who has loved and lost. Love is more precious and meaningful as we get older.
Fruitcake
This song was at my grandpas funeral. For his wife Joann who passed away a few months earlier. Wherever they are, their dancing with joy 💛
Eric Aussudre
Nobody can't touch this. Frank at the very top of his game thanks to the magnificent arranger Gordon Jenkins.
Gary Sacco
Whether a ballad arrangement or whatever Frank always would capture the right atmosphere,mood,and, sound, and make the song the highest quality!
Christopher Fortunato
Frank Sinatra is one of the rare singers that can take a song that was primarily written for a woman and make it a song that can be sung by a man.
cXsmic
Paul anka sings this as well
Eddie Renegade
The "Voice". Sounds so fabulous no matter what he sings.
billy wilson
One of his very best!
Bill Froehlich Music
By far his greatest album.
Eddie Flickinger
Wonderful arrangement