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.
Here's That Rainy Day
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I should have saved
Those leftover dreams
Funny
But here's that rainy day
Here's that rainy day
They told me about
And I laughed at the thought
Where is that worn out wish
That I threw aside
After it brought my love so near
Funny how love becomes
A cold rainy day
Funny
That rainy day is here
It's funny
How love becomes
A cold rainy day
Funny
That rainy day is here
The lyrics to Frank Sinatra's song, "Here's That Rainy Day," describe the feeling of disappointment and regret that accompanies the arrival of a rainy day. The singer reflects on past dreams and wishes that were left unrealized, and realizes that the rainy day is a metaphor for a failed love affair. He refers to a "worn out wish" that he discarded after it brought him close to love, suggesting that he may have sabotaged his own happiness. As he watches the rain fall, he realizes that the love that he thought he had is now over and that he may never have another chance at happiness.
The theme of lost love is a common one in Sinatra's music, and he does a masterful job of evoking the melancholy mood of the rainy day. His voice is full of emotion, and the lyrics are simple yet powerful. Through the metaphor of the rainy day, Sinatra captures the sense of loss and regret that almost everyone can relate to at some point in their lives.
Line by Line Meaning
Maybe
Perhaps
I should have saved
I regret not preserving
Those leftover dreams
The hopes and aspirations that remain unfulfilled
Funny
Ironically
But here's that rainy day
But the day full of sorrow and gloom has arrived
Here's that rainy day
The day of despair is upon me
They told me about
I was warned earlier
And I laughed at the thought
And I ridiculed the idea
That it might turn out this way
That the situation could be like this
Where is that worn out wish
Where is that exhausted desire
That I threw aside
That I disregarded
After it brought my love so near
After it almost helped me obtain my love
Funny how love becomes
Ironically how love transforms into
A cold rainy day
A depressing and sorrowful experience
Funny
Ironically
That rainy day is here
That gloomy day is here
It's funny
It's ironic
How love becomes
How love transforms into
A cold rainy day
A depressing and sorrowful experience
Funny
Ironically
That rainy day is here
That gloomy day is here
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@dennis5806
Maybe I should have saved those leftover dreams
Funny but here's that rainy day
Here's that rainy day they told me about
And I laughed at the thought
That it might turn out this way
Where is that worn out wish that I threw aside
After it brought my love so near
Funny how love becomes a cold rainy day
Funny that rainy day is here
It's funny how love becomes a cold rainy day
Funny that rainy day is here
@hughmcilveen2235
Sinatra wasn't the nicest guy in the world if you crossed him, but what a wonderful artist. This recording of a great song is the PERFECT union of the best interpreter of a lyric who ever lived and a sublime arrangement by Gordon Jenkins. Superb.
@maryoconnor7407
I love hearing him sing a song in that beautiful voice, slowly, with feeling. It is wonderful to hear the orchestra in the background, and better yet, hear every word he sings. They were the Great Old Days.
@robertsvorinich7959
You could learn to speak English properly by listening to his songs. 😊
@jokepokie
Cette chanson me console..
@mauricioduron3193
The master balladeer and Master G. Jenkins in another Johnny Burke,
Sammy Cahn materpiece.
@luther1546
He was a complete and total prick in his private life, but simply the best in the business on the microphone. What a voice.
@stevemoses6044
I want to cry every time I hear this song. Sinatra's the greatest
@amymalina5073
I got the chills when this song started. It is sublime.
@toddsaedify
favorite song of Johnny Carson
@danielcruz8347
Wide eyed truth from Mr Frank Sinatra's heart strings!! Cuts right through all BS !! ⚡💖⚡🌈😥