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.
I Could Have Danced All Night
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And still have begged for more
I could've spread my wings and done a thousand things
I've never done before
I'll never know what made it so exciting
Why all at once my heart took flight
I only know when she began to dance with me
I could've danced, danced, danced, danced, danced all night
And still have danced some more
I could've spread my wings and done a thousand things
That I've never done before
I'll never know what made it so, so exciting
Why all at once my heart took flight
I only know when she began to dance with me
I could have danced, danced, danced, danced, danced all night
Frank Sinatra's "I Could Have Danced All Night" is an upbeat and lively song about the excitement and thrill of dancing with someone special. The singer expresses their desire to dance all night long and experience new sensations they have never felt before. The lyrics suggest a sense of freedom and elation that come with dancing and the chance to be with someone who makes them feel alive. As the singer describes their feelings of excitement and exhilaration, they convey the intensity of their emotions through repetition and use of rhythm, which creates an infectious energy that carries the listener along in the song's ecstatic momentum.
The opening lyrics, "Could've danced all night, could've danced all night / And still have begged for more" set the tone for the song, suggesting that the singer is caught up in the moment and can't get enough of dancing. The line "I could've spread my wings and done a thousand things / I've never done before" implies a sense of freedom and possibility, as if the singer is discovering new horizons and experiencing new sensations that are only available when dancing. The repeated refrain of "danced, danced, danced, danced, danced all night" also emphasizes the intensity of the singer's feelings and their desire to keep dancing without any interruption.
Line by Line Meaning
Could've danced all night, could've danced all night
I could have continued dancing without rest all night long
And still have begged for more
Even after all that dancing, I would have wanted more
I could've spread my wings and done a thousand things
Dancing felt so exhilarating that I could have explored endless possibilities
I've never done before
I was compelled to experience new things through dancing
I'll never know what made it so exciting
I can't explain what made dancing so thrilling for me
Why all at once my heart took flight
My heart felt uplifted and joyful while dancing
I only know when she began to dance with me
Dancing with my partner was a magical, unforgettable experience
I could've danced, danced, danced, danced, danced all night
I had so much energy and excitement from dancing that I could have kept going endlessly
I could've danced all night, I could've have danced all night
I wanted to dance all through the night
And still have danced some more
Even after all that dancing, I would have wanted to keep going
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@MrGroessler
The ONE and ONLY!
@roblewis3565
My favorite cut from the Come Dance with Me LP. Billy May arranged and conducted. Frank in his prime swinging as no one else ever could. Julie Andrews must have smiled.
@paulbrewer2374
Sinatra swings brilliantly here. The band playing the great arrangement by Billy May does, too.
@SafaAlkan
Awesome thanks
@yvvonelee5026
Love this
@andrewlally7828
Same as
@kathleenkane8216
Parties are a lot fun And Tom Perkins Danielle Steele are just here for the 🎉🎉🎉
@Requnity
My god, the French really do know how to party.
@andrewlally7828
The Godfather