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.
It's Been a Long Long Time
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's been a long, long time
Haven't felt like this, my dear, since can't remember when
It's been a long, long time
You'll never know how many dreams I dreamed about you
Or just how empty they all seemed without you
So kiss me once and kiss me twice and kiss me once again
Frank Sinatra's "It's Been a Long Long Time" is a love song that speaks of how a long time has passed since the singer felt such intense emotion. The lyrics convey a sense of longing and nostalgia, as if the singer is reminiscing about a past love.
The first verse of the song has the singer asking to be kissed once, twice, and then once more, alluding to the fact that it has been a long time since they last experienced such passion. The second part of the verse conveys the depth of the singer's emotions, as they explain that they haven't felt this way in a long time and cannot even remember the last time they did.
The chorus continues with the theme of how long it has been, with the singer stating that the person they are singing to will never know how many dreams they had about them and how empty those dreams felt without them. The chorus concludes with the request for more kisses, indicating that the singer has finally found the love they had been missing for so long.
Overall, the lyrics of "It's Been a Long Long Time" capture the feelings of a person who has longed for true love and has finally found it after a long time. The song conveys a powerful message about the joy that love can bring into one's life, even after years of feeling empty and alone.
Line by Line Meaning
Kiss me once and kiss me twice and kiss me once again
Please kiss me multiple times with love to show affection and attention
It's been a long, long time
It has been an extended period since feeling this way
Haven't felt like this, my dear, since can't remember when
I do not recall the last time I felt this in love and happy
You'll never know how many dreams I dreamed about you
I had numerous dreams of you, but you will never comprehend the intensity of them
Or just how empty they all seemed without you
The absence of you made those dreams feel hollow
So kiss me once and kiss me twice and kiss me once again
Repeatedly show your love through genuine affection and attention
It's been a long, long time
The joyous feeling of being with you has not been felt for an extended period
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Josh Houston
Kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again
It's been a long, long time
Haven't felt like this, my dear
Since can't remember when
It's been a long, long time
You'll never know how many dreams
I've dreamed about you
Or just how empty they all seemed without you
So kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again
It's been a long, long time
Ah, kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again
It's been a long time, long time
Haven't felt like this my dear
Since I can't remember when
It's been a long, long time
sax solo
You'll never know how many dreams
I dreamed about you
Or just how empty they all seemed without you
So kiss me once then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again
It's been a long, long time
Long, long time
ALEX MM
Bésame una vez, luego bésame dos veces, luego bésame una vez más
Kiss me once, then kiss me twice, then kiss me once again
ha pasado mucho, mucho tiempo
It's been a long, long time
No me había sentido así, querida, desde que no recuerdo cuándo.
Haven't felt like this, my dear since I can't remember when
ha pasado mucho, mucho tiempo
It's been a long, long time
Nunca sabrás cuantos sueños he soñado contigo
You'll never know how many dreams I've dreamed about you
O lo vacíos que parecían sin ti
Or just how empty they all seemed without you
Así que bésame una vez, luego bésame dos veces, luego bésame una vez más
So kiss me once, then kiss me twice, then kiss me once again
ha pasado mucho, mucho tiempo
It's been a long, long time
Nunca sabrás cuantos sueños he soñado contigo
You'll never know how many dreams I've dreamed about you
O lo vacíos que parecían sin ti
Or just how empty they all seemed without you
Así que bésame una vez, luego bésame dos veces, luego bésame una vez más
So kiss me once, then kiss me twice, then kiss me once again
ha pasado mucho, mucho tiempo
It's been a long, long time
Susan
Never thought that you would be
standing here so close to me
there's so much I feel that I should say
but words can wait until some other day
Kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again
It's been a long, long time
Haven't felt like this, my dear
Since I can't remember when
It's been a long, long time
You'll never know how many dreams
I've dreamed about you
Or just how empty they all seemed without you
So kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again
It's been a long, long time
Ah, kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again
It's been a long time
Haven't felt like this my dear
Since I can't remember when
It's been a long, long time
You'll never know how many dreams
I dreamed about you
Or just how empty they all seemed without you
So kiss me once then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again
It's been a long, long time
Long, long time
Extra credits added by Robin Hood
Josh Houston
Kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again
It's been a long, long time
Haven't felt like this, my dear
Since can't remember when
It's been a long, long time
You'll never know how many dreams
I've dreamed about you
Or just how empty they all seemed without you
So kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again
It's been a long, long time
Ah, kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again
It's been a long time, long time
Haven't felt like this my dear
Since I can't remember when
It's been a long, long time
sax solo
You'll never know how many dreams
I dreamed about you
Or just how empty they all seemed without you
So kiss me once then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again
It's been a long, long time
Long, long time
Max Weiss
i'm shitting my pants rn bro i had no idea frankie s recorded this version bro it slaps so hard, i love his voice in the 1940s, his tommy dorsey albums are the most fire music in existence to date I swearrr
Thomas Reynolds
Same
Max Weiss
@Thomas Reynolds yo if you havent yet go listen to stuff like love lies, lily belle, or anything from his radio years stuff. its so good.
Hussein
@Max Weiss can u suggest me some good albums for frank Sinatra?
Brandon Lee
Ikr. I shat my pants too when I found out. I totally agree with you, his 1940s foray with Dorsey was LIT. Frankie's voice in I'll never smile again and Stardust was just pure velvet, untainted by his habitual smoking. I understand now why girls loved him in the 40s.
Jonah Ayers
bro I thought the exact same thing
ALEX MM
Bésame una vez, luego bésame dos veces, luego bésame una vez más
Kiss me once, then kiss me twice, then kiss me once again
ha pasado mucho, mucho tiempo
It's been a long, long time
No me había sentido así, querida, desde que no recuerdo cuándo.
Haven't felt like this, my dear since I can't remember when
ha pasado mucho, mucho tiempo
It's been a long, long time
Nunca sabrás cuantos sueños he soñado contigo
You'll never know how many dreams I've dreamed about you
O lo vacíos que parecían sin ti
Or just how empty they all seemed without you
Así que bésame una vez, luego bésame dos veces, luego bésame una vez más
So kiss me once, then kiss me twice, then kiss me once again
ha pasado mucho, mucho tiempo
It's been a long, long time
Nunca sabrás cuantos sueños he soñado contigo
You'll never know how many dreams I've dreamed about you
O lo vacíos que parecían sin ti
Or just how empty they all seemed without you
Así que bésame una vez, luego bésame dos veces, luego bésame una vez más
So kiss me once, then kiss me twice, then kiss me once again
ha pasado mucho, mucho tiempo
It's been a long, long time
Old Classics
He sounds even younger here than other 40s recordings of him. I never knew he recorded this song. It’s simply splendid. Now I’m dying to know what everyone is laughing at near the beginning!
helaina400
He made all the girls sigh & giggle just by his moves on stage.