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.
Ol' Man River
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Here we all work while the white folk play
Pullin' them boats from the dawn 'till sunset
Gettin' no rest 'till the judgment day
Don't look up and don't look down
You don't das make the boss man frown
Bend your knees and bow your head
Let me go 'way from the Mississippi
Let me go 'way from the white man boss
Show me that stream called the river jordan
That's the old stream that I long to cross.
Ol' man river, that ol' man river
He don't say nothin', but he must know somethin'
He just keeps rollin', he keeps on rollin' along
He don't plant tatters, and he don't plant cotton
And them what plants em, are soon forgotten
But ol' man river, just keeps rollin' along
You and me, we sweat and strain
Body all achin' and racked with pain
Tote that barge and lift that bail
You get a little drunk and you lands in jail
I gets weary, and sick of trying
I'm tired of livin', but I'm scared of dyin'
But ol' man river, he just keeps rollin' along
Frank Sinatra's Ol' Man River is a classic tune that captures the experiences of black workers along the Mississippi in the early 20th century. The lyrics portray a sense of hopelessness and despair that these workers faced as they toiled day in and day out while their white counterparts enjoyed life. The first verse shows the workers' hardworking nature as they tirelessly pull boats while the white people get to play. They aren't even allowed to look up or down and have to keep their heads down and work to avoid the wrath of their boss.
The second verse captures the resigned nature of the workers as they realize their hard work won't amount to much in the grand scheme of things. The song's chorus, "Ol' man river, he don't say nothin', but he must know somethin'," conveys the idea that the river has been there for ages, and it must have seen and kept many secrets. The river, like life, moves on without any care about the struggles of the people around it. The last verse indicates the workers' exhaustion and desperation and their fear of death. Although they're tired of living, they're even more frightened of dying, and the only thing that keeps them going is the fact that "Ol' man river, he just keeps rollin' along."
Overall, the song has a powerful message and remains a cornerstone of American music. It highlights the plight of hardworking black Americans in the early 1900s and the hopelessness and lack of options they faced in a society determined to keep them down.
Line by Line Meaning
Here we all work 'long the Mississippi
We work tirelessly along the Mississippi River.
Here we all work while the white folk play
We work while others enjoy their leisure time without us.
Pullin' them boats from the dawn 'till sunset
We pull boats all day, from the early morning to sunset.
Gettin' no rest 'till the judgment day
We get no rest until our final judgment day.
Don't look up and don't look down
We are toiling, so we don't have time to admire or despair.
You don't das make the boss man frown
We must avoid disheartening or angering the boss man.
Bend your knees and bow your head
We must physically exert ourselves and humble ourselves.
And pull that rope until your dead
We must work until we die.
Let me go 'way from the Mississippi
I long to leave the Mississippi.
Let me go 'way from the white man boss
I long to escape the white man's authority.
Show me that stream called the river jordan
I yearn to see the River Jordan.
That's the old stream that I long to cross.
It's the stream I want to pass into the next life over.
Ol' man river, that ol' man river
The river is a metaphor for something much greater.
He don't say nothin', but he must know somethin'
The river may seem motionless but it knows secrets and feelings embedded deep in history.
He just keeps rollin', he keeps on rollin' along
The river has continued to flow despite the hardships of those who live along it.
He don't plant tatters, and he don't plant cotton
The river doesn't have to do the kind of backbreaking work that we do.
And them what plants em, are soon forgotten
People who plant crops come and go, leaving no trace behind for the river to remember.
But ol' man river, just keeps rollin' along
Despite all the changes happening around it, the river persists.
You and me, we sweat and strain
We work hard, enduring many physical difficulties.
Body all achin' and racked with pain
Our bodies suffer from the agony of work.
Tote that barge and lift that bail
We have to move large, heavy objects.
You get a little drunk and you lands in jail
The only way to forget our sorrows is to turn to alcohol, risking punishment or imprisonment for it.
I gets weary, and sick of trying
I become tired, disillusioned, and hopeless from trying so hard.
I'm tired of livin', but I'm scared of dyin'
I'm exhausted and hurt from life, but I'm too afraid of death to do anything about it.
But ol' man river, he just keeps rollin' along
Despite our troubles, the river keeps moving, as though saying 'life goes on'.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave
Written by: Jerome Kern, Oscar Ii Hammerstein
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Nightrain76
He’s in a class of his own. That note at the end - that’s elite level singing.
@koalabandit9166
I don't understand people's obsession with that kind of long notes. This is a guy Miles Davis praised for his phrasing. I feel that if anything his long notes are probably the most generic element of his singing (impressive as I'm sure they are in terms of vocal technique, though).
@RoryCloud
@Koala Bandit Appreciation, not obsession.
@koalabandit9166
@RoryCloud Sure, fair enough, appreciation. My point still stands. I get that it sounds satisfying to hear a voice do that, but I would think that there are only so many very long notes someone can appreciate before they get bored with that and turn to things that are more musically interesting.
@sweetnuthin
@@koalabandit9166Sinatra excelled because he could do it all. He had magnificent power and masterful rhythm. He commanded the songs however he pleased.
@koalabandit9166
@@sweetnuthin Absolutely agree.
@Mightyoverevery1
Frank Sinatra’s breath control is crazy. Truly a Singer’s Singer. One of the All Time Greats🙌🏾🙌🏾🎤🎼
@paeng46
1:41 to 1:55 that killer modulation has never been done by any singers. In between notes and down to the last, he sang perfectly without recession. What a voice.
@RoryCloud
And he knew he nailed it, too. 😉
@ackimchibale
💯