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.
Pennies From Heaven
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It rains pennies from heaven
Don't you know each cloud contains
Pennies from heaven
You'll find your fortune
Fallin' all over town
Be sure that your umbrella is upside down
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers
You must have showers
So when you hear it thunder
Don't run under a tree
There'll be pennies from heaven
For you and me
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers
If you want the things you love
You must have showers
So when you hear it thunder
Don't run under a tree
There'll be pennies from heaven
For you and me
The song "Pennies From Heaven" is a classic tune originally composed by Arthur Johnston and written by Johnny Burke in 1936. The lyrics present an interesting analogy where the idea of fortune or good luck is compared to pennies falling from the sky, and the suggestion is that one can find their fortune in even the most unexpected places. The first verse refers to the fact that every time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven, and that every cloud contains these pennies, thus indicating that we should not be too quick to dismiss something as common as rain. The idea is that even in mundane occurrences like rain, there is something to be gained.
The chorus urges us to be prepared to catch these pennies by making sure to have our umbrellas upside down. It then goes on to suggest that the pennies can be traded for a package of sunshine and flowers, representing the things that we love. However, in order to get what we love, we must first experience and embrace the rain or negative experiences in life. Thunder is used to represent such experiences, and the chorus advises us not to run under a tree in order to avoid thunder but rather to face it head-on. By doing so, we will eventually be rewarded with those "pennies from heaven."
Line by Line Meaning
Every time it rains
Whenever it rains
It rains pennies from heaven
Money comes from nowhere when it rains
Don't you know each cloud contains
Do you not realize that each cloud carries
Pennies from heaven
Free money
You'll find your fortune
You will discover your wealth
Fallin' all over town
Scattered throughout the city
Be sure that your umbrella is upside down
Make sure your umbrella is turned upside down to catch the pennies
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers
Exchange the money for happiness and beauty
If you want the things you love
If you want what brings you joy
You must have showers
You must experience some difficulties
So when you hear it thunder
When you hear thunder
Don't run under a tree
Do not hide under a tree
There'll be pennies from heaven
Money will appear from nowhere
For you and me
For both of us
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Capitol CMG Publishing
Written by: Arthur Johnston, Johnny Burke
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Alex-ve3it
Every time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven
Don't you know each cloud contains pennies from heaven?
You'll find your fortune's fallin' all over the town
Be sure that your umbrella is upside down
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers
If you want the things you love, you must have showers
So, when you hear it thunder, don't run under a tree
There'll be pennies from heaven for you and me
Every time, every time it rains, it's gonna rain pennies from heaven
Don't you know every cloud contains lots of pennies from heaven
You'll find your fortune's fallin', baby, all over the town
Be sure, be sure that your umbrella is upside down
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers
If you want the things you love, you've got to have showers
So, when you hear it thunder, don't run under a tree
There'll be pennies from heaven for you and me
@salimafreeman9992
Here
Oh every time it rains
It rains pennies from heaven
Don't you know each cloud contains
Pennies from heaven
You'll find your fortune
Fallin' all over town
Be sure that your umbrella is upside down
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers
It you want the things you love
You must have showers
So when you hear it thunder
Don't run under a tree
There'll be pennies from heaven
For you and me
The world was bright when you loved me
Sweet was the touch of your lips
The world went dark when you left me
And then there came a total eclipse
Nobody knows how cruel fate can be
How close together love and hate can be
Goodbye, just clean the slate for me
That's life I guess
@IcyWinter_
Every time it rains,it rains
Pennies from heaven
Don't you know each cloud contains
Pennies from heaven
You'll find your fortune's falling
All over the town
Be sure that your umbrella
Is upside down
Trade them for a package of
sunshine and flowers
If you want the things you love,
You gotta have showers
So when you hear it thunder,
Don't run under a tree
There'll be pennies from heaven
For you and me
@MuriloBert
Every time it rains, it rains
Pennies from heaven
Don't you know each cloud contains
Pennies from heaven
You'll find your fortune falling all over the town
Make sure that your umbrella is upside down
Trade them for a package sunshine and flowers
If you want the things you love
You must have showers
So when you hear it thunder dont run under a tree
There'll be pennies from heaven for you and me
Trade ithem for a package of sunshine and flowers
If you want the things you love
You must have showers
So when you hear it thunder
Don't run under a tree
There'll be pennies from heaven for you and me
Centavos do Céu
Toda vez que chove, chove
Centavos do Céu
Você não sabe que cada nuvem contém
Centavos do Céu
Você vai encontrar a sua sorte caindo por toda a cidade
Certifique-se que o seu guarda-chuva está de cabeça para baixo
Troque-os então por um pacote de raios de Sol e flores
Se você quiser as coisas que gosta
Você deve ter tempestades
Então, quando você ouvir o trovão não corra para debaixo de uma árvore
Haverá tostões do céu para você e para mim
Troque-os par um pacote de luz do Sol e flores
Se você quiser as coisas que gosta
Você deve ter tempestades
Assim, quando você ouvir a trovoada
Não corra para debaixo de uma árvore
Haverá tostões do céu para você e para mim
@kenziebee33
My brother passed away last week. One big hobby he had was collecting coins. I'm not a very superstitious person, but it made me smile when I found two lucky pennies fairly close to each other just a couple days after he died. I hope they're pennies from Heaven.
@savannahh1178
I'm so sorry, I bet the pennies you found were pennies that your brother sent down from heaven. Plummeting through the soft sunset, they must have landed right where you and he spent the most love and time together. I wish the best for you and your family. Bless you.
@campguy
my dad always picked up EVERY cent he ever found (born in the great depression)....and he was a millionaire when he died.
@Zemog23
@@campguy I can't really explain what I feel when I read this, but that's heartwarming.
@gumshoe1285
Pennies from heaven, don't you know that each cloud contains Penny's from heaven,pennies from heaven, trade em in for flowers
@doritowithmaliciousintent7938
I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm sure he's still looking out for you and your family :)
@beachlady5284
My grandmother had a player piano and this was one of the rolls. I'm named after this song, it was one of her favorite songs. I miss her!!
@leydihernandez4128
My husband told me about Pennies from heaven or coins from heaven I never heard of such thing and he explained to me. My husband now passed three weeks ago and as I was coming home I find a penny on my front entrance to my home 😔 I now know he’s at peace and watching over me. Love you baby and thank you ❤️❤️❤️
@chockycake1
We find pennies everywhere since my mum died… I used to ignore them but now I pick them up every time. We used to take my mum on holiday and this year there was a Penny by the car door queuing for the ferry! In Greece a week ago there was a cent by the table as we were having dinner! Keep picking them up ❤
@richardcline1337
Please accept my deepest sympathy for your loss. I am in my 25th year since the loss of my precious gift from God and I fully understand how you feel. Unless someone has truly walked the road we walk they can never really understand all that we go through. Right after my wife passed away it seemed like I was finding pennies everywhere.