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.
Send In The Clowns
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Me here at last on the ground, and you in mid-air
Send in the clowns
Isn't it bliss, don't you approve
One who keeps tearing around, and one who can't move
But where are the clowns, send in the clowns
Just when I stopped opening doors
Finally finding the one that I wanted, was yours
Making my entrance again with my usual flair
Sure of my lines, nobody's there
Don't you love a farce, my fault I fear
I thought that you'd want what I want, sorry my dear
But where are the clowns, send in the clowns
Don't bother, they're here
Isn't it rich, isn't it queer
Losing my timing this late in my career
But where are the clowns, send in the clowns
Well maybe next year
In "Send in the Clowns," Frank Sinatra sings about the irony of life that can leave people feeling lost and alone. The song is essentially about the aftermath of an accidental encounter with an old lover. The lyrics start out with Sinatra reflecting on his current situation, "Isn't it rich, are we a pair? Me here at last on the ground, and you in mid-air." Here, he acknowledges the difference in where he is and where his old flame is- in the air, somewhere he cannot reach.
He then goes on to question the absurdity of his situation: "Isn't it bliss, don't you approve, One who keeps tearing around, and one who can't move." He is happy to be on the ground, while his former partner is still moving forward in their life- which leaves Sinatra at a standstill. However, despite feeling his own sense of loss, he then asks for the 'clowns' to be sent in. Throughout the song, he questions the lack of clowns, something we often expect to show up in times of heartbreak or struggle.
Sinatra mentions that he thought that he and his lover were on the same page, but as fate would have it, they were not. “Don't you love a farce, my fault I fear, I thought that you'd want what I want, sorry my dear." Here, he acknowledges that the situation is his fault and that he had expectations that were not fulfilled.
Overall, "Send in the Clowns" is a song about the unexpected turns life can take, leaving us confused and alone, and the expectation of being saved by "the clowns", a metaphor for happiness or relief.
Line by Line Meaning
Isn't it rich, are we a pair
Aren't we a strange combination, you up in the sky while I'm down here on the ground?
Me here at last on the ground, and you in mid-air
I'm finally grounded and settled, but you're still flying high.
Send in the clowns
Bring in the entertainers, the clowns, to help us pass the time and take our minds off things.
Isn't it bliss, don't you approve
Aren't we happy and content with our lives and each other?
One who keeps tearing around, and one who can't move
One of us is busy and always on the move, while the other is feeling stuck in one place.
But where are the clowns, send in the clowns
Where are those entertaining clowns when we need them to bring some joy into our lives?
Just when I stopped opening doors
After I stopped searching for opportunities and finally settled down to enjoy my life,
Finally finding the one that I wanted, was yours
I found the perfect love that I was looking for, but unfortunately, it ended up being yours all along.
Making my entrance again with my usual flair
Trying to make a grand entrance as I always do, with style and confidence.
Sure of my lines, nobody's there
Feeling confident about what I was going to say, but realizing that there was no one to listen.
Don't you love a farce, my fault I fear
Don't you find it amusing how things turned out, even though it was my own fault?
I thought that you'd want what I want, sorry my dear
Assuming that you shared my desires and interests, but now I realize that I was wrong, and I apologize.
But where are the clowns, send in the clowns
Once again, asking for the clowns to come in and distract us from our current situation.
Don't bother, they're here
Realizing that we don't need to look for the clowns since they are already here, in the form of the absurd situation we find ourselves in.
Isn't it rich, isn't it queer
Aren't we in a strange and unexpected situation that is both amusing and unsettling?
Losing my timing this late in my career
Feeling like my sense of timing, which has always been impeccable, is now failing me in my older age.
But where are the clowns, send in the clowns
Asking for the clowns once again to save us from our current emotional turmoil.
Well maybe next year
Realizing that we may not find the solution we're looking for right now, but maybe in the future things will change for the better.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Stephen Sondheim
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@terrygarcia897
I turned 63 today and I wanted to here frank. It was a very good year.
@edwardcaulfield67
hear
@paulbaker8003
My dad’s favourite song!Who’s here in 2024
@jacquelinedeakin3045
My dad would have been 89 today ....i miss him every day since 2000 when he died....he made my life enriched by Sinatra's music....thank you my lovely dad....thinking of you tonight and opening our windows incase you can hear this.....xxxxx
@tommyminervino5428
I am 70 today(12 16 ) following SINATRA since I was 12 years old.
@JustMe-gs9xi
Honey,,, i hear you <3 ,,, Italian Father's ADORE their daughters,,,, and Italian Daughters ADORE! their fathers. My dad was always singing Sinatra, we'd dance around,,, the ol days were SOOOOO special,,, and the FOOD! Heaven!
@davidcheetham8507
His diction is wonderful. He finishes off his words correctly so that you have a full appreciation of the lyrics.
@msblue1003
fantastic guitar playing - that guitarist will make history
@MorganAmerica
I'm a 37 year old black man and I must say, I love me some Frank SInatra! Thanks FamilyGuy (Seth McFarland)
@azach5288
Why??? Black people don’t like Sinatra??? He’s better than any BBBLLLLAAAACCCCKKKK SINGER ANYWHERE!