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.
September Song
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I played me a waiting game
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
I'd let the old Earth take a couple of whirls
While I plied her with tears in lieu of pearls
And as time came around she came my way
As time came around, she came
You court them in song and rhyme
They answer with words and a clover ring
But if you could examine the goods they bring
They have little to offer but the songs they sing
And the plentiful waste of time of day
A plentiful waste of time
Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn't got time for the waiting game
Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I'll spend with you
These precious days I'll spend with you
The lyrics to Frank Sinatra's song September Song tell a story of a young man's journey through courtship and love as he muses on the passing of time. The song is a reflection on the passage of time and how it affects love and relationships. The singer tells of his youth and how he used to play a waiting game when courting girls. If a girl rejected him, he would wait patiently for her to change her mind. Eventually, time would pass, and she would come around, and they would be together. The refrain of the song, "As time came around, she came," emphasizes the idea of time's powerful impact on love.
The second verse talks about how young men court young girls in the spring. They sing and rhyme, and the girls respond with clover rings. However, the singer suggests that these offerings are superficial and that there is little substance to the relationships. The lyrics describe it as a "plentiful waste of time of day," which suggests that the relationships are idle and unproductive.
The final verse speaks to the inevitability of the passing of time. The days grow shorter as one reaches September, and the autumn weather turns. The singer acknowledges that time is precious and that he will spend the remaining days with his loved one. The song conveys a message about the fleeting nature of time and the value of love and relationships.
Line by Line Meaning
When I was a young man courting the girls
In my youth I used to pursue girls for a romantic relationship
I played me a waiting game
I had a strategy to be patient and wait for the right opportunity
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
If a girl rejected my advances with an attitude
I'd let the old Earth take a couple of whirls
I would give it some time and let the world turn a few times
While I plied her with tears in lieu of pearls
Instead of giving her expensive gifts, I would try to win her over with my emotions
And as time came around she came my way
Eventually, after waiting and persevering, she reciprocated my feelings
As time came around, she came
After a certain point, she finally came to me
When you meet with the young girls early in the Spring
If you start dating young girls in the Springtime
You court them in song and rhyme
You try to impress them with romantic gestures and sweet words
They answer with words and a clover ring
They respond with their own words and perhaps a simple gift like a clover ring
But if you could examine the goods they bring
However, if you take the time to look at what they actually offer
They have little to offer but the songs they sing
You realize that they don't have much besides their charming personality
And the plentiful waste of time of day
And the endless amount of time spent dating frivolously
A plentiful waste of time
Dating young girls can be a big waste of time
Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
There is a significant amount of time between the Spring and Winter months
But the days grow short when you reach September
However, time starts to feel more limited when the weather gets colder in September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
The season change to Autumn causes leaves to change colors and fall off the trees
One hasn't got time for the waiting game
There is no time to waste on waiting for something that may not happen
Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
There are only a handful of days remaining in the year
September, November
The months of September and November represent the beginning and end of this period
And these few precious days I'll spend with you
I will cherish the remaining time and spend it with someone I love
These precious days I'll spend with you
I will only focus on spending quality time with my loved one
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Royalty Network, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Songtrust Ave, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Kurt Weill, Maxwell Anderson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Fanny Ramirez
FRANK SINATRA - September Song (with lyrics)
Yo tenía 10 años cuando Sinatra cantó la canción de septiembre
Cuando yo era un joven cortejando a las chicas
Yo jugué el juego de la espera
Si una criada se rehusaba a darme sus rizos
Yo dejaba que la tierra diera más de un par de giros
Mientras contaba mis las lágrimas como perlas
Y con el tiempo la vuelta se daba a mi manera
Con el tiempo me tocaba a mi ganar
Cuando se reunen con las chicas jóvenes a principio de la primavera
con canciones y rimas
Ellos vienen con palabras y un anillo del trébol
Pero si ellas pudieran examinar las mercancías que ellos traen
se darían cuenta que tienen poco que ofrecer, pero las canciones que cantan
las distraen durante tantas horas del día
Una pérdida abundante de tiempo
Oh, es un tiempo largo, largo tiempo de mayo a diciembre
Pero los días se hacen cortos cuando llegue septiembre
Cuando el tiempo de otoño las hojas se vuelven como llamas
Uno no tiene tiempo ya para el juego de la espera
Oh, los días reducen a unos pocos preciosos
En septiembre, noviembre
Y en esos días son muy pocos los que voy a pasar con usted
pero esos preciosos días los pasaré con usted
Johnpod
I’m not a singer, except for the shower, my car, my yard, the kitchen, you get the idea. This is not an easy song to sing. Frank just owns it. What a once in a lifetime talent he was.
Mary Hirsch
Agree!
MadAboutShelley
Sinatra is magic. His voice has the capacity to soothe like no other
Coo'sTunes
I have come to appreciate this song more now that I am entering the September of MY years at the age of 66. Thanks for posting this lovely and poignant song by Mr. Sinatra, the "King of Sing".
Brenda M. Negri
Yes…as I age, it rings all the more truer….
Raymond Louis Llompart
Wisdom, somehow, as a protective "mechanism" seems to trick us, only come in flashes throughout our youth (especially if one is handsome and popular) that invincibility was not genetically pre-programmed for us humans who must grow old (those that are "lucky"?) and die..........Actually, the key to a successful old age, as any Buddhist may tell you, is to be as "in the present" as much as we can................but even then there's a lot of caveats in such sayings....
50Emerald
I, too, am 66 and agree totally with you about "the September of our years"!
knarfartanis
For me not a single day without Sinatra's songs, he turns every song into a masterpiece, the way he sings a liryc,,,simply the greatest of all times.
Safa Alkan
knarfartanis me too !
Judith Barvinek
He can sing any song and make it a masterpiece.....Miss him