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.
Shake Down the Stars
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Turn off the moon, do it soon,
I can't enjoy the night without you,
Shake down the stars.
Dry up the streams, stop all my dreams,
Cut off the breeze, do it please,
I never thought I'd cry about you,
Shake down the stars.
My love, my life, my all,
But the best that I had to offer you
I found was all too small.
Crush every rose, hush every prayer,
Break every vow, do it now,
I know I cannot live without you,
Shake down the stars.
In "Shake Down The Stars," Frank Sinatra sings about the longing and pain he experiences in the absence of his loved one. He wishes everything around him would disappear, such as the stars, clouds, moon, streams, dreams, and breeze, just to name a few. This expresses his frustration and sadness with the world around him that he cannot find peace without the person he loves. Additionally, in the third verse, he speaks about how he gave his all to this individual, but it was not enough, and he is left heartbroken.
Sinatra uses metaphorical language to express his emotions. He begs for the stars to be shaken down, the clouds to be pulled down, and the moon to be turned off. It is understood that these objects give light and beauty to the world, but for him, without his loved one, this beauty is meaningless. He also speaks about cutting off the breeze, drying up the streams, and crushing every rose. These phrases express the end of something beautiful, which represents his love and relationship with his partner. Through this song, Sinatra shows how important love is to him and how much pain he experiences without it.
Line by Line Meaning
Shake down the stars, pull down the clouds,
I want the whole world to be with me in mourning your absence, so would you please remove all the heavenly bodies including the stars and clouds?
Turn off the moon, do it soon,
The sight of the moon reminds me of the time we spent together, making me miss you even more. So, please turn off the moon as soon as possible.
I can't enjoy the night without you,
I am unable to enjoy the beauty of the night anymore as it feels incomplete without you.
Shake down the stars.
Again, I implore you to shake down the stars and make the whole world feel the emptiness that is plaguing me.
Dry up the streams, stop all my dreams,
I want all the streams and rivers to dry up, and my dreams to stop because all my hopes and aspirations were tied up with you.
Cut off the breeze, do it please,
The breeze reminds me of the touch of your skin, and I can't bear the frustration of not being able to feel it anymore. So, please cut off the breeze for me.
I never thought I'd cry about you,
I didn't realize the extent of my love for you until you left me, and now I am unable to stop crying over your absence.
Shake down the stars.
Once again, I plead with you to shake down the stars and show the world the depth of the pain in my heart.
I gave you my arms, my lips, my heart,
I gave you everything there is to give in a relationship including my love, my heart, my arms, my lips - Everything!
My love, my life, my all,
My love for you was the most important thing in my life, and in a way, it was my reason for living.
But the best that I had to offer you
Despite giving you everything, I now realize that it wasn't enough for you to stay with me.
I found was all too small.
I wasn't enough for you. Everything I gave you wasn't enough to make you stay with me.
Crush every rose, hush every prayer,
The beauty of the roses reminds me of you, and I can't bear the thought of seeing them anymore. I also want all my prayers to hush so that I can wallow in sorrow.
Break every vow, do it now,
I don't want to be tied up by the weight of our past promises anymore, so I want you to break them all now.
I know I cannot live without you,
I see nobody but you in my life, and I am not sure if I can continue living without you.
Shake down the stars.
One last time, I beg you to shake down the stars and make the world realize what I am losing by not having you in my life.
Lyrics © MUSIC SALES CORPORATION, Universal Music Publishing Group, Reservoir Media Management, Inc., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Eddie Delange, Jimmy Van Heusen
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Mike
on The Lady Is A Champ
She gets too hungry for dinner at eight
She can't eat late and stay up all night, because unlike society types, she has to get up in the morning.
She likes the theatre and never comes late
She cares more about seeing the play than being seen making an entrance.
She never bothers with people she'd hate
Her friends are friends, not social trophies.
Doesn't like crap games with barons or earls
While barrns and earls probably don't play craps, she associates with friends, not people to be seen with.
Won't go to Harlem in ermine and pearls
She doesn't "slum", the practice of the rich in the 30's, when the song was written, of touring poor neighborhoods dressed in rich clothes to "tut, tut" about the deplorable conditions, and congratulate each other for "caring about the poor"
Won't dish the dirt with the rest of the girls
Doesn't trade gossip for acceptance among an in-crowd
She likes the free, fresh wind in her hair
She cares more about how her hair feels than conforming with current hair fashions
Hates California, it's cold and it's damp
Since most of California is noticeably warmer and / or drier than New York, where the play the song was written for is set, this is probably a facetious excuse to like what she likes.
And she won't go to Harlem in Lincoln's or Ford's
Another reference to slumming, but facetious, since Lincolns and Fords were middle-class, not luxury brands when the lyric was written
Anonymous
on Try a Little Tenderness
Here are the correct lyrics
Try A Little Tenderness - Frank Sinatra - Lyrics
Oh she may be weary
Women do get wearied
Wearing that same old shabby dress
And when she’s weary
You try a little tenderness
You know she’s waiting
Just anticipating things she’ll may never possess
While she is without them
Try just a little bit of tenderness
It’s not just sentimental
She has her grieve and her care
And the words that soft and gentle
Makes it easier to bear
You wont regret it
Women don't forget it
Love is their whole happiness
And it’s all so easy
Try a little tenderness
Musical Interlude
And, it’s all so easy
Try a little tenderness
Daniel
on The Way You Look Tonight
I met Frank Jr. in Las Vegas, a real gentleman. RIP you both.
Giorgi Khutashvili
on Theme from New York, New York
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