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.
Tenderly
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The trembling trees embraced the breeze tenderly.
The you and I came wandering by, and lost in a sigh were we.
The shore was kissed by sea and mist tenderly.
I can´t forget how two hearts met breathlessly.
Your arms opened wide and closed me inside,
You took my lips, you took my love so tenderly.
In the song "Tenderly," Frank Sinatra describes the perfect moment between two lovers as the evening breeze caresses the trees ever so gently. The gentle breeze sets the mood for the rest of the song, describing the way two people come together and embrace like the trembling leaves on a tree that the breeze tenderly embraces as well. As two people come together, they lose themselves in a powerful moment, constantly embracing and feeling the weight and depth of their emotions. The image of the shore being kissed by the gentle sea and mist adds to the poetic language of this song, creating a moment of pure tenderness.
The second half of the song describes the moment that two hearts come together breathlessly. The singer says that the other person opened their arms wide and closed them around them, enveloping them in a loving embrace. As the singer describes this moment, they talk about the way that their lover took their lips and love so "tenderly," emphasizing the gentle nature of their love.
Line by Line Meaning
The evening breeze caressed the trees tenderly.
The gentle wind softly touched the leaves of the trees.
The trembling trees embraced the breeze tenderly.
The trees shook slightly as they welcomed the gentle breeze.
The you and I came wandering by, and lost in a sigh were we.
As we walked by, we were so enchanted with each other that we got lost in a moment of emotion and sighed.
The shore was kissed by sea and mist tenderly.
The sea and mist gently touched the shore, creating a serene atmosphere.
I can´t forget how two hearts met breathlessly.
I will never forget the moment when our hearts met and we were overcome with emotion.
Your arms opened wide and closed me inside,
You embraced me tightly, enveloping me in your love.
You took my lips, you took my love so tenderly.
You kissed me and showed me affection in a gentle and loving way.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Jack Lawrence, Walter Gross
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Jerry F. Sharell
Jerry Sharell 7/10/2021
This version of "Tenderly" by FAS is totally outstanding and a "secret" because he never recorded it on an album! He takes "ownership of the song" with his adaptation of lyric, his breathing technique, and his respect for the melody! I have a radio show in LA and this song will get played on it...KJAZZ 88.1FM. Sat nites @ 10PM/Sun mornings @ 10AM.
Carlos J.
Está pérola da música mundial teve sua primeira gravação na voz do brasileiro Dick Farney!!!!
craig stiegel
Not one ("Tenderly") by Frank that you hear a lot, but as nearly always he does it wonderfully. Note how he alters a couple of notes to make it his own. Yes, he loved Bill Miller (mentioned below here) on the piano.
HUGE Sinatra fan here...honestly, it was truly sad that he stayed on stage too long. If his "retirement" in 1971, was perhaps a bit early, it is also true that his voice began to fail in later years. For those of us who KNOW that he was the greatest male singer of popular songs (The American Songbook) before 1971, there became a sadness to see him deteriorate. Gotta' pick Ella as his female counterpart. Frank came to dislike some of those later, lesser songs that the masses associated with him-- New York, New York, Strangers In The Night, etc. You don't want the 1977 version of his favorite song Night and Day-- geaux for one of the (at least) 4 earlier versions.
A Krenwinkle
Frank tried to stay current. When he recorded "Downtown," something he certainly didn't mistake for Cole Porter's work, he made fun of it, sneering repeatedly during his rendition. Frank's disco version of "Night and Day" must have hurt him to make, demolishing something he had held sacred. And he did a disco version of "All or Nothing At All" on his 1977 special with, of all people, Loretta Lynn. Anything not be a relic of the past as so many fine singers wound up.
Anando Mukerjee
If only Frank had recorded this with orchestra on an album!
John Primerano
My favorite singer doing one of my all-time favorite songs!!
John Primerano
Bill Miller was fabulous on piano with everything he did.
caribman10
Just a note: I would never, ever buy anything from an advertiser with the gall to put themselves in front of a performance like this.
beforeourveryeyes
who's on piano? thank you
Sinatra 80
Bill Miller. Sinatra performed "Tenderly" on his radio show "To Be Perfectly Frank".