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.
That's What God Looks Like To Me
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
He said, there are things that i don't understand,
How high is the sky? what makes it so blue?
And tell me, dad, what does god look like to you?
I said, he looks like a rainbow, just after the rain,
He's as golden as wheat dancing over the plain.
He looks like the star when the night's crystal clear,
His face is the moonlight reflected on snow,
His hair like garden where all flowers grow,
He's heavenly eyes are as true as the sea,
My son, that's what god really looks like.
His heart like a mountain so vast and so strong,
That's why all his children have room to belong.
His smile is the morning we waken to see,
But you, my son, you are what god really looks like to me.
In Frank Sinatra's song "That's What God Looks Like To Me," a father is walking with his son and the son begins to ask questions about God that he doesn't understand. The son asks how high the sky is and what God looks like to his father. The father responds with a beautiful portrait of God, describing Him as colorful and natural, a mix of the beauty of the natural world. God is described as appearing like a rainbow after a shower, beautiful golden wheat waving in the breeze, and even the reflections of the moon in the snow. The father goes on to describe God's heart as vast and strong like a mountain, giving all of his children room to belong. He says that God's smile looks like the morning, but he adds that his son is what God really looks like to him.
The lyrics of this song paint a picture of a loving God who is found in the natural world and in the relationships between people. It is a song that reminds us that God can be found in those around us and in the beauty of the world in which we live. The father's response to his son's question is one that many people can relate to; turning to nature and to our loved ones to understand the nature of the Divine.
Line by Line Meaning
One day as i walked with my son hand in hand,
During a walk with my son, holding hands, he asked me some complicated questions.
He said, there are things that i don't understand,
My son expressed that he was struggling to comprehend some things.
How high is the sky? what makes it so blue?
He was curious about aspects of nature like the sky and its color.
And tell me, dad, what does god look like to you?
He asked me what my perception of God's appearance was.
I said, he looks like a rainbow, just after the rain,
I told him that I see God as a multicolored phenomenon that appears after rainfall.
He's as golden as wheat dancing over the plain.
I see God as the beautiful, golden fields of wheat swaying in the wind.
He looks like the star when the night's crystal clear,
I see God as bright as a star that shines in the clear night sky.
He looks like a baby when mother is near.
I see God in a newborn when they are in their mother's arms.
His face is the moonlight reflected on snow,
The image of God's face is like the reflection of moonlight on freshly fallen snow.
His hair like garden where all flowers grow,
God's hair is like the endless flower garden where every type of flower grows.
He's heavenly eyes are as true as the sea,
God's eyes are as pure and sincere as the vast ocean.
My son, that's what god really looks like.
I explained to my son that this is what I believe God looks like.
His heart like a mountain so vast and so strong,
God's heart resembles a strong and powerful mountain, creating a sense of stability and security.
That's why all his children have room to belong.
Because of this strength and stability, God's love and acceptance makes everyone feel like they have a place to belong.
His smile is the morning we waken to see,
God's happiness and joy are reflected in the new day that we wake up to see.
But you, my son, you are what god really looks like to me.
Ultimately, my son is truly who I see God in - pure, innocent, and full of love.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: IRWIN STAN/O'KUN, LAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Ed P
This one is a Tearjerker song. Well Done Frank!
chris klemp
Love this song
frankenzie
Just one of the great songs from a triumphant three record set, still listening on vinyl some 40 years later
Michael Toomer
I love this!
Luis Alberto Carbajo
Magnífica interpretación en un tema apasionante. Luis A.
David Ingram
After Frank's vocal technique began to fade, he relied on his ability to tell a story more and more. This is a wonderful example.
Kenneth Eady
I play this for my Dad Don. He loved this song. RIP Dad
Alfredo Perez
One of my favorites interpretations of Old blue eyes
MILDRED PAPARELLA
I have loved him from a young age and never missed 64 yrs of Sid Mark & Frank Sinatra even when it was on Friday Saturday and now only Sunday sadly. Never tire of any of them but this is the ONE AND ONLY I carry closest to my heart as I have two sons of my own. More people need to listen too 0 "What is America to Me" that you did so many years ago. I carry that one in my heart as well with a weight now in a country recognizable. I Love You Frank Sinatra. Thanks for The Memories.
A Krenwinkle
Am I hearing right :46 "After-a the rain?"