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.
There's a Small Hotel
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Somewhere alone with you
It could be oh, so gay, Junior
You need a laugh or two
A certain place I know, Frankie
Where funny people can have fun
That's where the two will go, darling
Before you can count up
There's a small hotel
With a wishing well
I wish that we were there together
There's a (no) bridal suite
One room bright and neat
Complete for us to share together
Looking through the window
You can see a distant steeple
Not a sign of people who wants people?
When the steeple bell says
"Good night, sleep well"
We'll thank the small hotel together
Pretty window curtains made of chance
In a make-believe land
On the wall are several cheerful prints
Of Grant and Grover Cleveland
Look out into the parlor and feast your eyes
On the moose head on the wall
Perhaps you'd like to play the organ
They tune it every other fall
When the steeple bell says
"Good night, sleep well"
We'll thank the small hotel
We'll creep into our little shell
And we will thank the small hotel together
The song "There's a Small Hotel" by Frank Sinatra talks about wanting to escape to a certain place with someone special. The song starts with the singer expressing the desire to get away and be with someone special. The name "Junior" is used as a term of endearment for the other person. The singer wishes to visit a certain place where funny people can have fun; a place he/she might have been to before. The singer is confident that the two will go there and have a great time before they know it.
The song then proceeds to describe the place they will go to, a "small hotel". The hotel has a wishing well, and the two could make a wish together. There is no bridal suite in the hotel, but there is one room that is complete and bright for the two to share. Looking through the window, one can see a distant steeple, and there are no signs of people. The singer describes how the steeple bell says "good night, sleep well," and they will thank the small hotel together.
The small hotel is bustling with quirky and characterful details like the moose head on the wall, colorful window curtains, and cheerful prints of Grant and Grover Cleveland on the wall. Additionally, there's an organ one can play, which is tuned every other fall.
In summary, the song is about running away with someone special to a quirky, fun, and secluded small hotel. The singer paints a vivid picture of the place, its surroundings and quirky decor, and how the two of them will have a great time together.
Line by Line Meaning
I'd like to get away, Junior
I want to escape, my dear Junior
Somewhere alone with you
To a place only for us two
It could be oh, so gay, Junior
It promises to be very lively and fun, Junior
You need a laugh or two
You need to have some fun, just like I do
A certain place I know, Frankie
I know of this special place, Frankie
Where funny people can have fun
A venue for hilarious people to have loads of fun
That's where the two will go, darling
That's where we will go, my beloved
Before you can count up
One, two, three, four
We will reach there in no time
There's a small hotel
A hotel is nearby
With a wishing well
It has a fountain to wish upon
I wish that we were there together
I long for us to be there hand-in-hand
There's a (no) bridal suite
It doesn't have a fancy bridal room
One room bright and neat
A single but clean and tidy room
Complete for us to share together
Enough space for two people to stay together
Looking through the window
You can see a distant steeple
Gazing through the window shows a far-off church tower
Not a sign of people who wants people?
There aren't humans who wish to connect with other humans? (rhetorical)
When the steeple bell says
"Good night, sleep well"
At bedtime, the church bell tolls and sends us off to sleep
We'll thank the small hotel together
We shall be grateful to the hotel together
Pretty window curtains made of chance
Window draperies made up of variety
In a make-believe land
In a fictional place in one's imagination
On the wall are several cheerful prints
Of Grant and Grover Cleveland
The walls have many jolly portraits of US presidents Grant and Grover Cleveland
Look out into the parlor and feast your eyes
On the moose head on the wall
The doorway to the lounge has a moose head wall mount that's quite intriguing
Perhaps you'd like to play the organ
They tune it every other fall
You may fancy playing the organ, apparently tuned only twice a year
When the steeple bell says
"Good night, sleep well"
When the bell rings at night to signal bedtime
We'll thank the small hotel
We'll express gratitude for this lovely hotel
We'll creep into our little shell
We'll settle into our own small world
And we will thank the small hotel together
Together, we shall show gratitude to this small hotel
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Royalty Network, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: LORENZ HART, RICHARD RODGERS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@romcallis
All the years have gone by with good singers..Michael bubble, Harry connick, etc...they still don’t hold a candle to the chairman of the board.
@SaundersE5
Never will
@invisabeast9458
that piano intro is so lovely
@Lonette
This greatest singer of the 20th century won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role as the wise-cracking, hard-bitten Joey Evans. Sinatra's popularity is matched only by Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson.
@romcallis
So much going on between frank and Rita in this scene
@SaundersE5
And Kim Novak
@wasai17
Beautiful
@amandapeluso4217
Frank Sinatra the best singer ever! So handsome in Pal Joey.
@thecitizenjoan
I found the soundtrack on ebay and it doesnt have this version of the song. I definitely like the way he sings it here better
@invisabeast9458
same