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.
What Now My Love
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
How can I live through another day
Watching my dreams turn to ashes
And my hopes turn to bits of clay
Once I could see, once I could feel
Now I am numb, I've become unreal
I walk the night, without a goal
What now my love, now that it's over
I feel the world falling all around me
Here come the stars, tumbling around me
There's the sky, where that sea should be
What now my love, now that you're gone
I'd be a fool to go on and on
No one would care, no one would cry
If I should live if I should live or die
What now my love, now there is nothing
Only my last, my last good-bye
The lyrics of Frank Sinatra's "What Now My Love" express the pain and confusion that one feels after a relationship ends. The singer is at a loss as to how to move on with life after his lover has left him. He questions whether he can survive another day now that his dreams and hopes have been shattered. He used to have a clear vision of his life with his love, but now all that remains is a feeling of numbness and emptiness.
The singer describes his aimless wandering during night-time, stripped of his heart and soul. This shows that he feels lost and disconnected from everything that once gave his life meaning. As the stars tumble around him and he looks up at the sky where the sea should be, he seems to be experiencing a sense of confusion and disorientation. He wonders what he should do and how he should cope with the aftermath of the relationship.
Finally, the singer admits that there is nothing left for him except to say his last, inevitable goodbye. He realizes that he cannot go on living without his love and that no one else would care if he lived or died. The haunting melody and emotional delivery of the lyrics create a feeling of sadness and despair that anyone who has experienced heartbreak can relate to.
Line by Line Meaning
What now my love, now that you've left me
I am lost and unsure of what to do now that you have walked out on me.
How can I live through another day
It is difficult to find the strength to continue living without you.
Watching my dreams turn to ashes
The hopes and aspirations I had for us have now turned to nothingness.
And my hopes turn to bits of clay
My dreams and expectations have been crushed and molded into useless, lifeless remnants of what they once were.
Once I could see, once I could feel
There was a time when I was filled with emotions, when I was alive and aware of my surroundings.
Now I am numb, I've become unreal
But now, after what has happened, I feel nothing. I've become disconnected from reality.
I walk the night, without a goal
I wander aimlessly through the darkness of the night, with no sense of direction or purpose.
Stripped of my heart and my soul
The pain and sorrow I have experienced have left me feeling empty, devoid of the very things that make me human.
What now my love, now that it's over
Now that our relationship has ended, I am left with a gaping void and an uncertainty of what to do next.
I feel the world falling all around me
It feels like my entire world is crumbling down around me, and I'm helpless to stop it.
Here come the stars, tumbling around me
Even the stars in the sky seem to be falling out of alignment, symbolizing the chaos and confusion inside of me.
There's the sky, where that sea should be
Even something as seemingly stable and predictable as the ocean has eroded into a boundless, endless sky of despair.
What now my love, now that you're gone
Now that you're no longer here, I don't know how to move forward or find happiness again.
I'd be a fool to go on and on
It would be foolish to try and carry on with life feeling this way, but I don't know what else to do.
No one would care, no one would cry
It feels like nobody else understands the depth of my pain, and nobody would be affected if I were to disappear.
If I should live if I should live or die
I'm questioning the purpose and value of my own existence in light of this heartbreak I'm experiencing.
What now my love, now there is nothing
All that remains after our separation is emptiness and a sense of deep loss.
Only my last, my last good-bye
All I have left to offer is a final farewell, a mournful goodbye to the person who used to mean the world to me.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BALANDRAS EDITIONS, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Carl Sigman, Gilbert Becaud, Pierre Delanoe
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Roger Carroll
Always had a Frank Sinatra record cut on all my ABC radio shows and 22 years at KMPC he would call and thank me for saying the nice things about him..A real CLASSY GENTLEMAN
slingbladejeff
Class act.What a VOICE. Still to this DAY.
Adam Adam
Such a wonderful voice
Zé Buraco
isso é lindo S2
Marsie
I love this so much!! I don't understand the amount of negativity in the comment section toward the song
Buzz Ledoux
He sucks! His voice was gone so he talked through it. He was smart he got a Sctik that worked! Listen to his stuff from his start and this trash. Elvis voice never left him!
Dan Smith
@Buzz Ledoux , Elvis' version of this song is arranged more on point. This song is about a man contemplating suicide. Elvis gives it a soulful feeling, Frank made it happy, let's party.
Jason_G
I have the whole record session for this song. he had such difficulty recording this, and what you hear is all of his thinking. he told the band how to play the intro and everything.
Claire LIDDELL
Love this version
Craig Leibbrand
Excellent song