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.
You And The Night And The Music
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Fill me with flaming desire
Setting my being completely on fire
You and the night and the music
Thrill me, but will we be one
After the night and the music are done?
Until the pale light of dawn and in daylight
Morning will come without warning and take away the stars
If we must live for the moment
Love till the moment is through
After the night and the music die
Will I have you?
Until the pale light of dawn and in daylight
Hearts will be throbbing guitars
Morning will come without warning and take away the stars
If we must live for the moment
Love till the moment is through
After the night and the music die
Will I have you?
In "You and the Night and the Music," Frank Sinatra croons of the intense passion and desire inspired by a night of dancing and music with a special someone. The lyrics express the intoxicating feelings of the moment, but also the inevitable uncertainty that comes once the music stops and the dawn breaks. Sinatra's voice is both smooth and powerful, perfectly capturing the heightened emotions of the scene.
The first two lines of the song, "You and the night and the music / Fill me with flaming desire," set the tone for the rest of the lyrics. The music and the night act as powerful aphrodisiacs, fueling the singer's desires and overwhelming them with feeling. The third line, "Setting my being completely on fire," reinforces how all-consuming these passions are.
The chorus of the song builds on this sense of longing and uncertainty. The repeated line "Thrill me, but will we be one / After the night and the music are done?" suggests that while the moment is thrilling, there's no way to know what the future holds. The repetition also reinforces the central theme of the song - that intense passion and desire can be both wonderful and terrifying.
Line by Line Meaning
You and the night and the music
The singer is consumed by their desire for their partner and the romantic setting they are in.
Fill me with flaming desire
The singer's passion for their partner and the moment is overwhelming.
Setting my being completely on fire
The experience is so intense that it feels like the singer is physically burning.
Thrill me, but will we be one
The excitement of the moment is undeniable, but there is uncertainty about the future of the relationship beyond this moment.
After the night and the music are done?
The artist wonders if the connection they feel with their partner will last beyond this special moment.
Until the pale light of dawn and in daylight
The singer is fully aware that the moment they are sharing with their partner is fleeting and will not last forever.
Hearts will be throbbing guitars
Their love for each other is so powerful, it feels like music is emanating from their very beings.
Morning will come without warning and take away the stars
The artist acknowledges that the beauty and magic of the night will end when the sun rises, and that the moment will soon be gone.
If we must live for the moment
The artist understands that this experience is fleeting and that they should enjoy it while it lasts.
Love till the moment is through
Despite the fleeting nature of the moment, the artist is committed to fully experiencing their love for their partner in this moment.
Will I have you?
The singer wonders if their connection with their partner is strong enough to last beyond this moment and become something more meaningful.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: ARTHUR SCHWARTZ, HOWARD DIETZ
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@tuxguys
A great song from the same songwriting team (Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz) that gave the Human Race their own ultimate gift to it, "Dancing in the Dark."
Just as spiritual/metaphysical as the lyric to that tune is, this lyric is almost earthy in its poetic, matter-of-fact assessment of what may be a one-night stand:
"You and the night and the music
Fill me with flaming desire
Setting my being completely on fire
You and the night and the music
Thrill me but will we be one
After the night and the music are done?
Until the pale light of dawning and daylight
Our hearts will be throbbing guitars
Morning may come without warning
And take away the stars
If we must live for the moment
Love till the moment is through
After the night and the music die
Will I have you?"
...or, perhaps, it may turn into something more...
@susanclark9040
I adore Frank! This is the way music is done. Enjoyed it as a 42nd Anniversary approaches. Whoooooahhhh sexy😎🐾
@truelily7
This song just popped into my head last night.
@ClaimOfRightMuso
..and into mine tonight, I 'congratulated' myself on having the correct title I had in my head. I wasn't born when this song was written, my elderly mother (currently recovering in hospital) was but a few months old. There you go.
Frank just sings this song so great.
@FringggFilms
Daaaaamn........ the way Frank Sinatra sings and they way this bad swigs is unreal..his music was a whole nother level back then nobody will ever touch his man with music he laid down for over 50 years ... a master...
@rashadw3933
Can’t believe I just heard this song for the first time. Frank’s Sirius xm channel is highly recommended.
@FringggFilms
The way the band swingggs ...wow
@TheLAKERSareGodsTeam
RIP Johnny Mandel 2020 and the GINORMOUS BRASS on this.
@frannyzooey11
I agree. Frank Sinatra is and will always be the best male singer. Magic
@ronnieboucherthecrystalcraftsm
see - connie evingson - she does jazz
@benjamindavid5681
Hip. There is a reason why Sinatra was a great musician in addition to his genius:
I can only say at this time that as the Jazz culture changed from the the 1930's to the what we now understand as Modern Jazz, Sinatra listened like no other soloist of the 1950's and 1960's did. He was able to capture the rhymic changes of this period using is vocal equipment as a musical instrument.