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 Are Too Beautifull
Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
My dear, to be true
And I am a fool for beauty
Fooled by a feeling
That because I had found you
I could have bound you to me
You are too beautiful
One lucky fool to be with
When there are other men
With eyes of their own
To see with
Love does not stand sharing
Not if one cares
Have you been comparing
My every kiss with theirs?
If on the other hand
I'm faithful to you
It's not from a sense of duty
You are too beautiful
And I am a fool
For beauty
The lyrics of Frank Sinatra's song "You Are Too Beautiful" showcase the singer's vulnerability and his amazement at the beauty of his lover. The song is about his fear of losing her due to other admirers and his own doubts and insecurities. He feels like a fool for being so taken by her beauty, and he worries that he will never be able to keep her all to himself. He seems conflicted about whether he should be faithful to her or if he should indulge in his own desires like other men.
Throughout the song, Frank Sinatra expresses his innermost feelings about his lover and his own struggles with desire and possessiveness. He describes his lover as being so beautiful that she couldn't possibly be real, and he feels foolish for falling in love with such an outstanding woman. He is also jealous of other men who may also be attracted to her beauty, and he questions whether or not he can be the only one to have her. Ultimately, he decides that he is faithful to her because he is unable to resist her gorgeousness.
In conclusion, "You Are Too Beautiful" is an introspective and emotional song about the singer's innermost fears and insecurities. He is in awe of his lover, but at the same time, he is fearful that her beauty will be her downfall. Despite his doubts, he realizes that he is a fool for love, and he cannot help but adore her beauty.
Line by Line Meaning
You are too beautiful
The subject is describing how beautiful their significant other is.
My dear, to be true
The subject questions whether someone so beautiful could actually be real.
And I am a fool for beauty
The subject acknowledges their weakness for beautiful things.
Fooled by a feeling
The subject admits that their emotions have misled them before.
That because I had found you
The subject believed that once they found their significant other, they could keep them.
I could have bound you to me.
The subject believed that once they found their significant other, they could keep them.
You are too beautiful
The subject reiterates how beautiful their significant other is.
For one man alone
The subject believes that their significant other is too beautiful to be with just one person.
One lucky fool to be with
The subject considers themselves lucky to be with someone so beautiful.
When there are other men
The subject recognizes that there are other men who also find their significant other attractive.
With eyes of their own
The subject acknowledges that other men have their own unique perceptions of beauty.
To see with.
The subject notes that other men are capable of seeing their significant other's beauty.
Love does not stand sharing
The subject expresses that true love cannot be shared.
Not if one cares
The subject believes that if someone truly cares, they will not want to share their significant other.
Have you been comparing
The subject asks if their significant other has been comparing them to other men.
My every kiss with theirs?
The subject wonders if their significant other has been comparing their kisses to someone else's.
If on the other hand
The subject introduces a new perspective.
I'm faithful to you
The subject assures their significant other that they are faithful.
It's not from a sense of duty
The subject notes that their faithfulness is not obligatory.
You are too beautiful
The subject reiterates how beautiful their significant other is.
And I am a fool
The subject admits that they are foolish.
For beauty.
The subject acknowledges that their weakness for beauty makes them act foolishly.
Lyrics © TuneCore Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: LORENZ HART, RICHARD RODGERS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@bryanrendleman2001
Sinatra is still the Chairman of the Board.
His smooth voice in youth and then his more raspy tone as an elder are the most distinct voice changes of any of the jazz crooners.
Both are so hypnotic.
@Phaaschh
I have a copy of this which I haven't played in years. It was pretty worn when I bought it, even more, now, and it's good to hear it again. Thanks, Prof for the nice, clean copy.
@Trombonology
I'll say it again -- despite the fact that many appear to regard Frank's Columbia work as merely pleasantly callow in comparison with his celebrated and seasoned Capitol years, I've always loved this period, precisely for its relative innocence. And still, despite his youth, he had the sensitivity and understanding to do full justice to Hart's nuanced lyrics, making this my favorite vocal treatment of one of the great team's gems.
@Phaaschh
Hear hear. Because Stordahl was already on Dorsey's staff during Frank's tenure, his transition from band singer to solo artist was fairly seamless, aurally speaking. I also love the young, heroic bel canto Sinatra style, and like you say, it captures an innocence of spirit, which only began to mature into something darker when Ava appeared on the scene. Those who pigeonhole this period would do well to listen to his flawless technique, and an actor's ability to deliver nuance and flow. Masterclass.
@Trombonology
@Mark Thompson Beautifully put, Mark. To dismiss Frank's Columbia years as an artistic adolescence is just lazy or insensitive.
@Phaaschh
@Trombonology Erstwhile Yep. "Hack" thinking. My direct introduction to FS was sort of through the back door- in childhood, he was always there on the radio, but I didn't register him.
Much later, when I got the music bug, I was given a bunch of 78s, amongst them being an HMV copy of "Trade Winds" by TD "With vocal refrain". I put it on, loving Tommy's opening solo, and when the vocal started, thought "good singer". But it was the pronunciation of "awning" as "arning" which caught my attention "is that...?... God, It is!". And that was the moment my interest was piqued, and the hunt for more began. The rest is history!
@Trombonology
@Mark Thompson I can't believe it: I've listened to TD's "Trade Winds" only about a million times -- and, in fact have always been charmed by the picturesque "under an awning of silvery boughs" -- but I'd never caught that arning , despite my customary attentiveness! Just listened, so very closely, and it's there, alright! The example of mispronunciation -- or over-enunciation -- from the TD years that always gets me is "light a can-dell in the cha-pell " Ouch! Still, these things were rarities for FAS!
@vladimirdorta6692
Sorry to contradict the expert, but Johnny Hartman owns this song (and all the others) in one of the best albums ever, "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman"
@valentinkuzmin9810
Когда я слушаю голос ф синатры я просто растворяюсь в каждой его песне и вновь оживаю ! Вечная память память память !
@riyadhrafique8377
Old Blue Eyes- Francis Albert Sinatra (1915-1998) in the early stage of his career. In the days when he sang with Perry Como.