Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer who is widely considered to have been the finest male popular song vocalist of all time. more...

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Renowned for his impeccable phrasing and timing, critics place him alongside such artists as Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles as one of the most important, popular and influential musical figures of the 20th century.More than that, when the late jazz critic Benny Green was asked to rate Johnny Mathis as a singer he said: "Good singer - but second division". "Who's first division then?" asked programme compere Stuart Hall of the BBC. "Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra and Frank Sinatra".

Sinatra had a larger-than-life presence in the public eye and, over a seven-decade career in show business, became an American icon. His brash, sometimes swaggering attitude was perhaps best embodied by his signature song "My Way", and more generally by his frequently gutsy cinematic performances. He also garnered considerable attention due to his alleged connections with the Mafia.

Life

Early life

Francis Albert Sinatra was born in 1915 in a Paterson, New Jersey hospital to a family living at 415 Monroe St., Hoboken, New Jersey. He was the only child of a quiet Sicilian fireman, Anthony Martin Sinatra (1894-1969). Anthony had emigrated to the United States in 1895. His mother, Natalie Dolly Garaventa (1896-1977), was a talented, tempestuous Ligurian, who worked as a midwife, Democratic party ward boss, and part-time abortionist. Known as "Hatpin Dolly," she emigrated in 1897. Although it is part of the Sinatra folklore that Frank had an impoverished childhood, he was actually brought up in a middle-class environment, due to his father's secure job as a fireman and his mother's strong political ties to the Democratic Party in Hoboken. More exactly, the home he was raised in, especially after the age of 5, was comfortably middle-class even as the surrounding neighborhood tipped toward lower middle class.

Following his teen years in New Jersey, Sinatra was interested in serving his country during World War II. But on December 9, 1941, close to his 26th birthday, Sinatra was classified as 4-F at Newark Induction Center, due to a punctured eardrum he suffered from a difficult forceps delivery. This allowed Sinatra to pursue entertainment, rather than being enlisted in the Army Air Corps.

Early career

In September of 1935 he appeared on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour as part a group called the Hoboken Four. The group won the show's talent contest and toured with Bowes. Sinatra then took a job as a singing waiter and MC at the Rustic Club in Englewood, NJ. (Frank Sinatra was actually not going to get this job but when the first choice Frankie Manion turned down the job the owner chose Frank Sinatra) In 1939 bandleader and trumpet player Harry James heard Sinatra on the radio. James hired Sinatra and the two recorded together for the first time on July 13, 1939.

Read more at Wikipedia.org