Name	Tramp
Cover
Artist	Lowell Fulson
Album	Tramp
B-side	"Pico"
Released
Format	7" 45 rpm record
Recorded
Genre	Blues
Length
Label	Kent (Cat. no. 456)
Writer	Lowell Fulson, Jimmy McCracklin
Last single	"Black Nights" (1967)
This single	"Tramp" (1967)
Next single	"Make a Little Love" (1967)

"Tramp" is a soul blues song first recorded by Lowell Fulson in 1967. It was written by Fulson and Jimmy McCracklin. The song became a hit, reaching #5 in the Billboard R&B; chart and #52 in the pop Billboard Hot 100 chart. Since the original recording, "Tramp" has been recorded by several R&B; and other artists.

Other versions

1967 - Otis Redding and Carla Thomas as #2 R&B; and #26 Pop hits.

1967 - Roy Head and the Traits with Johnny Winter as a single.

1967 - Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity as a single.

2001 - Buddy Guy from Sweet Tea.

2003 - ZZ Top from Mescalero.

2010 - Steve Miller Band from Bingo!.

Sampling

The song was sampled in the 1992 song "7" by Prince.

Salt-n-Pepa sampled the song in 1985 and kept the original title.

References

Category:1967 singles Category:Lowell Fulson songs Category:Otis Redding songs Category:Blues songs

Name	Mike Tramp
Background	solo_singer |
Birth name	Michael Trempenau |
Born	January 14, 1961 |
Origin	Copenhagen, Denmark |
Instrument	Vocals Guitar |
Genre	Glam metal Hard rock |
Occupation	Singer Songwriter |
Years active	1978-Present |
Label	Atlantic Records Frontiers Records |
Associated acts	Mabel White Lion Freak of Nature |
Url	http://www.miketramp.com/

Mike Tramp (Born Michael Trempenau January 14, 1961) is a Danish singer and songwriter who is best known for his work with the hard rock bands White Lion and Freak of Nature. He has released 14 albums, including six solo albums.

Biography

Michael Trempenau was born in Denmark, and grew up in Vesterbro with his mother, Doris, who died April 2010 at the age of 80, and two brothers, Dennis and Kim. Mike started his musical career singing in a youth group club in Copenhagen called Vesterbro Ungdomsgård, and appears on their first album: Vi lever på Vesterbro (1974). Later, he joined the pop band Mabel, as the lead singer. They recorded four albums and were very popular in Denmark and Spain, with Mike receiving "teen idol" status. In 1978 Mabel won the Danish Song Contest with the song Boom Boom and represented Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest that year. Mabel moved to New York City in the late 1970s, but soon broke up. After the demise of Mabel, Tramp met Vito Bratta and formed White Lion.

After the demise of White Lion in 1992, Mike formed the rock band Freak of Nature, with whom he released three albums. In 2005, Tramp formed the band, "Tramp's White Lion", playing only White Lion songs. TWL toured during 2005 and released a double-live CD entitled Tramp's White Lion: Rockin' In The USA.

In 2006 Tramp's White Lion toured Europe in November and December 2006 with British band Crimes of Passion, however this tour was cancelled after a show in Belgium due to illness. White Lion toured the USA & played at two European festivals in the summer of 2007.

White Lion recorded a new studio album called "Return of the Pride", which was released on March 14, 2008.

In October 2009, Mike Tramp new album studio called "Mike Tramp and the Rock'n'Roll Circuz" was released and hit the IFPI, Danmark's official top 40 hitlist albums'.

The next solo album will be released early in 2011.

Personal life

Tramp is married to Indonesian actress Ayu Azhari, with whom he has two children: Isabelle and Lennon. Tramp also has a third child, his son Dylan, from a previous relationship with Fleur Thiemeyer.

Discography

With White Lion

Fight to Survive (1984)

Pride (1987)

Big Game (1989)

Mane Attraction (1991)

The Best of White Lion (1992)

Remembering White Lion (New versions) (1999)

Anthology 83-89 (Demos) (2004)

Rocking The USA (live double album) (2005)

Extended Versions (2007)

Return of the Pride (2008)

With Freak of Nature

Freak of Nature (1993)

Gathering of Freaks (1994)

Outcasts (1998)

Solo

Capricorn (1998)

Recovering the Wasted Years (2002)

More to Life than This (2003)

Rock 'n' Roll Alive (live double album) (2003)

Songs I Left Behind (2004)

Mike Tramp & The Rock 'N' Roll Circuz (2009)

References

External links

Mike Tramp's Website

Mike Tramp's Myspace

The Mike Tramp Fansite

The White Lion Fansite

Tribute to Mike Tramp

Interview with Mike on Anarchy Music

Mabel discography and pictures

[ His page] at Allmusic

Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:Danish expatriates in Australia Category:Danish male singers Category:Danish rock singers Category:People from Copenhagen Category:White Lion members Category:Danish Eurovision Song Contest entrants

Name	Peggy Lee
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Norma Deloris Egstrom
Born	May 26, 1920 Jamestown, North Dakota, U.S.
Died	January 21, 2002 Bel Air, California, U.S.
Genre	Traditional pop, jazz
Occupation	Singer, actress songwriter
Voice type	Contralto
Years active	1941–2000
Label	Decca Records Capitol Records
Associated acts	Jo Stafford, Patti Page, Rosemary Clooney}}

Peggy Lee (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002) was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning nearly seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged her own sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and performer. She wrote music for films, acted, and created conceptual record albums---encompassing poetry, jazz, chamber pop, art songs, and other genres.

Biography

Early life

Lee had Norwegian and Swedish ancestry, and was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, the seventh of eight children of Marvin Egstrom, a station agent for the Midland Continental Railroad. Her mother died when she was four years old. She sang professionally with KOVC radio in Valley City, North Dakota. She later had her own series on a radio show sponsored by a local restaurant that paid her a "salary" in food. Both during and after her high school years Lee sang for paltry sums on local radio stations. Radio personality Ken Kennedy of WDAY in Fargo (the most widely listened to station in North Dakota) changed her name from Norma to Peggy Lee. Lee left home and traveled to Los Angeles at the age of 17.

She returned to North Dakota for a tonsillectomy and eventually made her way to Chicago for a gig at The Buttery Room, a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel East, where she drew the attention of Benny Goodman, the jazz clarinetist and band leader. According to Lee, "Benny's then-fiancée, Lady Alice Duckworth, came into The Buttery, and she was very impressed. So the next evening she brought Benny in, because they were looking for replacement for Helen Forrest. And although I didn't know, I was it. He was looking at me strangely, I thought, but it was just his preoccupied way of looking. I thought that he didn't like me at first, but it just was that he was preoccupied with what he was hearing." She joined his band in 1941 and stayed for two years.

Recording career

In early 1942, Lee had her first #1 hit, "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place", followed by 1943's "Why Don't You Do Right?" (originally sung by Lil Green), which sold over a million copies and made her famous. She sang with Goodman in two 1943 films, Stage Door Canteen and The Powers Girl.

In March 1943, Lee married Dave Barbour, the guitarist in Goodman's band. Peggy said, "David joined Benny's band and there was a ruling that no one should fraternize with the girl singer. But I fell in love with David the first time I heard him play, and so I married him. Benny then fired David, so I quit, too. Benny and I made up, although David didn't play with him anymore. Benny stuck to his rule. I think that's not too bad a rule, but you can't help falling in love with somebody."

When Lee and Barbour left the band, the idea was that he would work in the studios and she would keep house and raise their daughter, Nicki. But she drifted back towards songwriting and occasional recording sessions for the fledgling Capitol Records in 1947, for whom she produced a long string of hits, many of them with lyrics and music by Lee and Barbour, including "I Don't Know Enough About You" and "It's a Good Day" (1948). With the release of the smash #1-selling record of 1947, "Mañana", her "retirement" was over.

In 1948, she joined Perry Como and Jo Stafford as one of the rotating hosts of the NBC Radio musical program Chesterfield Supper Club. She was also a regular on NBC's Jimmy Durante Show during the 1938-48 season.

She left Capitol for a few years in the early 1950s, but returned in 1953. She is most famous for her cover version of the Little Willie John hit "Fever", to which she added her own, uncopyrighted lyrics ("Romeo loved Juliet," "Captain Smith and Pocahontas") and her rendition of Leiber and Stoller's "Is That All There Is?". Her relationship with the Capitol label spanned almost three decades, aside from her brief but artistically rich detour (1952–1956) at Decca Records, where she recorded one of her most acclaimed albums Black Coffee (1956). While recording for Decca, Lee had hit singles with the songs "Lover" and "Mr. Wonderful."

Lee is today internationally recognized for her signature song "Fever". She had a string of successful albums and top 10 hits in three consecutive decades. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential jazz vocalists of all time, being cited as a mentor to diverse artists such as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Paul McCartney, Bette Midler, Madonna, and Dusty Springfield. Lee was also an accomplished actress,.

In her 60-year-long career, Peggy was the recipient of three Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, an Academy Award nomination, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Award; the Presidents Award, the Ella Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Living Legacy Award, from the Women's International Center. In 1999 Peggy Lee was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Songwriting

She was also known as a songwriter with such hits as the songs from the Disney movie Lady and the Tramp, for which she also supplied the singing and speaking voices of four characters. Her other collaborators included Laurindo Almeida, Harold Arlen, Sonny Burke, Cy Coleman, Duke Ellington, Dave Grusin, Quincy Jones, Francis Lai, Jack Marshall, Johnny Mandel, Marian McPartland, Willard Robison, Lalo Schifrin and Victor Young.

She wrote the lyrics for:

"I Don't Know Enough About You"

"It's A Good Day", composed by Dave Barbour, "I'm Gonna Go Fishin'", composed with Duke Ellington

"The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter"

"Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)"

"Bless You (For The Good That's In You)" with Mel Torme

"What More Can a Woman Do?"

"Don't Be Mean to Baby"

"New York City Ghost" with Victor Young

"You Was Right, Baby"

"Just an Old Love of Mine"

"Everything's Movin' Too Fast"

"The Shining Sea"

"He's A Tramp"

"The Siamese Cat Song"

"There Will Be Another Spring"

"Johnny Guitar" with Victor Young

"Sans Souci" with Sonny Burke

"So What's New?"

"Don't Smoke in Bed"

"I Love Being Here With You"

"Happy With the Blues" with Harold Arlen

"Where Can I Go Without You?"

"Things Are Swingin'"

"Then Was Then" with Cy Coleman

The first song she composed was "Little Fool", published in 1941. "What More Can a Woman Do?" was recorded by Sarah Vaughan with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. "Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)" was no.1 for 9 weeks on the Billboard singles chart in 1948, from the week of March 13 to May 8.

During a time when youths began turning to rock'n'roll, she was one of the mainstays of Capitol recordings. She was the first of the "old guard" to recognize this new genre, as is evident in her recordings of the Beatles, Randy Newman, Carole King, James Taylor and other up-and-coming songwriters. From 1957 until her final disc for the company in 1972, she routinely produced a steady stream of two or three albums per year which usually included standards (often arranged in a style quite different from the original), her own compositions, and material from young artists.

Acting career

Lee also starred and sang in the hit films The Jazz Singer, Disney's Lady and the Tramp, and Pete Kelly's Blues, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1952, she played opposite Danny Thomas in a remake of the early Al Jolson film, The Jazz Singer. In 1955, she played a despondent, alcoholic blues singer in Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), for which she was nominated for an Oscar. After years of poor health, Lee died of complications from diabetes and a heart attack at the age of 81. Her legacy lives on through her daughter Nicki Lee Foster, whom she had with Barbour. She is interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles' Westwood neighborhood. On her marker in a garden setting is inscribed, "Music is my life's breath."

Legacy

Academy Awards memoriam omission

She was not featured in Memoriam Tribute during the Academy Awards ceremony. When her family requested she be featured in the following year's ceremony, the Academy stated they did not honor requests and Lee was omitted because her contribution to film and her legacy were not deemed significant enough, although she had been nominated for a Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Pete Kelly's Blues. Her family pointed out that, although she had been omitted, R&B; singer/actress Aaliyah, who died a few months earlier, was included though having been in only one moderately successful film, Romeo Must Die (Queen of the Damned had yet to be released). The Academy provided no comment on the oversight.

Awards

Lee was nominated for 12 Grammy Awards, winning Best Contemporary Vocal Performance for her 1969 hit "Is That All There Is?" In 1995 she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lee is a recipient of the state of North Dakota's Roughrider Award; the Pied Piper Award from The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP); the Presidents Award, from the Songwriters Guild of America; the Ella Award for Lifetime Achievement, from the Society of Singers; and the Living Legacy Award, from the Women's International Center. In 1999 she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Carnegie Hall tribute

In 2003, "There'll Be Another Spring: A Tribute to Miss Peggy Lee" was held at Carnegie Hall. Produced by recording artist Richard Barone, the sold-out event included performances by Cy Coleman, Debbie Harry, Nancy Sinatra, Rita Moreno, Marian McPartland, Chris Connor, Petula Clark, and many others. In 2004, Barone brought the event to the Hollywood Bowl and Chicago's Ravinia Festival, with expanded casts including Maureen McGovern, Jack Jones, and Bea Arthur. The Carnegie Hall concert was broadcast on NPR's "Jazz Set".

Bibliography

;Autobiography

Peggy Lee, Miss Peggy Lee: An Autobiography, 2002, Bloomsbury (UK), ISBN 0-7475-5907-4

;Biography

Peter Richmond, Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee, 2006, Henry Holt and Company, ISBN 0-8050-7383-3

Robert Strom, Miss Peggy Lee: A Career Chronicle, 2005, McFarland Publishing, ISBN 0-7864-1936-9

;Album liner notes

Will Friedwald, Album liner notes The Best of Peggy Lee, The Capitol Years

Discography

Capitol Records

1948 Rendezvous with Peggy Lee (set of 78s: 6 songs)

1952 Rendezvous with Peggy Lee (10-inch LP: 8 songs; 12-inch LP: 12 songs)

Decca Records

1953 Black Coffee (10-inch version)

1954 Songs in an Intimate Style

1954 Selections from Irving Berlin's 'White Christmas' (w/ Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye)

1955 Songs from Pete Kelly's Blues (w/ Ella Fitzgerald)

1956 Black Coffee (12-inch version)

1957 Dream Street

1957 Songs from Walt Disney's "Lady and the Tramp"

1958 Sea Shells (recorded 1955)

1959 Miss Wonderful (recorded 1956)

1964 Lover (recorded 1952)

1964 The Fabulous Peggy Lee (recorded 1953-56)

Capitol Records

1957 The Man I Love

1959 Jump for Joy

1959 Things Are Swingin'

1959 I Like Men!

1959 Beauty and the Beat!

1960 Latin ala Lee!

1960 All Aglow Again!

1960 Pretty Eyes

1960 Christmas Carousel

1960 Olé ala Lee

1961 Basin Street East Proudly Presents Miss Peggy Lee

1961 If You Go

1962 Blues Cross Country

1962 Bewitching-Lee

1962 Sugar 'N' Spice

1963 Mink Jazz

1963 I'm a Woman

1964 In Love Again!

1964 In the Name of Love

1965 Pass Me By

1965 Then Was Then - Now Is Now!

1966 Guitars A là Lee

1966 Big $pender

1967 Extra Special!

1967 Somethin' Groovy!

1968 2 Shows Nightly

1969 A Natural Woman

1969 Is That All There Is?

1970 Bridge Over Troubled Water

1970 Make It With You

1971 Where Did They Go

1972 Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown, North Dakota

Post-Capitol albums

1974 Let's Love

1975 Mirrors

1977 Live in London

1977 Peggy

1979 Close Enough for Love

1988 Miss Peggy Lee Sings the Blues

1990

1993 (rec. 1988)

1993 Moments Like This

Chart singles

{| class="wikitable" ! rowspan="2"| Year ! rowspan="2"| Title ! colspan="2"| Chart Positions |- ! width="60"| US Pop ! width="60"| US AC |- | rowspan="8"| 1941 | "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good" | align="center"| 25 | align="center"| — |- | "Winter Weather" (w/ Art Lund) | align="center"| 24 | align="center"| — |- | "Blues in the Night" | align="center"| 20 | align="center"| — |- | "Somebody Else is Taking My Place" | align="center"| 1 | align="center"| — |- | "My Little Cousin" | align="center"| 14 | align="center"| — |- | "We'll Meet Again" | align="center"| 16 | align="center"| — |- | "Full Moon" | align="center"| 22 | align="center"| — |- | "The Way You Look Tonight" | align="center"| 21 | align="center"| — |- | 1943 | "Why Don't You Do Right" | align="center"| 4 | align="center"| — |- | 1945 | "Waitin' for the Train to Come in" | align="center"| 4 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="4"| 1946 | "I'm Glad I Waited for You" | align="center"| 24 | align="center"| — |- | "I Don't Know Enough About You" | align="center"| 7 | align="center"| — |- | "Linger in My Arms a Little Longer, Baby" | align="center"| 16 | align="center"| — |- | "It's All Over Now" | align="center"| 10 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="4"| 1947 | "It's a Good Day" | align="center"| 16 | align="center"| — |- | "Everything's Moving too Fast" | align="center"| 21 | align="center"| — |- | "Chi-baba, Chi-baba (My Bambino, Go to Sleep)" | align="center"| 10 | align="center"| — |- | "Golden Earrings" | align="center"| 2 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="10"| 1948 | "Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)" | align="center"| 1 | align="center"| — |- | "All Dressed up with a Broken Heart" | align="center"| 21 | align="center"| — |- | "For Every Man, There's a Woman" | align="center"| 25 | align="center"| — |- | "Laroo, Laroo, Lili Bolero" | align="center"| 13 | align="center"| — |- | "Talking to Myself About You" | align="center"| 23 | align="center"| — |- | "Don't Smoke in Bed" | align="center"| 22 | align="center"| — |- | "Caramba! It's the Samba" | align="center"| 13 | align="center"| — |- | "Baby, Don't Be Mad at Me" | align="center"| 21 | align="center"| — |- | "Somebody Else is Taking My Place" (re-issue) | align="center"| 30 | align="center"| — |- | "Bubble Loo, Bubble Loo" | align="center"| 23 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="4"| 1949 | "Blum Blum, I Wonder Who I Am" | align="center"| 27 | align="center"| — |- | "Similau (See-Me-Lo)" | align="center"| 17 | align="center"| — |- | "Bali Ha'i" | align="center"| 13 | align="center"| — |- | "Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)" | align="center"| 2 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="2"| 1950 | "The Old Master Painter" (w/ Mel Torme) | align="center"| 9 | align="center"| — |- | "Show Me the Way to Get out of This World" | align="center"| 28 | align="center"| — |- | 1951 | "(When I Dance with You) I Get Ideas" | align="center"| 14 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="5"| 1952 | "Be Anything (But Be Mine)" | align="center"| 21 | align="center"| — |- | "Lover" | align="center"| 3 | align="center"| — |- | "Watermelon Weather" (w/ Bing Crosby) | align="center"| 28 | align="center"| — |- | "Just One of Those Things" | align="center"| 14 | align="center"| — |- | "River, River" | align="center"| 23 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="2"| 1953 | "Who's Gonna Pay the Check" | align="center"| 22 | align="center"| — |- | "Baubles, Bangles, & Beads" | align="center"| 30 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="2"| 1954 | "Where can I go Without You" | align="center"| 28 | align="center"| — |- | "Let Me Go, Lover" | align="center"| 26 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="2"| 1956 | "Mr. Wonderful" | align="center"| 14 | align="center"| — |- | "Joey, Joey, Joey" | align="center"| 76 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="3"| 1958 | "Fever" | align="center"| 8 | align="center"| — |- | "Light of Love" | align="center"| 63 | align="center"| — |- | "Sweetheart" | align="center"| 98 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="3"| 1959 | "Alright, Okay, You Win" | align="center"| 68 | align="center"| — |- | "My Man" | align="center"| 81 | align="center"| — |- | "Hallelujah, I Love Him So" | align="center"| 77 | align="center"| — |- | 1963 | "I'm a Woman" | align="center"| 54 | align="center"| — |- | 1964 | "In the Name of Love" | align="center"| 132 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="2"| 1965 | "Pass Me By" | align="center"| 93 | align="center"| 20 |- | "Free Spirits" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 29 |- | rowspan="5"| 1966 | "Big Spender" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 9 |- | "That Man" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 31 |- | "You've Got Possibilities" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 36 |- | "So, What's New" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 20 |- | "Walking Happy" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 14 |- | 1967 | "I Feel it" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 8 |- | rowspan="3"| 1969 | "Spinning Wheel" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 24 |- | "Is That All There Is?" | align="center"| 11 | align="center"| 1 |- | "Whistle for Happiness" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 13 |- | rowspan="3"| 1970 | "(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story" | align="center"| 105 | align="center"| 26 |- | "You'll Remember Me" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 16 |- | "One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 21 |- | 1972 | "Love Song" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 34 |- | 1974 | "Let's Love" | align="center"| — | align="center"| 22 |}

Filmography

The Powers Girl (1943)

Stage Door Canteen (1943)

Banquet of Melody (1946) (short subject)

Jasper in a Jam (1946) (short subject) (voice)

Midnight Serenade (1947) (short subject)

Peggy Lee and the Dave Barbour Quartet (1950) (short subject)

Mr. Music (1950)

The Jazz Singer (1952)

Lady and the Tramp (1955) (voice)

Pete Kelly's Blues (1955)

Celebrity Art (1973) (short subject)

Mystery guest on What's My Line? (02/28/1960)

References

External links

Official website: PeggyLee.com

Peggy Lee Discography

Songwriters Hall of Fame's Peggy Lee exhibit

Review of a Peggy Lee biography by Mark Steyn

Category:1920 births Category:2002 deaths Category:American actors Category:American contraltos Category:American female singers Category:American jazz singers Category:American Lutherans Category:Songwriters from North Dakota Category:Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Deaths from diabetes Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Decca Records artists Category:Disease-related deaths in California Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Musicians from North Dakota Category:American actors of Norwegian descent Category:American musicians of Norwegian descent Category:People from Stutsman County, North Dakota Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:American actors of Swedish descent Category:American musicians of Swedish descent Category:Torch singers Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Women in jazz

Name	Frank Sinatra
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Francis Albert Sinatra
Alias	Ol' Blue Eyes The Chairman of the Board
Death date	May 14, 1998
Death place	Los Angeles, California, United States
Death cause	Heart attack
Instrument	Vocals
Genre	Traditional pop, jazz, swing, big band, vocal
Occupation	Singer,
Years active	1935–1995
Label	Columbia, Capitol, Reprise
Associated acts	Rat Pack, Bing Crosby, Nancy Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Dean Martin
Url
Spouse	Nancy Barbato (1939-1951) Ava Gardner (1951–57) Mia Farrow (1966-1968) Barbara Marx (1976-1998)

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor.

Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (for his performance in From Here to Eternity).

He signed with Capitol Records and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records (finding success with albums such as Ring-A-Ding-Ding, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special , and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".

With sales of his music dwindling and after appearing in several poorly received films, Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971. Two years later, however, he came out of retirement and in 1973 recorded several albums, scoring a Top 40 hit with "(Theme From) New York, New York" in 1980. 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 also forged a successful career as a film actor, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity, a nomination for Best Actor for The Man with the Golden Arm, and critical acclaim for his performance in The Manchurian Candidate. He also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. Sinatra was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and 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.

Early life

Born in December 1915, Sinatra was the only child of Italian immigrants Natalie Della Garaventa and Antonino Martino Sinatra. Sinatra was raised Catholic. He left high school without graduating, having attended only 47 days before being expelled because of his rowdy conduct. His mother, known as Dolly, was influential in the neighborhood and in local Democratic Party circles, but also ran an illegal abortion business from her home; she was arrested several times and convicted twice for this offense. Sinatra was arrested for carrying on with a married woman, a criminal offense at the time. Sinatra's father, often referred to as Tony, served with the Hoboken Fire Department as a Fire Captain. During the tough years of the 1930s, when the Great Depression hit North America, Dolly nevertheless provided ready pocket money to their son for outings with friends and fancy clothes. Sinatra then worked for some time as a delivery boy at the Jersey Observer newspaper, and as a riveter at the Tietjan and Lang shipyard. Sinatra began singing for tips at the age of eight, standing on top of the bar at a local nightclub in Hoboken. He began singing professionally as a teenager in the 1930s.

1935–40: Start of career, work with James and Dorsey

Sinatra got his first break in 1935 when his mother persuaded a local singing group, The Three Flashes, to let him join. With Sinatra, the group became known as the Hoboken Four,

On March 18, 1939, Sinatra made a demo recording of a song called "Our Love", with the Frank Mane band. The record has "Frank Sinatra" signed on the front. The bandleader kept the original record in a safe for nearly 60 years. In June, Harry James hired Sinatra on a one year contract of $75 a week. It was with the James band that Sinatra released his first commercial record "From the Bottom of My Heart" in July, 1939 - US Brunswick #8443 and UK Columbia #DB2150.

Fewer than 8,000 copies of "From the Bottom of My Heart" (Brunswick #8443) were sold, making the record a very rare find that is sought after by record collectors worldwide. Sinatra released ten commercial tracks with James through 1939, including "All or Nothing At All" which had weak sales on its initial release but then sold millions of copies when re-released by Columbia at the height of Sinatra's popularity a few years later.

In November 1939, in a meeting at the Palmer House in Chicago, Sinatra was asked by bandleader Tommy Dorsey to join his band as a replacement for Jack Leonard, who had recently left to launch a solo career. This meeting was a turning point in Sinatra's career, since by signing with Dorsey's band, one of the hottest bands at the time, he got greatly increased visibility with the American public. Though Sinatra was still under contract with James, James recognized the opportunity Dorsey offered and graciously released Sinatra from his contract. Sinatra recognized his debt to James throughout his life and upon hearing of James's death in 1983, stated: "he [James] is the one that made it all possible."

On January 26, 1940, Sinatra made his first public appearance with the Dorsey band at the Coronado Theater in Rockford, Illinois. In his first year with Dorsey, Sinatra released more than forty songs, with "I'll Never Smile Again" topping the charts for twelve weeks beginning in mid-July.

Sinatra's relationship with Tommy Dorsey was troubled, because of their contract, which awarded Dorsey ⅓ of Sinatra's lifetime earnings in the entertainment industry. In January 1942, Sinatra recorded his first solo sessions without the Dorsey band (but with Dorsey's arranger Axel Stordahl and with Dorsey's approval). These sessions were released commercially on the Bluebird label. Sinatra left the Dorsey band late in 1942 in an incident that started rumors of Sinatra's involvement with the Mafia. A story appeared in the Hearst newspapers that mobster Sam Giancana coerced Dorsey to let Sinatra out of his contract for a few thousand dollars. This story was famously fictionalized in the movie The Godfather. According to Nancy Sinatra's biography, the Hearst rumors were started because of Frank's Democratic politics. In fact, the contract was bought out by MCA founder Jules Stein for $75,000.

His appeal to bobby soxers, as teenage girls of that time were called, revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had been recorded mainly for adults up to that time.

On December 31, 1942, Sinatra opened at the Paramount Theater in New York.

during World War II.]]

During the musicians' strike of 1942–44, Columbia re-released Harry James and Sinatra's version of "All or Nothing at All" (music by Arthur Altman and lyrics by Jack Lawrence), recorded in August 1939 and released before Sinatra had made a name for himself. The original release didn’t even mention the vocalist's name. When the recording was re–released in 1943 with Sinatra's name prominently displayed, the record was on the best–selling list for 18 weeks and reached number 2 on June 2, 1943.

Sinatra signed with Columbia on June 1, 1943 as a solo artist, and he initially had great success, particularly during the 1942-43 musicians' strike. And while no new records had been issued during the strike, he had been performing on the radio (on Your Hit Parade), and on stage. Columbia wanted to get new recordings of their growing star as fast as possible, so Sinatra convinced them to hire Alec Wilder as arranger and conductor for several sessions with a vocal group called the Bobby Tucker Singers. These first sessions were on June 7, June 22, August 5, and November 10, 1943. Of the nine songs recorded during these sessions, seven charted on the best–selling list.

Sinatra did not serve in the military during World War II. On December 11, 1943, he was classified 4-F ("Registrant not acceptable for military service") for a perforated eardrum by his draft board. Additionally, an FBI report on Sinatra, released in 1998, showed that the doctors had also written that he was a "neurotic" and "not acceptable material from a psychiatric standpoint." This was omitted from his record to avoid "undue unpleasantness for both the selectee and the induction service." Active-duty servicemen, like journalist William Manchester, said of Sinatra, "I think Frank Sinatra was the most hated man of World War II, much more than Hitler", because Sinatra was back home making all of that money and being shown in photographs surrounded by beautiful women. His deferment would resurface throughout his life and cause him grief when he had to defend himself. There were accusations, including some from noted columnist Walter Winchell, that Sinatra paid $40,000 to avoid the service — but the FBI found no evidence of this.

When Sinatra returned to the Paramount Theater in October 1944, 35,000 fans caused a near riot outside the venue because they were not allowed in.

In 1945, Sinatra co-starred with Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh. That same year, he was loaned out to RKO to star in a short film titled The House I Live In. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, this film on tolerance and racial equality earned a special Academy Award shared among Sinatra and those who brought the film to the screen, along with a special Golden Globe for "Promoting Good Will." 1946 saw the release of his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, and the debut of his own weekly radio show.

By the end of 1948, Sinatra felt that his career was stalling, something that was confirmed when he slipped to No. 4 on Down Beat's annual poll of most popular singers (behind Billy Eckstine, Frankie Laine, and Bing Crosby).

The year 1949 saw an upswing, as Frank co-starred with Gene Kelly in Take Me Out to the Ball Game. It was well received critically and became a major commercial success. That same year, Sinatra teamed up with Kelly for a third time in On the Town.

1950–60: Rebirth of career, Capitol concept albums

After two years' absence, Sinatra returned to the concert stage on January 12, 1950, in Hartford, Connecticut. His voice suffered and he experienced hemorrhaging of his vocal cords on stage at the Copacabana on April 26, 1950.

Also in 1953, Sinatra starred in the NBC radio program Rocky Fortune. His character, Rocko Fortunato (aka Rocky Fortune) was a temp worker for the Gridley Employment Agency who stumbled into crime-solving by way of the odd jobs to which he was dispatched. The series aired on NBC radio Tuesday nights from October 1953 to March 1954, following the network's crime drama hit Dragnet. During the final months of the show, just before the 1954 Oscars, it became a running gag that Sinatra would manage to work the phrase "from here to eternity" into each episode, a reference to his Oscar-nominated performance.

In 1953, Sinatra signed with Capitol Records, where he worked with many of the finest musical arrangers of the era, most notably Nelson Riddle,

1960–70: Ring-A-Ding-Ding, Reprise records, Basie, Jobim, "My Way"

Sinatra started the 1960s as he ended the 1950s. His first album of the decade, Nice 'n' Easy, topped Billboard's chart and won critical plaudits. Sinatra grew discontented at Capitol and decided to form his own label, Reprise Records. His first album on the label, Ring-A-Ding-Ding (1961), was a major success, peaking at #4 on Billboard and #8 in the UK.

His fourth and final Timex TV special was broadcast in March, 1960, and earned massive viewing figures. Titled It's Nice to Go Travelling, the show is more commonly known as . Elvis Presley's appearance after his army discharge was somewhat ironic; Sinatra had been scathing about him in the mid fifties, saying: "His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people." Presley had responded: "... [Sinatra] is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it... [rock and roll] is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago." Later, in efforts to maintain his commercial viability, Sinatra recorded Presley's hit "Love Me Tender" as well as works by Paul Simon ("Mrs. Robinson"), The Beatles ("Something", "Yesterday"), and Joni Mitchell ("Both Sides Now").

Following on the heels of the film Can Can was Ocean's 11, the movie that became the definitive on-screen outing for "The Rat Pack".

From his youth, Sinatra displayed sympathy for African Americans and worked both publicly and privately all his life to help them win equal rights. He played a major role in the desegregation of Nevada hotels and casinos in the 1960s. On January 27, 1961, Sinatra played a benefit show at Carnegie Hall for Martin Luther King, Jr. and led his fellow Rat Pack members and Reprise label mates in boycotting hotels and casinos that refused entry to black patrons and performers. He often spoke from the stage on desegregation and repeatedly played benefits on behalf of Dr. King and his movement. According to his son, Frank Sinatra, Jr., King sat weeping in the audience at a concert in 1963 as Sinatra sang Ol' Man River, a song from the musical Show Boat that is sung by an African-American stevedore.

On September 11 and 12, 1961, Sinatra recorded his final songs for Capitol.

In 1962, he starred with Janet Leigh and Laurence Harvey in the political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate, playing Bennett Marco. That same year, Sinatra and Count Basie collaborated for the album Sinatra-Basie. This popular and successful release prompted them to rejoin two years later for the follow-up It Might as Well Be Swing, which was arranged by Quincy Jones. One of Sinatra's more ambitious albums from the mid-1960s, The Concert Sinatra, was recorded with a 73-piece symphony orchestra on 35mm tape.

Sinatra's first live album, Sinatra at the Sands, was recorded during January and February 1966 at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

In June, 1965, Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dean Martin played live in Saint Louis to benefit Dismas House. The concert was broadcast live via satellite to numerous movie theaters across America. Released in August, 1965, was the Grammy Award–winning album of the year, September of My Years, with a career anthology, A Man and His Music, following in November, itself winning Album of the Year at the Grammys in 1966. The TV special, Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, garnered both an Emmy award and a Peabody Award.

In the spring, That's Life appeared, with both the single and album becoming Top Ten hits in the US on Billboard's pop charts. Strangers in the Night went on to top the Billboard and UK pop singles charts, winning the award for Record of the Year at the Grammys. The album of the same name also topped the Billboard chart and reached number 4 in the UK.

Sinatra started 1967 with a series of important recording sessions with Antônio Carlos Jobim. Later in the year, a duet with daughter Nancy, "Somethin' Stupid", topped the Billboard pop and UK singles charts. In December, Sinatra collaborated with Duke Ellington on the album Francis A. & Edward K..

During the late 1960s, press agent Lee Solters would invite columnists and their spouses into Sinatra's dressing room just before he was about to go on stage. The New Yorker recounted that "the first columnist they tried this on was Larry Fields of the Philadelphia Daily News, whose wife fainted when Sinatra kissed her cheek. 'Take care of it, Lee,' Sinatra said, and he was off." The professional relationship Sinatra shared with Solters focused on projects on the west coast while those focused on the east coast were handled by Solters' partner, Sheldon Roskin of Solters/Roskin/Friedman, a well-known firm at the time.

Back on the small-screen, Sinatra once again worked with Jobim and Ella Fitzgerald on the TV special, A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim.

Watertown (1970) was one of Sinatra's most acclaimed concept albums but was all but ignored by the public. Selling a mere 30,000 copies and reaching a peak chart position of 101, its failure put an end to plans for a television special based on the album.

With Sinatra in mind, singer-songwriter Paul Anka wrote the song "My Way", inspired from the French "Comme d'habitude" ("As Usual"), composed by Claude François and Jacques Revaux. (The song had been previously commissioned to David Bowie, whose lyrics did not please the involved agents.) "My Way" would, ironically, become more closely identified with him than any other song over his seven decades as a singer even though he reputedly did not care for it.

1970–80: Retirement and comeback

On June 13, 1971 — at a concert in Hollywood to raise money for the Motion Picture and TV Relief Fund — at the age of 55, Sinatra announced that he was retiring, bringing to an end his 36-year career in show business.

In 1973, Sinatra came out of retirement with a television special and album, both entitled Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back. The album, arranged by Gordon Jenkins and Don Costa, was a great success, reaching number 13 on Billboard and number 12 in the UK. The TV special was highlighted by a dramatic reading of "Send in the Clowns" and a song and dance sequence with former co-star Gene Kelly.

In January, 1974, Sinatra returned to Las Vegas, performing at Caesars Palace despite vowing in 1970 never to play there again after the manager of the resort, Sanford Waterman, pulled a gun on him during a heated argument. With Waterman recently shot, the door was open for Sinatra to return.

In Australia, he caused an uproar by describing journalists there — who were aggressively pursuing his every move and pushing for a press conference — as "fags", "pimps", and "whores." Australian unions representing transport workers, waiters, and journalists went on strike, demanding that Sinatra apologize for his remarks. Sinatra instead insisted that the journalists apologize for "fifteen years of abuse I have taken from the world press."

Also in 1981, Sinatra was embroiled in controversy when he worked a ten-day engagement for $2 million in Sun City, South Africa, breaking a cultural boycott against Apartheid South Africa. See Artists United Against Apartheid

He was selected as one of the five recipients of the 1983 Kennedy Center Honors, alongside Katharine Dunham, James Stewart, Elia Kazan, and Virgil Thomson. Quoting Henry James in honoring his old friend, President Ronald Reagan said that "art was the shadow of humanity" and that Sinatra had "spent his life casting a magnificent and powerful shadow."

In 1984, Sinatra worked with Quincy Jones for the first time in nearly two decades on the album, L.A. Is My Lady, which was well received critically. The album was a substitute for another Jones project, an album of duets with Lena Horne, which had to be abandoned. (Horne developed vocal problems and Sinatra, committed to other engagements, could not wait to record.)

1990s: Duets, final performances

In 1990, Sinatra celebrated his 75th birthday with a national tour, and was awarded the second "Ella Award" by the Los Angeles–based Society of Singers. At the award ceremony, he performed for the final time with Ella Fitzgerald.

In December, as part of Sinatra's birthday celebrations, Patrick Pasculli, the Mayor of Hoboken, made a proclamation in his honor, declaring that "no other vocalist in history has sung, swung, crooned, and serenaded into the hearts of the young and old ... as this consummate artist from Hoboken." The same month Sinatra gave the first show of his Diamond Jubilee Tour at the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

In 1993 Sinatra made a surprise return to Capitol and the recording studio for Duets, which was released in November.

The other artists who added their vocals to the album worked for free, and a follow-up album (Duets II) was released in 1994 that reached #9 on the Billboard charts.

Still touring despite various health problems, Sinatra remained a top concert attraction on a global scale during the first half of the 1990s. At times during concerts his memory failed him and a fall onstage in Richmond, Virginia, in March, 1994, signaled further problems.

Sinatra's final public concerts were held in Japan's Fukuoka Dome in December, 1994. The following year, on February 25, 1995, at a private party for 1200 select guests on the closing night of the Frank Sinatra Desert Classic golf tournament, Sinatra sang before a live audience for the very last time. Esquire reported of the show that Sinatra was "clear, tough, on the money" and "in absolute control." His closing song was "The Best is Yet to Come".

Sinatra was awarded the Legend Award at the 1994 Grammy Awards, where he was introduced by Bono, who said of him, "Frank's the chairman of the bad attitude.... Rock 'n roll plays at being tough, but this guy is the boss--the chairman of boss.... I'm not going to mess with him, are you?" Sinatra called it "the best welcome...I ever had." But his acceptance speech ran too long and was abruptly cut off, leaving him looking confused and talking into a dead microphone.

In 1995, to mark Sinatra's 80th birthday, the Empire State Building glowed blue. A star-studded birthday tribute, Sinatra: 80 Years My Way, was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. It was Sinatra's last televised appearance.

In recognition of his many years of association with Las Vegas, Frank Sinatra was elected to the Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997.

Personal life

Sinatra had three children, Nancy, Frank Jr., and Tina, all with his first wife, Nancy Barbato (married 1939-1951). He was married three more times, to actresses Ava Gardner (1951–1957) and Mia Farrow (1966–1968) and finally to Barbara Marx (married 1976), to whom he was still married at his death.

Throughout his life, Sinatra had mood swings and bouts of depression. He acknowledged this, telling an interviewer in the 1950s: "Being an 18-karat manic-depressive, and having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as elation." In her memoirs My Father's Daughter, his daughter Tina wrote about the "eighteen-karat" remark: "As flippant as Dad could be about his mental state, I believe that a Zoloft a day might have kept his demons away. But that kind of medicine was decades off."

Death

Sinatra began to show signs of senility in his last years and after a heart attack in February 1997, he made no further public appearances. After suffering a further heart attack,The official cause of death was listed as complications from senility, heart and kidney disease, and bladder cancer. His death was confirmed by the Sinatra family on their website with a statement accompanied by a recording of the singer's version of "Softly As I Leave You." The next night the lights on the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed for 10 minutes in his honor. President Bill Clinton, as an amateur saxophonist and musician, led the world's tributes to Sinatra, saying that after meeting and getting to know the singer as President, he had "come to appreciate on a personal level what millions of people had appreciated from afar." Elton John stated that Sinatra, "was simply the best - no one else even comes close." Tony Curtis,

Discography

Awards and recognitions

.]]

Legacy

The U.S. Postal Service issued a 42-cent postage stamp in honor of Sinatra on May 13, 2008. The design of the stamp was unveiled Wednesday, December 12, 2007 — on the anniversary of what would have been his 92nd birthday — in Beverly Hills, California, with Sinatra family members on hand. The Hoboken Post Office was renamed in his honor in 2002.

To commemorate the anniversary of Sinatra's death, Patsy's Restaurant in New York City, which Sinatra frequented, exhibited in May 2009 fifteen previously unseen photographs of Sinatra taken by Bobby Bank. The photos are of his recording "Everybody Ought to Be in Love" at a nearby recording studio. Memorabilia in the restaurant includes his Oscar for "From Here to Eternity", his Emmy for "", his Grammy for "Strangers in the Night", photographs and a gold album he received for "Classic Sinatra".

There is a residence hall at Montclair State University named for him in recognition of his status as an iconic New Jersey native.

The Frank Sinatra International Student Center at Israel's Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus campus, was dedicated in 1978 in recognition of Sinatra's charitable and advocacy activities on behalf of the State of Israel.

Film portrayals

Main article: Sinatra (TV miniseries)

* In 1992, CBS aired a TV mini-series about the entertainer's life called Sinatra, directed by James Steven Sadwith and starred Philip Casnoff as Sinatra. Opening with his childhood in Hoboken, New Jersey, the film follows Sinatra's rise to the top in the 1940s, through the dark days of the early 1950s and his triumphant re-emergence in the mid-1950s, to his status as pop culture icon in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In between, the film hits all of the main events, including his three marriages, his connections with the Mafia and his notorious friendship with the Rat Pack. Tina Sinatra was executive producer. Casnoff received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance.

* In 1998, Ray Liotta portrayed Sinatra in the HBO movie The Rat Pack, alongside Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin and Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis, Jr. It depicted their contribution to John F. Kennedy's election as U.S. president in 1960.

In 2003, Sinatra was portrayed by James Russo in "Stealing Sinatra", which revolved around the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. in 1963

Also in 2003, he was portrayed by Dennis Hopper in "The Night we Called it a Day", based upon events that occurred during a tour of Australia where Frank had called a member of the news media a "two-bit hooker" and all the unions in the country came crashing down on him.

* Sinatra was also portrayed by Sebastian Anzaldo in the film Tears of a King, who also impersonated Sinatra in a TV episode of The Next Best Thing.

* Brett Ratner is currently developing a film adaptation of George Jacobs' memoir Mr. S: My Life With Frank Sinatra. Jacobs, who was Sinatra's valet, will be portrayed by Chris Tucker.

Alleged organized crime links

Sinatra garnered considerable attention due to his alleged personal and professional links with organized crime, including figures such as Carlo Gambino, Lucky Luciano, The FBI kept Sinatra under surveillance for almost five decades beginning in the 1940s. The documents include accounts of Sinatra as the target of death threats and extortion schemes. They also portray rampant paranoia and strange obsessions at the FBI and reveal nearly every celebrated Sinatra foible and peccadillo.

For a year Hoover investigated Sinatra's alleged Communist affiliations, but found no evidence. The files include his rendezvous with prostitutes, and his extramarital affair with Ava Gardner, which preceded their marriage. Celebrities mentioned in the files are Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe, Peter Lawford, and Giancana's girlfriend, singer Phyllis McGuire.

The FBI's secret dossier on Sinatra was released in 1998 in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Political views

Sinatra held differing political views throughout his life.

Sinatra's parents had immigrated to the United States in 1895 and 1897 respectively. His mother, Dolly Sinatra (1896–1977), was a Democratic Party ward boss.

in 1960, was an ardent supporter of the Democratic Party until 1968.]]

Sinatra remained a supporter of the Democratic Party until the early 1970's when he switched his allegiance to the Republican Party.

Political activities 1944-1968

In 1944 after sending a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sinatra was invited to meet Roosevelt at the White House, where he agreed to become part of the Democratic party's voter registration drives.

He donated $5,000 to the Democrats for the 1944 presidential election, and by the end of the campaign was appearing at two or three political events every day.

After World War II, Sinatra's politics grew steadily more left wing, and he became more publicly associated with the Popular Front. He started reading liberal literature, and supported many organizations that were later identified as front organizations of the Communist party by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s, though Sinatra was never brought before the Committee.

Sinatra spoke at a number of New Jersey high schools in 1945, where students had gone on strike in opposition to racial integration. Later that year Sinatra would appear in The House I Live In, a short film that stood against racism. The film was scripted by Albert Maltz, with the title song written by Earl Robinson and Abel Meeropol (under the pseudonym of Lewis Allen).

In 1948, Sinatra actively campaigned for President Harry S. Truman. In 1952 and 1956, he also campaigned for Adlai Stevenson. a rival singer and a Republican, for Kennedy's visit to Palm Springs in 1962. Kennedy had planned to stay at Sinatra's home over the Easter holiday weekend, but decided against doing so, because of problems with Sinatra's alleged connections to organized crime, President Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was intensifying his own investigations into organized crime figures at the time, such as Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, who had earlier stayed at Sinatra's home.

Despite his break with Kennedy, however, he still mourned over Kennedy after he learned he was assassinated.

During Nixon's Presidency, Sinatra visited the White House on several occasions.

by President Ronald Reagan.]]

In the 1980 presidential election, Sinatra supported Ronald Reagan, and donated $4 million to Reagan's campaign. Sinatra said he supported Reagan as he was "the proper man to be the President of the United States... it's so screwed up now, we need someone to straighten it out." Reagan's victory gave Sinatra his closest relationship with the White House since the early 1960s. as he had done for Kennedy 20 years previously.

In 1984 Sinatra returned to his birthplace in Hoboken, bringing with him President Reagan, who was in the midst of campaigning for the 1984 presidential election. Reagan had made Sinatra a fund-raising ambassador as part of the Republicans' 'Victory 84'' get-the-vote-out-drive.

President Clinton never met Sinatra before taking office. They had dinner after Clinton's inauguration. Clinton later said that he was glad "to appreciate on a personal level what hundreds of millions of people around the world, including me, appreciated from afar."

See also

Rat Pack

Sinatra Doctrine

1920 US Census with Sinatras

1930 US Census with Sinatras

List of jazz musicians

Best selling music artists

Frank Sinatra discography

Frank Sinatra filmography

The Frank Sinatra Show (CBS)

The Frank Sinatra Show (ABC)

Anthony Martin Sinatra

Further reading

Biographies

Freedland, Michael. (2000) All the Way: A Biography of Frank Sinatra. St Martins Press. ISBN 0-7528-1662-4

Grudens, Richard (2010) Sinatra Singing. Celebrity Profiles Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9763877-8-7

Havers, Richard. (2004) Sinatra. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 1-4053-1461-3

Kaplan, James. (2010) Frank: The Voice. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0385518048

Kelley, Kitty. (1986) His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra. Bantam Press. ISBN 0-553-26515-6

Lahr, John. (1987) Sinatra. Random House. ISBN 0-7538-0842-0

Munn, Michael. (2002) Sinatra: The Untold Story. Robson Books Ltd. ISBN 1-86105-537-4

Rockwell, John. (1984) Sinatra: An American Classic. Rolling Stone. ISBN 0-394-53977-X

Rojek, Chris. (2004) Frank Sinatra. Polity. ISBN 0-7456-3090-1

Santopietro, Tom. (2008) Sinatra In Hollywood. Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-0-312-36226-3

Summers, Antony and Swan, Robbyn. (2005) Sinatra: The Life. Doubleday. ISBN 0-552-15331-1

Taraborrelli, J. Randall. (1998) Sinatra: The Man Behind the Myth. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-84018-119-2

Wilson, Earl. (1976) Sinatra.

Memoirs

Ash, Vic. (2006) I Blew it My Way: Bebop, Big Bands and Sinatra. Northway Publications. ISBN 0-9550908-2-2

Jacobs, George and Stadiem, William. (2003) Mr. S.: The Last Word on Frank Sinatra. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-330-41229-9

Falcone, Vincent. (2005) Frankly - Just Between Us: My Life Conducting Frank Sinatra's Music Hal Leonard. ISBN 978-0634094989

Criticism

Fuchs, J. & Prigozy, R., ed. (2007) Frank Sinatra: The Man, the Music, the Legend. The Boydell Press. ISBN 1-58046-251-0

Granata, Charles L. (1999) Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-55652-509-4

Hamill, Pete. (2003) Why Sinatra Matters. Back Bay Books. ISBN 0-316-73886-7

Mustazza, Leonard, ed. (1998) Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture. Praeger. ISBN 0-275-96495-7

Petkov, Steven and Mustazza, Leonard, ed. (1997) The Frank Sinatra Reader. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511389-6

Pugliese, S., ed. (2004) Frank Sinatra: "History, Identity, and Italian American Culture ". Palgrave. ISBN 1-4039-6655-9

Smith, Martin. (2005) When Ol' Blue Eyes Was a Red. Redwords. ISBN 1-905192-02-9

Zehme, Bill. (1997) The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin'. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-093175-2

Jazz Times Magazine, May 1998">"Frank Sinatra — Through the Lens of Jazz", Jazz Times Magazine, May 1998

Friedwald, Will. (1999) Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer's Art. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-684-19368-X

Granata, Charles L. (1999) Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1-55652-509-5

McNally, Karen. (2008) When Frankie Went to Hollywood: Frank Sinatra and American Male Identity University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-03334-5

Sinatra family publications

Pignone, Charles, with foreword by Sinatra, Frank Jr. and Jones, Quincy. (2004) The Sinatra Treasures. Virgin Books. ISBN 1-85227-184-1

Pignone, Charles, with foreword by Sinatra, Amanda. (2007) Frank Sinatra: The Family Album Little Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-00349-2

Sinatra, Julie. (2007) Under My Skin: My Father, Frank Sinatra The Man Behind the Mystique iuniverse.com, ISBN 0-595-43478-9

Sinatra, Nancy. (1986) Frank Sinatra, My Father. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-23356-9

Sinatra, Nancy. (1998) Frank Sinatra 1915-1998: An American Legend. Readers Digest. ISBN 0-7621-0134-2

Sinatra, Tina. (2000) My Father's Daughter. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-87076-2

Cultural criticism

Gigliotti, Gilbert L. A Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit. Greewood, 2002.

Hamill, Pete. Why Sinatra Matters. Back Bay Books, 2003.

Mustazza, Leonard, ed. Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture. Praeger, 1998.

Petkov, Steven and Mustazza, Leonard, ed. The Frank Sinatra Reader. Oxford University Press, 1997.

Pugliese, S., ed. Frank Sinatra: "History, Identity, and Italian American Culture ". Palgrave, 2004.

Smith, Martin. When Ol' Blue Eyes was a red. Redwords, 2005.

Zehme, Bill. The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin'. Harper Collins, 1997.

Other

Gigliotti, Gilbert L., ed. (2008) Sinatra: But Buddy I'm a Kind of Poem. Entasis Press ISBN 978-0-9800999-0-4

Havers, Richard. (2004) Sinatra. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 1-4053-1461-3

Ingham, Chris. (2005) The Rough Guide to Frank Sinatra. Rough Guides. ISBN 1-84353-414-2

Knight, Timothy. (2010) Sinatra - Hollywood His Way. Running Press. ISBN 9780762437436

Lloyd, David. (2003) The Gospel According to Frank. New American Press. ISBN 1-930907-19-2

O'Neill, Terry, ed. Morgan, Robert. (2007) Sinatra: Frank and Friendly. Evans Mitchell Books. ISBN 1-901268-32-2

The New Rolling Stone Record Guide, Rolling Stone Press, 1983.

Tom and Phil Kuntz. (2000) The Sinatra Files: The Secret FBI Dossier. Three Rivers Press ISBN 0-8129-3276-5

Giordmaina, Diane [McCue]. (2009) "Sinatra and The Moll". iUniverse. ISBN 978-0-595-53234-6

References

External links

Watch

The House I Live In (1945)

The Frank Sinatra Show (1950-1952)

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