Frank Sinatra

Tommy Dorsey band

On January 26, 1940, Sinatra made his first public appearance with the band at the Coronado Theatre in Rockford, Illinois, opening the show with "Stardust". Dorsey recalled: "You could almost feel the excitement coming up out of the crowds when the kid stood up to sing. Remember, he was no matinée idol. He was just a skinny kid with big ears. I used to stand there so amazed I'd almost forget to take my own solos".

Dorsey was a major influence on Sinatra and became a father figure. Sinatra copied Dorsey's mannerisms and traits, becoming a demanding perfectionist like him, even adopting his hobby of toy trains. Sinatra asked Dorsey to be godfather to his daughter Nancy in June 1940. Sinatra later said that "The only two people I've ever been afraid of are my mother and Tommy Dorsey." Sinatra and drummer Buddy Rich were friends and even roommates when the band was on the road, but professional jealousy surfaced as both men wanted to be considered the star of Dorsey's band. Later, Sinatra helped Rich form his own band with a $25,000 loan and provided financial help to Rich during times of the drummer's serious illness.

In his first year with Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra recorded more than 40 songs. His first vocal hit was the song "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" in late April 1940. Two more chart appearances followed with "Say It" and "Imagination", which was Sinatra's first top-10 hit. His fourth chart appearance (and his first on the first officially published Billboard chart) was "I'll Never Smile Again", topping the charts for twelve weeks beginning in mid-July. Other records with Dorsey issued by RCA Victor include "Our Love Affair" and "Stardust" in 1940; "Oh! Look at Me Now", "Dolores", "Everything Happens to Me", and "This Love of Mine" in 1941; "Just as Though You Were There", "Take Me", and "There Are Such Things" in 1942; and "It Started All Over Again", "In the Blue of Evening", and "It's Always You" in 1943.

As his success and popularity grew, Sinatra pushed Dorsey to allow him to record some solo songs. Dorsey eventually relented, and on January 19, 1942, Sinatra recorded "Night and Day", "The Night We Called It a Day", "The Song is You", and "Lamplighter's Serenade" at a Bluebird recording session, with Axel Stordahl as arranger and conductor. Sinatra first heard the recordings at the Hollywood Palladium and Hollywood Plaza and was astounded at how good he sounded. Stordahl recalled: "He just couldn't believe his ears. He was so excited you almost believed he had never recorded before. I think this was a turning point in his career. I think he began to see what he might do on his own".

After the 1942 recordings, Sinatra believed that he needed to go solo, with an insatiable desire to compete with Bing Crosby, but Sinatra was hampered by his contract which gave Dorsey 43% of Sinatra's lifetime earnings. A legal battle ensued, eventually settled in August 1942. On September 3, 1942, Dorsey bade farewell to Sinatra, reportedly saying, "I hope you fall on your ass", but he was more gracious on the air when replacing Sinatra with singer Dick Haymes.

Rumors began spreading in newspapers that Sinatra's mobster godfather, Willie Moretti, coerced Dorsey at gunpoint to let Sinatra out of his contract for a few thousand dollars. Sinatra persuaded Stordahl to come with him and become his personal arranger, offering him $650 a month, five times his salary from Dorsey. Dorsey and Sinatra, who had been very close, never reconciled their differences.

1942–1945: Onset of Sinatramania and role in World War II

By May 1941, Sinatra topped the male singer polls in Billboard and DownBeat magazines. His appeal to bobby soxers, a subculture of teenage girls, revealed a new audience for popular music, which had previously been recorded mainly for adults. The phenomenon became known as "Sinatramania" after his opening at the Paramount Theatre in New York on December 30, 1942.

According to Nancy Sinatra, Jack Benny later said, "I thought the goddamned building was going to cave in. I never heard such a commotion... All this for a fellow I never heard of." Sinatra performed for four weeks at the theatre, his act following the Benny Goodman orchestra, after which his contract was renewed for another four weeks by Bob Weitman due to his popularity. Sinatra became known as "Swoonatra" or "The Voice", and his fans "Sinatratics". They organized meetings and sent masses of letters of adoration, and within a few weeks of the show, some 1,000 Sinatra fan clubs had been reported across the US.

Sinatra's publicist, George Evans, encouraged interviews and photographs with fans and was the man responsible for depicting Sinatra as a vulnerable, shy, Italian–American with a rough childhood who made good. When Sinatra returned to the Paramount in October 1944, only 250 persons left the first show, and 35,000 fans left outside caused a near riot, known as the Columbus Day Riot, outside the venue because they were not allowed in. Such was the bobby-soxer devotion to Sinatra that they were known to write his song titles on their clothing, bribe hotel maids for an opportunity to touch his bed, and steal clothing Sinatra was wearing.

Sinatra signed with Columbia Records as a solo artist on June 1, 1943, during the 1942–44 musicians' strike. Columbia Records re-released Harry James and Sinatra's August 1939 version of "All or Nothing at All", which reached number 2 on June 2 and was on the best-selling list for 18 weeks. Sinatra initially had great success, and performed on the radio on Your Hit Parade from February 1943 until December 1944, and on stage.

Columbia wanted new recordings of their growing star as quickly as possible, so Alec Wilder was hired as an arranger and conductor for several sessions with a vocal group called the Bobby Tucker Singers. Of the nine songs recorded during these sessions, seven charted on the best-selling list. That year he made his first solo nightclub appearance at New York's Riobamba, and a successful concert in the Wedgewood Room of the prestigious Waldorf-Astoria New York that year secured his popularity in New York high society. Sinatra released "You'll Never Know", "Close to You", "Sunday, Monday, or Always" and "People Will Say We're in Love" as singles. By the end of 1943, he was more popular in a DownBeat poll than Bing Crosby.

Sinatra did not serve in the military during World War II. However, Army files reported that Sinatra had actually been rejected because he was "not acceptable material from a psychiatric viewpoint." Sinatra's emotional instability was hidden to avoid "undue unpleasantness for both the selectee and the induction service". Rumors reported by columnist Walter Winchell stated that Sinatra paid $40,000 to avoid military service, but the FBI found this to be without merit.

Toward the end of the war, Sinatra entertained the troops during several successful overseas USO tours with comedian Phil Silvers. During one trip to Rome, he met Pope Pius XII, who asked Sinatra if he was an operatic tenor. Sinatra worked frequently with the popular Andrews Sisters in radio in the 1940s, and many USO shows were broadcast to troops via the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). In 1944, he released "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night" as a single and recorded his own version of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas". The following year, Sinatra released "I Dream of You (More Than You Dream I Do)", "Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)", "Dream", and "Nancy (with the Laughing Face)" as singles.

1946–1952: Columbia years and career slump

Despite being heavily involved in political activity in 1945 and 1946, Sinatra sang on 160 radio shows, recorded 36 times, and shot four films in those two years. By 1946, he was performing on stage up to 45 times a week, singing up to 100 songs daily, and earning up to $93,000 a week.

In 1946, Sinatra released "Oh! What it Seemed to Be", "Day by Day", "They Say It's Wonderful", "Five Minutes More", and "The Coffee Song" as singles, and launched his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart. William Ruhlmann of AllMusic wrote that Sinatra "took the material very seriously, singing the love lyrics with utter seriousness" and that his "singing and the classically influenced settings gave the songs unusual depth of meaning." Sinatra was soon selling 10 million records a year.

Such was Sinatra's command at Columbia that his love of conducting was indulged with the release of the set Frank Sinatra Conducts the Music of Alec Wilder, an offering unlikely to appeal to Sinatra's core fanbase of teenage girls at the time. In 1947, he released his second album, Songs by Sinatra, featuring songs of a similar mood and tempo such as Irving Berlin's "How Deep is the Ocean?" and Harold Arlen's and Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are". "Mam'selle", composed by Edmund Goulding with lyrics by Mack Gordon for the film The Razor's Edge (1946), was released as a single.

Sinatra had competition; versions by Art Lund, Dick Haymes, Dennis Day, and The Pied Pipers also reached the top ten of the Billboard charts. In December, Sinatra recorded "Sweet Lorraine" with the Metronome All-Stars, featuring talented jazz musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Harry Carney and Charlie Shavers, with Nat King Cole on piano, in what Charles L. Granata describes as "one of the highlights of Sinatra's Columbia epoch".

Sinatra's third album, Christmas Songs by Sinatra, was originally released in 1948 as a 78 rpm album set, and a 10" LP record was released two years later. When Sinatra was featured as a priest in The Miracle of the Bells, due to press negativity surrounding his Mafia connections at the time, it was announced that Sinatra would donate his $100,000 in wages from the film to the Catholic Church.

By the end of 1948, Sinatra had slipped to fourth on DownBeat's annual poll of most popular singers, and the following year, he was pushed out of the top spots in polls for the first time since 1943. Frankly Sentimental (1949) was panned by DownBeat, who commented that "for all his talent, it seldom comes to life."

Although "The Hucklebuck" reached the top ten, it was his last single release under the Columbia label. Sinatra's last two albums with Columbia, Dedicated to You and Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra, were released in 1950. He would later feature a number of the Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra album's songs, including "Lover", "It's Only a Paper Moon", and "It All Depends on You", on his 1961 Capitol release, Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!!.

Culminating the low of Sinatra's career was the death of publicist George Evans in January 1950. According to Jimmy Van Heusen, Sinatra's close friend and songwriter, Evans' death to him was "an enormous shock which defies words", as he had been crucial to Sinatra's career and popularity with the "bobby soxers".

Sinatra's reputation continued to decline as reports broke in February of his affair with Ava Gardner and the destruction of his marriage to Nancy, although Sinatra insisted that his marriage had long been over even before meeting Gardner. In April, he was engaged to perform at the Copa club in New York, but had to cancel five days of the booking due to a submucosal hemorrhage of the throat. Evans once said that whenever Sinatra suffered from a bad throat and loss of voice, it was always due to emotional tension, which "absolutely destroyed him".

In financial difficulty following his divorce and career decline, Sinatra was forced to borrow $200,000 from Columbia to pay his back taxes after MCA refused to front the money. Rejected by Hollywood, Sinatra turned to Las Vegas and made his debut at the Desert Inn in September 1951, and also began singing at the Riverside Hotel in Reno, Nevada.

Sinatra's decline in popularity was evident in his concert appearances. At a brief run at the Paramount in New York, Sinatra drew small audiences. At the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, he performed to half-filled houses. At a concert at Chez Paree in Chicago, only 150 people turned up in a 1,200-seat venue. By April 1952, Sinatra was performing at the Kauai County Fair in Hawaii. Sinatra's relationship with Columbia Records was disintegrating, with A&R executive Mitch Miller claiming he "couldn't give away" Sinatra records. However, several notable recordings were made during this time period, such as "If I Could Write a Book" in January 1952, which Granata sees as a "turning point", forecasting his later work with its sensitivity,

Columbia and MCA dropped Sinatra later in 1952. His last studio recording for Columbia, "Why Try To Change Me Now", was recorded in New York on September 17, 1952, with an orchestra arranged and conducted by Percy Faith. Journalist Burt Boyar observed, "Sinatra had had it. It was sad. From the top to the bottom in one horrible lesson."

1953–1960: Career revival and the Capitol years

The release of the film From Here to Eternity in August 1953 marked the beginning of a remarkable career revival. Tom Santopietro notes that Sinatra began to bury himself in his work, with an "unparalleled frenetic schedule of recordings, movies and concerts", in what authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan describe as "a new and brilliant phase". On March 13, 1953, Sinatra met with Capitol Records vice president Alan Livingston and signed a seven-year recording contract. Sinatra's first session for Capitol took place at KHJ studios at Studio C, 5515 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, with Axel Stordahl conducting. The session produced four recordings, including "I'm Walking Behind You", Sinatra's first Capitol single.

After spending two weeks on location in Hawaii filming From Here to Eternity, Sinatra returned to KHJ on April 30 for his first recording session with Nelson Riddle, an established arranger and conductor at Capitol who was Nat King Cole's musical director. After recording the first song, "I've Got the World on a String", Sinatra offered Riddle a rare expression of praise, "Beautiful!", and after listening to the playbacks, he could not hide his enthusiasm, exclaiming, "I'm back, baby, I'm back!" In subsequent sessions in May and November 1953, Sinatra and Riddle developed and refined their musical collaboration, with Sinatra providing specific guidance on the arrangements. Sinatra's first album for Capitol, Songs for Young Lovers, was released on January 4, 1954, and it included "A Foggy Day", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "My Funny Valentine", "Violets for Your Furs", and "They Can't Take That Away from Me", songs that became staples of his later concerts.

That same month, Sinatra released the single "Young at Heart", which reached No. 2 and was awarded Song of the Year. In March, he recorded and released the single "Three Coins in the Fountain", a "powerful ballad" that reached No. 4. Sinatra's second album with Riddle, Swing Easy!, which reflected his "love for the jazz idiom" according to Granata, was released on August 2 and included "Just One of Those Things", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Get Happy", and "All of Me". Swing Easy! was named Album of the Year by Billboard, and Sinatra was named "Favorite Male Vocalist" by Billboard, DownBeat, and Metronome in 1954. Sinatra came to consider Riddle "the greatest arranger in the world", and Riddle, who considered Sinatra, "a perfectionist", said: "It's not only that his intuitions as to tempo, phrasing, and even configuration are amazingly right, but his taste is so impeccable... There is still no one who can approach him."

Sinatra became one of Las Vegas's pioneer residency entertainers, and a prominent figure in the Vegas scene throughout the 1950s and 1960s onwards, a period described by Rojek as the "high-water mark" of Sinatra's "hedonism and self-absorption". Rojek notes that the Rat Pack "provided an outlet for gregarious banter and wisecracks" but argues that it was Sinatra's vehicle, possessing an "unassailable command over the other performers". Sinatra would fly to Las Vegas from Los Angeles in Van Heusen's plane. On October 4, 1953, Sinatra made his first performance at the Sands Hotel and Casino, after an invitation by the manager Jack Entratter. Sinatra typically performed there three times a year and later acquired a share in the hotel.

In 1955, Sinatra released In the Wee Small Hours, his first 12" LP, featuring songs such as "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", "Mood Indigo", "Glad to Be Unhappy" and "When Your Lover Has Gone". According to Granata, it was the first concept album of his to make a "single persuasive statement", with an extended program and "melancholy mood". Sinatra embarked on his first tour of Australia the same year. Another collaboration with Riddle resulted in Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, sometimes seen as one of his best albums, which was released in March 1956. It features a recording of "I've Got You Under My Skin" by Cole Porter, which reportedly took 22 takes to perfect.

1960–1970: Reprise years

The UK magazine Picturegoer reported in April 1960 that Sinatra was the driving force behind the filming of Ocean's 11 in Las Vegas, and that the crew had reversed normal working hours to suit his preference for working at night and sleeping through the day. The magazine said this explained a 3 a.m. long-distance call for "Mr. Sinatra" at the casino of the Sands Hotel.

Style and personality

Sinatra was known for his immaculate sense of style. He spent lavishly on expensive custom-tailored tuxedos and stylish pin-striped suits, which made him feel wealthy and important and that he was giving his very best to the audience. Sinatra was also obsessed with cleanliness—while with the Tommy Dorsey band, he developed the nickname "Lady Macbeth" because of frequent showering and switching his outfits. Sinatra's deep blue eyes earned him the popular nickname "Ol' Blue Eyes".

For Santopietro, Sinatra was the personification of America in the 1950s: "cocky, eye on the main chance, optimistic, and full of the sense of possibility." Barbara Sinatra wrote, "A big part of Frank's thrill was the sense of danger that he exuded, an underlying, ever-present tension only those closest to him knew could be defused with humor." Cary Grant, a friend of Sinatra, stated that Sinatra was the "most honest person he'd ever met", who spoke "a simple truth, without artifice which scared people", and was often moved to tears by his performances. Jo-Caroll Dennison commented that he possessed "great inner strength" and that his energy and drive were "enormous." A workaholic, Sinatra reportedly slept only four hours a night on average. Throughout his life, Sinatra had mood swings and bouts of mild to severe depression, stating to an interviewer in the 1950s that "I have an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as elation." Barbara Sinatra stated that he would "snap at anyone for the slightest misdemeanor", while Van Heusen said that when Sinatra got drunk, it was "best to disappear."

Sinatra's mood swings often developed into violence, directed at people he felt had crossed him, particularly journalists who gave him scathing reviews, publicists, and photographers. According to Rojek, Sinatra was "capable of deeply offensive behavior that smacked of a persecution complex." He received negative press for fights with Lee Mortimer in 1947, photographer Eddie Schisser in Houston in 1950, Judy Garland's publicist Jim Byron on the Sunset Strip in 1954, and for a confrontation with Washington Post journalist Maxine Cheshire in 1973, in which Sinatra implied that she was a cheap prostitute. His feud with then-Chicago Sun Times columnist Mike Royko began when Royko wrote a column questioning why Chicago police offered free protection to Sinatra when he had his own security. Sinatra wrote an angry letter in response, calling Royko a "pimp" and threatening to "punch you in the mouth" for speculating that he wore a toupée. Arrangers such as Nelson Riddle and Anthony Fanzo found Sinatra to be a perfectionist, approaching him with uneasiness because of his often volatile temperament. Granata comments that Sinatra was so obsessed with perfection that people began wondering if he was more concerned about the music or showing off his power over others.

Sinatra was also known for his generosity, particularly after his comeback. Kelley notes that when Lee J. Cobb nearly died from a heart attack in June 1955, Sinatra flooded him with "books, flowers, delicacies", paid his hospital bills, and visited him daily, telling him that his "finest acting" was yet to come.

Alleged organized-crime links and Cal Neva Lodge

Sinatra became the stereotype of the "tough working-class Italian American", something that he embraced. Sinatra said that if it had not been for his interest in music, he would have likely ended up in a life of crime. Willie Moretti was Sinatra's godfather and the notorious underboss of the Genovese crime family, and he helped Sinatra in exchange for kickbacks and was reported to have intervened in releasing Sinatra from his contract with Tommy Dorsey. Sinatra was present at the Mafia Havana Conference in 1946, and the press learned of his being there with Lucky Luciano. He was reported to be a good friend of mobster Sam Giancana, Kelley quoted Jo-Carrol Silvers that Sinatra "adored" Bugsy Siegel and boasted to friends about him and how many people Siegel had killed. Kelley says that Sinatra and mobster Joseph Fischetti had been good friends from 1938 onward and acted like "Sicilian brothers". She also states that Sinatra and Hank Sanicola were financial partners with Mickey Cohen in the gossip magazine Hollywood Night Life. Sinatra sponsored the membership of John Roselli, a mobster, to the Friars Club.

In 1951 Sinatra was under investigation for his mafia links by the US Senate's Kefauver Committee, headed by Senator Estes Kefauver. At Kefauver's request associate counsel Joseph L. Nellis interviewed him. At 4 AM on 1 March 1951, Nellis met Sinatra in an office at the top of the Rockefeller Center. Kefauver had come into possession of eight photographs of Sinatra with well-known mafia figures. One was of Sinatra with his arm around Lucky Luciano on the balcony of the Hotel Nacional in Cuba, another was of Sinatra seated with Luciano at a night club. He also appeared with the Fischetti brothers in a number of other pictures. Kefauver wanted to determine whether Sinatra should be called to testify before the committee, so he tasked Nellis with setting up an interview. Nellis contacted Sinatra's attorney Sol Gelb, through him the meeting was arranged.

Nellis quizzed Sinatra on his mafia connections. He admitted "knowing" or "seeing", and saying "hello" or "goodbye", to Lucky Luciano, the Fischetti brothers, Al Capone's cousins, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Joe Adonis, Abner Zwillman, Willie Moretti, Gerardo Catena, and Bugsy Siegel. In one photograph Sinatra was seen with an attaché case departing a plane. Sinatra told Nellis that it contained razors and crayons. When Nellis suggested that there was over $100,000 in the case, Sinatra denied it, insisting that he gave no money to Luciano and that he did not know what line of business Luciano was in. He denied having any business dealings with any of the aforementioned men. At the end of the two hour meeting Nellis learnt nothing which would have enabled him to subpoena Sinatra before the official congressional hearings.

The FBI kept records amounting to 2,403 pages on Sinatra, who was a natural target with his Mafia ties, his ardent New Deal politics, and his friendship with John F. Kennedy. The FBI kept him 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. The FBI documented that Sinatra was losing esteem with the Mafia as he grew closer to President Kennedy, whose younger brother Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy was leading a crackdown on organized crime. Sinatra said he was not involved: "Any report that I fraternized with goons or racketeers is a vicious lie."

In 1960, Sinatra bought a share in the Cal Neva Lodge & Casino, a casino hotel on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. He built the Celebrity Room theater, which attracted his show business friends Red Skelton, Marilyn Monroe, Victor Borge, Joe E. Lewis, Lucille Ball, Lena Horne, Juliet Prowse, the McGuire Sisters, and others. By 1962, Sinatra reportedly held a 50-percent share in the hotel. His gambling license was temporarily suspended by the Nevada Gaming Control Board in 1963 after Giancana was spotted on the premises. Due to ongoing pressure from the FBI and Nevada Gaming Commission on mobster control of casinos, Sinatra agreed to give up his share in Cal Neva and the Sands. That same year, his son Frank Jr. was kidnapped but was eventually released unharmed. Sinatra's gambling license was restored in February 1981, following support from Ronald Reagan. In May 1968 he was observed dining at the Rive Gauche Restaurant with Allen Dorfman, I. Irving Davidson and Jimmy Hoffa's wife Josephine.