timeline

Frank Sinatra

The Hoboken singer who made a run of albums with the arranger Nelson Riddle at Capitol, then founded his own label, Reprise, and kept recording into the 1990s.

Origin
Hoboken, New Jersey, United States
Years active
1935-1995
Genres
traditional pop, vocal jazz, swing, bossa nova
Labels
RCA Victor, Columbia, Capitol, Reprise
Also known as
Ol' Blue Eyes, Chairman of the Board

Hoboken to Columbia

Francis Albert Sinatra was born on 12 December 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey. In 1935 he joined the Hoboken Four, who won the Major Bowes Amateur Hour. In 1939 he recorded Our Love, his first solo studio recording, then joined Harry James's band at 75 dollars a week, and in November he moved on to Tommy Dorsey. I'll Never Smile Again, made with Dorsey, spent twelve weeks at number one from mid-July 1940. After a legal dispute over his contract, Sinatra left the band in September 1942.

His opening at the Paramount Theatre in New York on 30 December 1942 began what became known as Sinatramania. He signed with Columbia as a solo artist on 1 June 1943, during the 1942 to 1944 musicians' strike, and The Voice of Frank Sinatra reached number one in 1946. By the late 1940s and early 1950s his career had slumped. He began performing in Las Vegas in 1951, and Columbia dropped him in 1952.

Capitol and Nelson Riddle

In 1953 Sinatra won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for From Here to Eternity, and on 13 March he signed a seven-year contract with Capitol. His first album there, Songs for Young Lovers, came out in January 1954, and with the arranger Nelson Riddle he made a run of albums. In the Wee Small Hours, a set of ballads released on 25 April 1955, reached number two on the Billboard 200, and Tom Waits later called it the first concept album. Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956) brought livelier Riddle arrangements and was the first album to top the UK chart. It holds I've Got You Under My Skin.

Billy May arranged Come Fly with Me (1958), a travel-themed record that spent five weeks at number one. Only the Lonely, also from 1958, returned to Riddle, reached number one on Billboard and stayed on the chart for 120 weeks. Nice 'n' Easy (1960) spent nine weeks at number one on the stereo chart.

Reprise

In 1960 Sinatra founded Reprise, promising its artists creative control and eventual ownership of their work. Its first major release for him, Ring-a-Ding-Ding!, appeared in February 1961 and reached number four on Billboard. September of My Years, released in 1965 and arranged by Gordon Jenkins, won the Grammy for Album of the Year, and its It Was a Very Good Year won Best Vocal Performance, Male. He later sold the label for an estimated 80 million dollars. In January and February 1966 he recorded Sinatra at the Sands in the Copa Room of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, with Count Basie and his orchestra conducted by Quincy Jones. On 11 April 1966 he cut Strangers in the Night in about an hour, and it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 2 July.

In early 1967 he made Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, an album of bossa nova songs that was nominated for Album of the Year. My Way was recorded on 30 December 1968 in a single take and released early in 1969. In December 1967 he recorded Francis A. & Edward K. with Duke Ellington and arrangements by Billy May. Watertown, a 1970 concept album by Bob Gaudio and Jake Holmes, was the only album on which he sang over pre-recorded orchestral tracks, and it missed the Billboard top 100. He retired in 1971, and came out of retirement in 1973 with Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back. In 1980 he released the triple album Trilogy: Past Present Future, which carried Theme from New York, New York, his last Top 40 hit in the United States.

Honors and legacy

Sinatra won thirteen Grammys, including the Trustees, Legend and Lifetime Achievement awards. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997, and won an Emmy for the 1965 television special A Man and His Music. In 1993 he released Duets on Capitol, which became his best-selling album. He last sang before a live audience on 25 February 1995. He died in Los Angeles on 14 May 1998, aged 82.

Time named him one of the most influential entertainers of the 20th century, he is estimated to have sold 150 million records, and Robert Christgau called him the greatest singer of the 20th century. In the Wee Small Hours is said to have inspired Tom Waits, Marvin Gaye, Elvis Costello and B.B. King.

Records

Songs

Nelson Riddle, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Tony Bennett

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Discography and data

Writing and criticism

Live performance archives

Sources

  1. Frank Sinatra, Wikipedia
  2. Frank Sinatra artist record, MusicBrainz
  3. Frank Sinatra release groups, MusicBrainz
  4. Recording: the Complete Sinatra/Jobim Reprise Recordings, Stereophile (2010-07)
  5. Storia sentimentale di In the Wee Small Hours di Frank Sinatra, Rolling Stone Italia
  6. The greatest concept album, according to Iggy Pop, Far Out Magazine
  7. Frank Sinatra: Watertown, Pitchfork (2022-12-11)
  8. Quincy Jones and Frank Sinatra: the audacious partnership that rocketed them to another planet, The Guardian (2024-11-05)
  9. From Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga: Tony Bennett's greatest duets, The Guardian (2023-07-24)