May 14, 1998: Frank Sinatra dies of a heart attack. He's 82 years old.
Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey, to parents who were both immigrants from Italy. He got a ukulele for his 15th birthday and taught himself to play it. He made his first record as a singer in 1939. In November of that year, he became the lead singer of the Tommy Dorsey Band. He recorded his first hit song, "Polka Dots and Stardust," in 1940.
On January 19, 1942, Sinatra recorded one of my favorite Cole Porter songs, "Night and Day."
On May 6, 1944, Warner Bros. released a Porky Pig cartoon, "Swooner Crooner," that mocked Sinatra-mania.
In 1947, he recorded the song "Mam'selle" for the soundtrack of The Razor's Edge, based on the 1944 book by W. Somerset Maugham.
On November 7, 1951, he married Ava Gardner.
On March 25, 1954, Sinatra won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing Maggio in From Here to Eternity.
His 1954 album Songs for Young Lovers includes Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick Out of You" and the George Gershwin song "They Can't Take That Away From Me."
He recorded Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin," reportedly in 22 takes, for the 1956 album Songs for Swingin' Lovers.
On July 2, 1966, the #1 song in the U.S. is Sinatra's "Strangers In the Night." The melody was composed by Bert Kaempfert, who's got the mad hits. That same year, 50-year-old Sinatra marries 21-year-old Mia Farrow.
On April 15, 1967, the #1 song in the U.S. is "Something Stupid" by Sinatra and his 26-year-old daughter Nancy. Where did I first hear this song? Performed by Kelsey Grammer and Julie Kavner as Sideshow Bob and Selma Bouvier on Simpsons episode 8F20, “Black Widower,” which originally aired April 9, 1992.
Nancy Sinatra is like Mary Wollstonecraft in that mother and daughter have the same name. Frank Sinatra's first wife and eldest child are both called Nancy Sinatra.
On November 13, 1967, NBC gives him a TV special with guest star Ella Fitzgerald.
 |
| https://www.jazzonthetube.com/john-gennari-flavor-and-soul/ |
Fitzgerald, Sinatra, Count Basie, and Pat Henry's Orchestra performed a revue together on June 6th through June 18th at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Although allegedly "retired," he recorded two best-selling Duets albums, the first in 1993 and Duets II in 1994. These include the "I've Got You Under My Skin" duet with Bono.
I don't have a source for this, but I remember watching Bono talking on TV about a night of drinking that the two had together. Bono fell asleep with a glass of whiskey in his hand and spilled it on himself in his sleep. He woke up and got terribly embarrassed that the great Frank Sinatra would think he, Bono, had gotten so drunk he pissed himself.
Frank Sinatra had a good, long, musical life. He died in 1998, and his second child Frank Sinatra Jr. died in 2016. Nancy and Tina Sinatra are still with us, as is Ronan Farrow, Mia Farrow's son of whom Sinatra may be the biological father. On paper, the alleged sexual predator Woody Allen is Ronan's father, but Ronan looks a lot more like Sinatra than Allen.
 |
| https://amzn.to/3Jo241l - this is an affiliate link |
No comments:
Post a Comment