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Sinatra, Frank (1915-1998)

One of the most famous American popular singers of his generation, and a highly regarded film actor.

Born Francis Albert Sinatra in Hoboken, New Jersey, he sang with the bands of Harry James and Tommy Dorsey in the 1930s. In the 1940s he became the idol of “bobby-soxers”, teenage girls who swooned over his crooning, soft-voiced singing. He appeared in such film musicals as Anchors Aweigh (1945), Till the Clouds Roll By (1947), and On the Town (1949); in 1953 he won an Academy Award (Oscar) for his (non-singing) performance in From Here to Eternity (directed by Fred Zinnemann). His performances in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and The Detective (1968) were also highly regarded. Maintaining his singing career during the 1950s and 1960s, Sinatra collaborated with a number of talented jazz arrangers and produced several classic recordings, including Swing Easy (1955), Songs for Swingin’ Lovers (1956), and Strangers in the Night (1966). After a brief retirement (1971-1973), he resumed his singing career. In 1993 Sinatra released Frank Sinatra Duets, an album composed of many of his standard songs, engineered as duets with other famous singers. Contributors to the album include American singers Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin, Spanish recording star Julio Iglesias, and Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock group U2. This was followed in 1994 by Duets II, which included collaborations with Willie Nelson, Lena Horne, and Neil Diamond. Sinatra was well respected as a jazz singer, his natural swing feel and jazz-coloured phrasings contributing to make recordings such as “All of Me” (1952), “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (1956), “All the Way” (1957), and “Come Fly with Me” (1958) definitively associated with his voice.