Happy Birthday, Frank Sinatra!

Frank Sinatra would be 94 years old if he were alive today. Inarguably, Frank was the most important popular music figure in the twentieth century. A career that spanned six decades, He continues selling millions and millions of records each year, even a decade after his death. Frank’s biggest selling albums were recorded and released when he was eighty years old while performing to sold out concert halls all around the world attests to this fact. Love him, or hate him, you can’t deny his popularity, tremendous talent, and charisma. How many artists have recorded and released a hit tune that became one of his signature recordings when he was sixty five years old? Not many. Everybody knows New York, New York. They hear it every year on New Years Eve after the countdown in Time’s Square.

Of course, there’s so many other wonderful Sinatra recordings besides New York, New York and My Way. With nearly 2,000 studio recordings, there’s too many for me to list here. Note that Frank actually hated My Way because he thought the song was too arrogant, but only he could sing it without sounding that way. The song is also one of the most sung at Karaoke bars, millions of people butchering the tune because Frank inspired something in them through his singing. Frank’s voice is probably one of, if not the most heard in movie and television soundtracks. Producers trying to incorporate a little Frank into their work, improving its likeability. You’ll frequently hear Frank on TV commercials as well. Sinatra sells!

Speaking of movies and television, Frank’s acting career is shadowed by singing career. Acting, directing, and producing nearly sixty movies, he certainly left his mark on Hollywood. An Academy Award nomination for his stellar performance as a drug addict in the Man With the Golden Arm, winning an Oscar for his performance in 1954’s From Here To Eternity solidified his acting career and made him one of the biggest and highest paid actors in Hollywood. He worked with some of the very best in Hollywood, including Marlon Brando and Cary Grant along with many others.

I don’t think I need to tell you that Sinatra is very important to me. My online alias, Stunatra, explains that. No other singer comes close to Frank Sinatra. For me, no one excites me the way that he does. If I’m down, he’ll bring me up, if I’m up, he’ll bring me even higher. It saddens me that I was born too late to have seen him live in concert. I wish he were still alive today, though that probably goes without saying. Frank will live on through his music and will be up there with the likes of Beethoven and Mozart. Hundreds of years from now, people will still be listening to Sinatra, just as those listen to Beethoven and Mozart’s work today. May the last voice I ever hear, be Frank Sinatra's.

I will close this post with a video of Frank’s first commercial studio recording from 1939, From The Bottom Of My Heart:

Hope you enjoy. And thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday, Frank!