#AllThingsMUSIC: Frank Sinatra

 

I truly believe that when your Art resonates in people's lives long after you're gone, this is when an Artist's Heart can truly lay content. Most of us were only Children through this Man's career, but he dazzled us all the same. You couldn't help but shuffle your feet everytime 'I won't Dance' blared through your speakers, or snap your fingers in unison to appreciate his 'Fly Me To The Moon' record. He was to The Rat Pack what Bob Marley was to the Wailers. I'm a huge fan of all Conscious Art forms, and to this day i haven't met an Artist who didn't know who Frank Sinatra is. He's THAT big. For a Musician to reach people who aren't even Musically orientated beings, that's a testament to the Man and an appreciation of the Artist. Ladies and Gentlemen, Frank Sinatra.

Beginning his musical career in the 'swing era' with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the "bobby soxers", he released his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra in 1946. His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1953 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity.

He signed with Capitol Records in 1953 and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records in 1961 (finding success with albums such as Ring-a-Ding-Ding!, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way". Sinatra also forged a successful career as a film actor, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity, a nomination for Best Actor for The Man with the Golden Arm, and critical acclaim for his performance in The Manchurian Candidate. He also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. Sinatra was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award