Frank Sinatra
Crooner is an American epithet given to male singers of pop standards, mostly from the Great American Songbook, from the 1920s to the 1950s and normally backed by a full orchestra or big band. It was an ironic term denoting an intimate sentimental singing style made possible by the use of microphones. Frank Sinatra said that he did not consider himself or Bing Crosby "crooners".
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was born December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra was the only child of Italian immigrants Natalie Della Garaventa and Antonino Martino Sinatra. He left high school without graduating, having attended only 47 days before being expelled because of his rowdy conduct. He later was arrested for carrying on with a married woman, a criminal offense at the time. He worked as a delivery boy at the Jersey Observer newspaper, and later as a riveter at a New Jersey shipyard, but music was Sinatra's main interest, and he carefully listened to big band jazz. He began singing for tips at the age of eight, standing on top of the bar at a local nightclub in Hoboken.
Sinatra got his first break in 1935 when his mother persuaded a local singing group, The Three Flashes, to let him join. With Sinatra, the group became known as the Hoboken Four, and they impressed Edward Bowes and appeared on his show, Major Bowes Amateur Hour, they attracted 40,000 votes and won first prize — a six month contract to perform on stage and radio across the United States.
In June 1939, Harry James hired Sinatra to a one year contract of $75 a week.
Sinatra released ten tracks with James including "All or Nothing At All" which had weak sales on its initial release but then sold millions of copies when re-released by Columbia at the height of Sinatra's popularity a few years later.
In November 1939, in a meeting in Chicago, Sinatra was asked by bandleader Tommy Dorsey to join his band. This meeting was a turning point in Sinatra's career, since by signing with Dorsey's band, one of the hottest bands at the time, he got greatly increased visibility with the American public.
Sinatra's relationship with Tommy Dorsey was troubled, because of their contract, which awarded Dorsey one-third of Sinatra's lifetime earnings in the entertainment industry. Sinatra left the Dorsey band late in 1942 in an incident that started rumors of Sinatra's involvement with the Mafia. A story appeared in the Hearst newspapers that mobster Sam Giancana coerced Dorsey to let Sinatra out of his contract for a few thousand dollars, and was later fictionalized in the movie The Godfather.
Sinatra was at the top of the male singer polls in Billboard and Down Beat magazines. His appeal to bobby soxers, as teenage girls of that time were called, revealed a whole new audience for pop music.
Sinatra signed with Columbia in June 1943. From June until November Sinatra and a vocal group, the Bobby Tucker Singers, held recording sessions and during those sessions nine songs were recorded and seven made the best–selling list.
Sinatra's career and appeal to new teen audiences declined as he moved into his mid-30s. Columbia and MCA dropped him in 1952. A career rebirth began with the Pearl Harbor drama From Here to Eternity (1953), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This role and performance marked a turnaround in Sinatra's career: after several years of critical and commercial decline, becoming an Oscar-winning actor helped him regain his position as the top recording artist in the world.
After a heart attack in February 1997, he made no further public appearances. After suffering another heart attack, he died at 10:50 pm on May 14, 1998 at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, with his wife Barbara by his side. Sinatra's final words, spoken after Barbara encouraged him to "fight" as attempts were made to stabilize him, were "I'm losing"
He was 82 years old.
One For My Baby by artanis2
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