Remembering the great Frank Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998)
Frank Sinatra was the only child of Sicilian immigrants. As a teenager, he saw Bing Crosby perform and was absolutely taken by the performance, which inspired him to pursue a career in music.
Sinatra began his musical career in the swing era, the age of big bands. Interestingly, despite being a great vocalist, he never learned to read sheet music and used his musical instinct and ears alone. For Sinatra, conveying the emotions of a song was the most important. Absorbed by the songs he interpreted, he declared: “I can’t help myself. If the song is a lament at the loss of love, I get an ache in my gut. I feel the loss myself and I cry out the loneliness, the hurt and the pain that I feel.”
According to Christina Sinatra, one of his daughters, Sinatra actually hated his most popular song, beloved by audiences around the world, “My Way”. His wife Barbara maintained that performing this particular piece was a chore to him and that he struggled to connect to it on any level claiming he “always thought that song was self-serving and self-indulgent”
Source: Vialma Jazz
Photo: Pictorial Press Ltd
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