“The best revenge is massive success” – Frank Sinatra.

Frank Sinatra, born 12 December 1915 is

possibly the most famous American singer of the entire 20th century and someone

whose music continues to be influential to this day. Born to Italian immigrants

in Hoboken, New Jersey, Frank Sinatra’s mother worked as a midwife and also ran

an illegal abortion service. His father was a boxer who used the name Marty

O’Brien but eventually joined the fire department and in time became the department’s

captain.

Frank Sinatra’s parents were well off for the

time and even during the Great Depression Frank’s mother, Dolly would often

give her son money to go out with friends and buy high-end clothes. It was

likely due to his driven, and possibly abusive, mother that Sinatra gained the

self-confidence and reliance that would later become part of his indelible

charm.  

Frank Sinatra began his lifelong love of music

at an early age listening to jazz, which was very popular at the time. One of

Sinatra’s uncle’s, Domenico, gave him a ukulele at his 15th birthday party and

shortly thereafter Sinatra began playing on a regular basis both in private and

at family gatherings.

After having briefly entered a musical career

with a group that only allowed him to join because he had a vehicle and could

chauffeur them and their instruments around, Frank Sinatra found solo success

with Columbia Records, signing a contract in 1943. His first solo album was the

“Voice of Frank Sinatra” released in 1946. However, despite some early career

success, his work began to slow down and in the early 50s, his career had

stalled.

Sinatra took the opportunity to go to Las Vegas and quickly became one of its best-known musical performers as part of the Rat Pack which at various times consisted of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop and he performed at regularly packed shows in this growing entertainment capital for the social elite.

During this period, the early 1950s, Frank

Sinatra showed that he not only had some musical talent but also acting talent as

well, winning a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor and an Academy

Award for the movie From Here to Eternity.

Throughout the 1950s Sinatra continued to

release highly popular albums such as “In the Wee Small Hours” in 1955, “Songs

for Swingin’ Lovers” in 1956, and the continually popular “Come Fly with Me” in

1958 and in the same year he released the album “Only the Lonely.”

Despite the regular release of record-breaking

albums, Frank Sinatra continued with his successful movie acting career as well.  After his award-winning performance for From

Here to Eternity, his star continued to rise with movies such as The Man with

the Golden Arm in 1955 and The Manchurian Candidate in 1962.  He even regularly appeared in some of the

highest-rated musicals of all time such as On the Town that debuted in 1949,

the still popular Guys and Dolls from 1955, and High Society in 1956.  He even won a second Golden Globe for his

exemplary performance in the musical Pal Joey that debuted in 1957.

One might think for an exceptionally talented

musician and musical actor that Frank Sinatra would have been a master of

nearly all fields of music but the truth is Frank Sinatra never learned to

actually read music but he continued to have an in...