Biography of Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra's public image as a boorish, Mafia-hobnobbing, wife-abusing, obnoxious right-wing lout is in direct conflict with the personality that dominates his finest music. From his ascent to pop stardom in the '40s up to his last moment of brilliance in the '60s, Sinatra was pop music's quintessential romantic, someone who could tell you how much love hurts and then jump and wail about how good it feels, with overwhelming amounts of conviction and sincerity. A character emerges from his best music: searching unflaggingly for the perfect love; when he doesn't find it, he explores the bowels of abandon and heartbreak with an equally unflagging diligence.This isn't the place to discuss the innovations Sinatra brought to pop vocalizing and album-making in the 20th century (buy the highlighted discs to discover that). Nor is this the place to discuss the vulgarity that has characterized his public life (check out Kitty Kelly's bio). The CDs highlighted below offer a biography of Frank Sinatra that is inarguably the most important. On record the guy was a sucker for love, and if you have a hard time relating to that, put this book back on the shelf and go browsing in the automotive section.After cutting his teeth with the orchestras of Harry James and Tommy Dorsey in 1942, Sinatra pursued a career as a soloist. The rest, you could say, is history. Under the tutelage of producer Axel Stordahl, Sinatra developed a vocal style that stretched syllables with perfect amounts of subtlety and showmanship and gave millions of bobby-soxed girls their first sex symbol.Sinatra left Columbia in 1953, disgusted by the shoddy material his label was tossing him. He hooked up with Capitol that same year and, with Nelson Riddle and producer Voyle Gilmore, took full advantage of the then-new long-play record by recording thematically linked albums. He also worked with arranger/conductors Billy May and Gordon Jenkins, who, along with Riddle, would embellish Sinatra's conceptual endeavors with perfectly suited accompaniment, adding new facets to his musical personality. For those keeping score, Riddle specialized in jazzy, sprite arrangements, while May favored splashy, pounding thumpers and Jenkins piled on thick gobs of orchestration, heavy on the strings.Sinatra left Capitol in 1961 to form his own label, Reprise. Unfortunately, the magic that was so abundant during the first 20 years of his career had withered; his voice had lost most of its charms, becoming rougher and less dazzling in both emotion and technique. There's good stuff from this period but, sadly, not much. ~ John Floyd