Frank Sinatra

Hoboken gave Francis Albert Sinatra a hard, crowded beginning and a voice that would travel far beyond it. Born on December 12, 1915, in a tenement on Monroe Street, he was the only child of Italian immigrants Natalina “Dolly” Garaventa and Antonino Martino “Marty” Sinatra. His mother came from Genoa, his father from Sicily, and the family’s life was rooted in New Jersey during the years of the Great Depression. Sinatra grew up Catholic, did homework in his parents’ tavern, and sometimes sang there for spare change. Neighbors knew him as the “best-dressed kid in the neighborhood,” helped by a driven mother who gave him money for outings and clothes.

That early life left marks, literal and otherwise. A difficult forceps delivery caused scarring to his left cheek and neck and lifelong damage to his left eardrum; later, cystic acne added to the scars. His thin frame became a target for jokes onstage. Yet the boy who absorbed those slights also absorbed music. He listened to big band jazz, admired Bing Crosby, and sang songs by ear, never learning to read music. At 15, he received a ukulele from his uncle Domenico and began performing at family gatherings. School did not hold him for long: he left A. J. Demarest High School after 47 days, expelled for “general rowdiness,” then tried business school, newspaper work, shipyard work, local clubs, and free radio spots.

Sinatra’s first real break came in 1935, when his mother persuaded a local group, the 3 Flashes, to let him join for an audition on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour. As the Hoboken Four, they won first prize and a six-month contract to perform on stage and radio across the United States. By 1939, Sinatra had joined the Harry James band as vocalist. Four years later he signed with Columbia Records and became the idol of the “bobby soxers.” His debut album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, appeared in 1946, announcing a singer whose phrasing and intimacy helped shape popular music in the 20th century.

His recording career kept changing shape. With Capitol Records, he made albums arranged by Nelson Riddle, including In the Wee Small Hours in 1955 and Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! in 1956. In 1960, he left Capitol to start Reprise Records, then collaborated with Count Basie on Sinatra-Basie: An Historic Musical First and It Might as Well Be Swing. He recorded September of My Years in 1965 and starred in the Emmy-winning special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music. Later came Sinatra at the Sands, a celebrated collaboration with Tom Jobim, and work with Duke Ellington. Though he retired in 1971 after “My Way,” he returned two years later and released “New York, New York” in 1980.

Sinatra was also a major screen presence. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for From Here to Eternity in 1953, then starred in The Man with the Golden Arm and The Manchurian Candidate. He appeared in musicals such as On the Town, Guys and Dolls, High Society, and Pal Joey, which won him a Golden Globe Award. He directed the anti-war drama None but the Brave, played detectives in Tony Rome and The Detective, and remained a familiar television figure after The Frank Sinatra Show began on CBS in 1950.

Nicknamed “Ol’ Blue Eyes” and the “Chairman of the Board,” Sinatra became one of the world’s best-selling music artists, with an estimated 150 million records sold globally. He received the Kennedy Center Honors, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and 11 Grammy Awards, including lifetime and legend honors. His words still carry the same snap as his performances: unsentimental, stylish, and built around nerve. When he said, “The best revenge is massive success,” it sounded less like a slogan than a rule he had lived by.