Frank Sinatra. For fans of the quintessential 20th century crooner, just saying the name is ‘nuff said.
For others, even those who have been known to enjoy a croon or two from the blue-eyed master of the smooth, a primer may be in order as what would have been his 100th birthday on December 12 approaches. He was, without question one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century racking up dozens of Top 10 musical hits, numerous Grammies, two Academy Awards and even a Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal over a career spanning more than five decades.
Sinatra was both widely beloved and notorious to a certain degree. He was a humanitarian, who was awarded his first Oscar for a 10-minute short film he did in 1946 promoting racial and religious tolerance in America. But, he was also dogged by alleged ties to organized crime.
Francis Albert Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1915. He earned his chops as a teenager singing in local nightclubs after dropping out of high school.
He rose to the greatest heights of stardom during the 1940s when he catalogued many of the classic tunes that are still the mainstay of big bands everywhere.
Yorkton will be among the hundreds of cities around the world to celebrate the Sultan of Swoon’s 100th with a concert tomorrow night at the Painted Hand Casino.
Larry Pearen will lead Yorkton’s All That Jazz Big Band in the performance starting at 7:30 p.m.
“’My Way’ has always been one of my favorite musical selections,” Pearen said. “When I started selecting music for our show, I didn’t realize how many hundreds of recordings he had done. He had so many well known charts that our big band loved to perform—‘Fly Me To The Moon’, ‘New York, New York’, ‘Send in the Clowns’—it seemed like a natural with our two wonderful vocalists Jackie Washenfelder and Rob Zerr accompanied by our 24-piece big band. We have added some photos and video clips on a large screen to accompany the music. It is going to be a great show.”
Sinatra remained active almost up to his death. In the 1990s, in his late 70s, he gained legions of new fans with the release of Frank Sinatra Duets, a collection of 13 Sinatra standards sung with other legends such as Aretha Franklin and Tony Bennett, as well as, younger stars such as Bono and Gloria Estefan.
Sinatra faced his final curtain at the age of 82 on May 14, 1998, when he suffered a heart attack at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
