Quotes by Frank Sinatra
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Wikipedia Summary for Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor who is generally perceived as one of the greatest musical artists of the 20th century. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold an estimated 150 million records worldwide.
Born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra was greatly influenced by the intimate, easy-listening vocal style of Bing Crosby and began his musical career in the swing era with bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Sinatra found success as a solo artist after he signed with Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the "bobby soxers". Sinatra released his debut album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, in 1946. However, by the early 1950s, his professional career had stalled and he turned to Las Vegas, where he became one of its best known residency performers as part of the Rat Pack. His career was reborn in 1953 with the success of the film From Here to Eternity, his performance subsequently earning him an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Sinatra then released several critically lauded albums, some of which are retrospectively noted as being among the first "concept albums", including In the Wee Small Hours (1955), Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956), Come Fly with Me (1958), Only the Lonely (1958), No One Cares (1959), and Nice 'n' Easy (1960).
Sinatra left Capitol in 1960 to start his own record label, Reprise Records, and released a string of successful albums. In 1965, he recorded the retrospective album September of My Years and starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music. After releasing Sinatra at the Sands, recorded at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Vegas with frequent collaborator Count Basie in early 1966, the following year he recorded one of his most famous collaborations with Tom Jobim, the album Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim. It was followed by 1968's Francis A. & Edward K. with Duke Ellington. Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971, but came out of retirement two years later. He recorded several albums and resumed performing at Caesars Palace, and released "New York, New York" in 1980. Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally until shortly before his death in 1998.
Sinatra forged a highly successful career as a film actor. After winning an Academy Award for From Here to Eternity, he starred in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), and in The Manchurian Candidate (1962). He appeared in various musicals such as On the Town (1949), Guys and Dolls (1955), High Society (1956), and Pal Joey (1957), winning another Golden Globe for the latter. Toward the end of his career, he frequently played detectives, including the title character in Tony Rome (1967). Sinatra would later receive the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1971. On television, The Frank Sinatra Show began on ABC in 1950, and he continued to make appearances on television throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Sinatra was also heavily involved with politics from the mid-1940s, and actively campaigned for presidents such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. He was investigated by the FBI for his alleged relationship with the Mafia.
While Sinatra never learned how to read music, he worked very hard from a young age to improve his abilities in all aspects of music. A perfectionist, renowned for his dress sense and performing presence, he always insisted on recording live with his band. His bright blue eyes earned him the popular nickname "Ol' Blue Eyes". He led a colorful personal life, and was often involved in turbulent affairs with women, such as with his second wife Ava Gardner. He later married Mia Farrow in 1966 and Barbara Marx in 1976. Sinatra had several violent confrontations, usually with journalists he felt had crossed him, or work bosses with whom he had disagreements. He was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1985, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He was included in Time magazine's compilation of the 20th century's 100 most influential people. After Sinatra's death, American music critic Robert Christgau called him "the greatest singer of the 20th century", and he continues to be seen as an iconic figure.
Pee-racticality dee-oesn't interest me Love the life that I lead I've got a pocketful of miracles And with a pocketful of miracles One little miracle a day is all I need.
You always looked a little out of place All grown out with freckles on your face We'd spend each night with company Just you, the teddy bear, the dolls and me What a funny girl you used to be.
I feel bad for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day.
I don't mind Sunday night at all 'cause that's the night friends come to call and Monday to Friday go fast and another week is past.
I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, That's as good as they're going to feel all day.
I'm sorry for people who don't drink. They wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day.
When you're down and out. Lift up your head and shout.There's gonna be a great day. Angels in the sky. Promise that by and by there's gonna be a great day.
I'm trying to figure out, Chairman of what Board? People come up to me and seriously say: 'Well, what are you Chairman of?' And I can't answer them.
Sad is to live in solitude
Far from your tranquil altitude
Sad is to know that no one ever can live on a dream
That never can be, will never be
Dreamer awake, wake up and see.
Rock 'n' Roll: The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.
And now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain,
I'll state my case of which I'm certain.
I've lived a life that's full, I traveled each and ev'ry highway,
And more, much more than this. I did it my way.
You vowed your love
From here to eternity
A love so true
It never would die
You gave your lips
Gave them so willingly
How could I know
Your kiss meant goodbye?
I'll close my eyes and just see pretty colors,
They're dancing just for me, pretty colors (pretty colors)
Locked in my mind they'll always be,
You'll never give your love to me,
So I'll just close my eyes and just see pretty colors (pretty colors).
I never knew the charm of spring
I never met it face to face
And I never knew my heart could sing
Never missed a warm embrace till
April in Paris
Whom can I run to?
What have you done to my heart?
So if you fall in just that way, oh wouldn't I be thrilled to hear you say
I had a lovely accident today.
Your eyes may glow, I'm sure I'll know.
Should have a Ph.d. on the subject of women. Anyhow the fact of the matter is I've failed usually. I'm exceptionally enamored with women; I respect them. Yet, in the same way as all men, I don't comprehend them.
Fresh air makes me throw up. I can't handle it. I'd rather be around three Denobili cigars blowing in my face all night.
Throughout my career, if I have done anything, I have paid attention to every note and every word I sing -- if I respect the song. If I cannot project this to a listener, I fail.
I firmly believe that nuclear war is absolutely impossible. I don't think anyone in the world wants a nuclear war -- not even the Russians.
Someone said drink the water, but I will drink the wine
Someone said take a poor man, the rich don't have a dime
Go fool yourself, if you will, I just haven't got the time
I'll give you back your water, and I will take the wine.
My greatest teacher was not a vocal coach, not the work of other singers, but the way Tommy Dorsey breathed and phrased on the trombone.
I don't know what other singers feel when they articulate lyrics, but being an 18-karat manic-depressive and having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an overacute capacity for sadness as well as elation.
For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He's the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.
There are several things I think I would have done if I had the chance again. I would have been a little more patient about getting out into the world. I would have seen to it that I had a more formal education. I would have become an accomplished mu.
Bad reviews I've gotten never diminished the number of people in my audience; good reviews have never added to the number of people in my audience; be your own critic.
The best is yet to come, and won't that be fine? You think you've seen the sun, but you ain't seen it shine.
That's life (that's life), I tell you I can't deny it
I thought of quitting, baby, but my heart just ain't gonna buy it
And if I didn't think it was worth one single try
I'd jump right on a big bird and then I'd fly.
You can be the most artistically perfect performer in the world, but an audience is like a broad -- if you're indifferent, Endsville.
Rock n' roll is the most disgusting form of expression, it's brutal, malefic, a pestilential aphrodisiac, the preferred music of the delinquents of the earth.
Answering the phone Hello, this is a recording, you've dialed the right number, now hang up and don't do it again.
The thing that influenced me most was the way Tommy played his trombone. It was my idea to make my voice work in the same way as a trombone or violin-not sounding like them, but playing the voice like those instrumentalists.
If I had done everything I'm credited with, I'd be speaking to you from a laboratory jar at Harvard.
If I had as many love affairs as I've been given credit for, I'd be in a jar at the Harvard Medical School.
Who knows where the road will lead us
Only a fool would say,
But if you let me love you
I'm sure to love you all the way.
Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage. This I tell ya, brother, you can't have one without the other.
I love all those girls the same as they love me. I get thousands of letters a week from girls who love me.... Every time I sing a song, I make love to them. I'm a boudoir singer.
I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king
I've been up and down and over and out and I know one thing
Each time I find myself flat on my face
I pick myself up and get back in the race.
When I sing, I believe. I'm honest. If you want to get an audience with you, there's only one way. You have to reach out to them with total honesty and humility.
Deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac ... it fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people.
At heart, I guess I'm a saloon singer because there's a greater intimacy between performer and audience in a nightclub. Then again, I love the excitement of appearing before a big concert audience. Let's just say that the place isn't important, as long as everybody has a good time.
For years I've nursed a secret desire to spend the Fourth of July in a double hammock with a swingin' redheaded broad. But I could never find me a double hammock.
For nobody else, gave me thrill-with all your faults, I love you still. It had to be you, wonderful you, it had to be you.
I think being jilted is one of life's most painful experiences. It takes a long time to heal a broken heart. It's happened to all of us and never gets any easier. I understand, however, that playing one of my albums can help.
There have been many accolades uttered about Elvis' talent and performances through the years, all of which I agree with wholeheartedly. I shall miss him dearly as a friend. He was a warm, considerate and generous man.
I believe that God knows what each of us wants and needs. It's not necessary for us to make it to church on Sunday to reach Him. You can find Him anyplace.
Only sing -- don't do cheap songs, don't do silly songs, just do, just do wonderful songs that are well-written.
And if you should survive to 105
Look at all you'll derive out of being alive.
Then here is the best part
You have a head start
If you are among the very young at heart.
You are the promised kiss of springtime that makes the lonely winter seem long. You are the breathless hush of evening that trembles on the brink of a lovely song.
A friend to me has no race, no class and belongs to no minority. My friendships were formed out of affection, mutual respect and a feeling of having something strong in common. These are eternal values that cannot be racially classified. This is the way I look at race.
If you don't know the guy on the other side of the world, love him anyway because he's just like you. He has the same dreams, the same hopes and fears. It's one world, pal. We're all neighbors.
To me religion is a deeply personal thing in which man and God go it alone together, without the witch doctor in the middle. The witch doctor tries to convince us that we have to ask God for help, to spell out to him what we need, even to bribe him with prayer or cash on the line.
Most of what has been written about me is one big blur, but I do remember being described in one simple word that I agree with. It was in a piece that tore me apart for my personal behavior, but the writer said that when the music began and I started to sing, I was honest.
It was a staggering moment when I first heard the news. Lennon was a most talented man and above all, a gentle soul. John and his colleagues set a high standard by which contemporary music continues to be measured.
Rock 'n roll smells phony and false. It is sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons and by means of its almost imbecilic reiteration and sly, lewd, in plain fact, dirty lyrics ... manages to be the martial music of every side-burned delinquent on the face of the earth.
The reading of the song is vital. The written word is first always ... first. Not belittling the music, but it really is a backdrop. To convey the meaning of a song you need to look at the lyric and understand it.
I get an audience personally involved in a song -- because I'm involved myself. It's not something I do deliberately: 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.
Way down among Brazilians. Coffee beans grow by the billions. So they've got to find those extra cups to fill. They've got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil.
That's life (that's life), that's what all the people say
You're ridin' high in April, shot down in May
But I know I'm gonna change that tune
When I'm back on top, back on top in June.
You've got to be on the ball from the minute you step out into that spotlight. You gotta know exactly what you're doing every second on that stage, otherwise the act goes right into the bathroom. It's all over. Good night.
When lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday, cash me out.
I'm supposed to have a Ph.D. on the subject of women. But the truth is I've flunked more often than not. I'm very fond of women; I admire them. But, like all men, I don't understand them.
Rock 'n Roll: The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.
Our civilization, such as it is, was shaped by religion, and the men who aspire to public office anyplace in the free world must make obeisance to God or risk immediate opprobrium.
There are things about organized religion which I resent. Christ is revered as the Prince of Peace, but more blood has been shed in His name than any other figure in history. You show me one step forward in the name of religion, and I'll show you a hundred retrogressions.
People often remark that I'm pretty lucky. Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you've got to have talent and know how to use it.
Basically, I'm for anything that gets you through the night -- be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniels.
I would like to be remembered as a man who had a wonderful time living life, a man who had good friends, fine family -- and I don't think I could ask for anything more than that, actually.
I believe that God knows what each of us wants and needs. It's not necessary for us to make it to church on Sunday to reach Him. You can find Him anyplace. And if that sounds heretical, my source is pretty good: Matthew, Five to Seven, The Sermon on the Mount.
What I do with my life is of my own doing. I live it the best way I can. I've been criticized on many, many occasions, because of -- acquaintances, and what have you.
I'm not one of those complicated, mixed-up cats. I'm not looking for the secret to life... I just go on from day to day, taking what comes.
