From a Hoboken tenement to the Chairman of the Board

Frank Sinatra arrived in the world the hard way. Born in a tenement in Hoboken, New Jersey, in December 1915, he weighed more than 13 pounds, and the forceps used in his delivery scarred his left cheek and neck and damaged his left eardrum for life. The only child of Italian immigrants, he turned that unpromising beginning into a career that earned him the nicknames “Chairman of the Board” and “Ol’ Blue Eyes”.

He started in the swing era, joining Harry James’s band as vocalist in 1939 and signing with Columbia four years later, when he became the idol of the “bobby soxers”. His debut album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, came out in 1946. Then he moved to Capitol and made records with arrangements by Nelson Riddle, notably In the Wee Small Hours and Songs for Swingin’ Lovers!, before starting his own label, Reprise, in 1960.

Collaborations marked the next decade: Count Basie, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Duke Ellington. Sinatra retired in 1971 after releasing “My Way” but returned two years later, and “New York, New York” followed in 1980. Songs such as “The Way You Look Tonight” and “Summer Wind” show how comfortably he sat between swing and ballad. Estimated sales are 150 million records.

Away from the microphone he built a second career. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for From Here to Eternity, then starred in The Man with the Golden Arm and The Manchurian Candidate, took roles in Guys and Dolls and High Society, and won a Golden Globe for Pal Joey. He even directed one film, None but the Brave. Honours included thirteen Grammy Awards, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Critic Robert Christgau called him “the greatest singer of the 20th century”. Sinatra died on May 14, 1998.