Frank Sinatra In all his innumerable concerts Frank Sinatra understood it to fascinate the crowd. This incomparable magic was present in all his concerts until to his end. Frank Sinatra was born in New Jersey in 1915 as Francis Albert Sinatra. In his early childhood he was already very interested in music and so he decided to become a musician. At first he tried to be a sport journalist, but when the radio played his first song everybody knew that this boy, Francis Albert Sinatra, would become a big star. He never took a singing lesson and could not read music; he simply was an natural talent. His inspiration was Bing Crosby, an independent musician in this time. With Sinatra's smooth vocals the group "Dorsey's band" charted several Top 10 singles and became one of the biggest acts of the early 1940s. During these years Sinatra started to consider a solo career. At the beginning of his solo-career he saw for the first time the hysteria of the youth. Later there was the hysteria only for the Beatles or Elvis Presley. But soon he was "out", because of his private problems with dubious relationships, drugs and alcohol. Women were a special chapter in Sinatra's life, some of his friends tell about affairs with Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich. He was married to Nancy Barbato, Ava Gardner, Mia Farrow and Barbara Ann Blakeley Marx. At the same time Sinatra began appearing in movies, staring in the 1940's movie "Las Vegas Nights". In 1950, Sinatra read the script for the movie "From Here To Eternity" and became fascinated with the character of the Italian soldier Angelo Maggio, for whose part he immediately auditioned. I think that his name would have been forgotten if he hadn't acted in this movie. In the role of Angelo Maggio he won an Oscar for the best supporting part and from that moment he was back. in the world of the stars. The hysteria around him returned. He starred in a lot of other movies like "On The Town", "The man with the golden arm" and "That's Entertainment". His carrier as a solo singer and movie star was simultaneous. In all his films he appeared with many popular movie-stars like Burt Lancaster, Gene Kelly, Ronald Reagan, the former President of the United States (1981-1989) and with his inspiration Bing Crosby in the movie "That's Entertainment". Today we would say, Frank Sinatra was an all round-talent, because he was a fantastic singer, movie-star and entertainer. Everybody called him "The Voice", because it was unforgettably good. Songs like "Strangers in the Night", "New York, New York", "Something Stupid" with his daughter Nancy or "My Way" were such big successes, that he was one of the most popular vocalists in his time. I want to speak about a fantastic song from Frank Sinatra: "My Way". In my opinion, this song represents Frank Sinatra in all things he did; he always went his own way. He copied other stars, but he made those songs his own. With his awards, his very popular music, his fantastic movie-career and his individual style he was known all over the world and no other star was able to copy him. Sinatra had his own philosophy, that means he liked a special standard of living. With "My Way" he looked back on his career and his life and he explained his audience in which ways he had done right or wrong. He said it in this way: I've lived a life that's full I've travelled each and ev'ry highway; And more, much more than this, I did it my way. And he didn't speak only about the good times in his life, he also spoke about his problems, his mistakes: Yes, there where times, I'm sure you knew When I bit off more than I could chew. But through it all when there was doubt, I ate it all and spit it out. I faced it all and I stood tall; And did it may way. This song shows his life, in his point of view in under five minutes. He wanted to help people in misery and he believed, that everybody can do anything. This is one of his quotation: 'Part of the whole thing is never to accept anything without questions; never ignore an inner voice that tells you something could be better even when other people tell you it's o.k. Nowadays we still listen to his songs, for example Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman with "Something Stupid", sometimes we watch his movies or we only hear about him, so we can say: The Legend lives on.
