Tag: frank sinatra

francisalbertsinatra:

Candid photographs of Frank Sinatra and first wife Nancy c. mid-1940s. Frank and Nancy (née Barbato) met in the summer of 1934 while vacationing across the road from each other in Long Branch on the Jersey Shore. Frank lived in Hoboken and Nancy was from Jersey City. Legend has it that Nancy was giving herself a manicure on the porch steps when Frank came over with his ukelele and serenaded her. They were married in 1939, divorced in 1951, but remained close until the end of his life. Nancy is still alive and will turn 97 this year.

francisalbertsinatra:

Frank and Nancy Sinatra listening to records in the den of their Hasbrouck Heights home, April 1943. All the visible records on the shelf are classical music by various composers including Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Respighi, Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, and Sibelius. At the time Sinatra was educating himself on the classical genre, and it ended up becoming his favorite. He rarely played any other kind of music in his home and it largely informed his own work. His personal favorites were Puccini and Verdi. Photo by Herbert Gehr for Life magazine.

The new pop groups—I think they sing so well, but a lot of them miss the point because they don’t stop to think what lyrics mean; they listen to themselves too much. Some shout the whole damn night, like singing the Declaration of Independence in every note. Don’t they know shading, nuance, color? That offends me. But, from the start, I admired the Beatles. As a unit, they’re maturing. Their deportment is excellent; they could have easily gone the leather-jacket way. I like their baroque style of orchestration, so pleasant and Renaissance. I’m going to try to meet with Paul McCartney, and perhaps he’ll write some Christmas music for me. No, I could never sing with the Beatles. I wouldn’t know how. They have completely different interpretations. I’m an optimist and a romantic.

Frank Sinatra on modern music and The Beatles, 1967 (via francisalbertsinatra)