Frank Sinatra Tribute

Frank Sinatra decided to become a singer after hearing Bing Crosby on the radio. Sinatra began his singing career after joining the Three Flashes following a radio talent show, Major Bowes Amateur Hour. The group acquired Sinatra and the Hoboken Four was formed. He began singing in small clubs and radio stations in New Jersey, eventually attracting the attention of trumpeter and band-leader Harry Jamesfter less than one year in the employ of big band leader Harry James, a skinny singer named Francis Albert Sinatra was given the break of a lifetime: to sing with the third most popular band of 1939 (Artie Shaw’s was #1, Kay Kyser’s was #2). Almost overnight, the combination of the man they’d call “The Voice” with the orchestra of “That Sentimental Gentleman of Swing,” Tommy Dorsey, sent the music world swooning. “No singer had ever sung like that before, recalled Jo Stafford, then a member of the Pied Pipers, the vocal quartet which often backed Sinatra. By the time he left Tommy’s organization in 1942, Frank was a superstar. He would go on to make his mark as an Oscar-winning actor, TV host, record company owner and the creator of some 170 solo (and duet) hits through 1980. Among Sinatra’s Grammys was a somewhat premature 1965 “Lifetime Achievement Award,” as he had yet to chart 30 more albums (13 of which became million-sellers!). By that time billed as “The Chairman of the Board,” “The Voice” continued to enchant millions with new material until just before his death in1998 at the age of 82.