BIg Bands: Early Frank Sinatra and Big Band Music

Early Frank Sinatra and Big Band Music.

This week I intend to cover information on one of the biggest front men of Big Band music, Frank Sinatra and his early carrer.

Frank Sinatra was born December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, NJ. The son of Italian Immigrants he was raised as an only child and was given a decent amount of opportunities as a child. His mother ran a home abortion clinic from her home, which was illegal at the time and was even convicted a couple of times, but it gave Frank’s family a majority of their money. His father was a captain of the Hoboken Fire Department. Frank was thrown out of high school only 47 days after starting due to rowdy conduct and he never finished. In 1938 Frank Sinatra was arrested for having relations with a married woman which was a crime at the time. He got his early work as a newspaper delivery boy and riveter for a construction company. These are some humble beginnings for a man who was about to become one of the biggest stars of the century.

Frank began to sing on bar tops for tips when he was eight and a teenager began to sing on street corners and small gigs. In 1935 his mother convinced him to join a boys singing group known as The Three Flashes and with the addition of him they became the Hoboken Four. The group won a contest early on and toured the country playing shows and performing on the radio but never really took off. In 1939 after some exposure by Henry James Sinatra caught the attention of Tommy Dorsey and was asked to join his band, this was a major turning point in his career. Frank’s public debut was on January 16, 1940 with Dorsey’s band and that kicked off a 40 song year with a 12 week chart topper “I’ll Never Smile Again”

In 1941 Sinatra was a chart topper and male media icon. He had a large appeal to Bobby Socksers or teenage girls of the time which was at the time a mostly untapped market. 1942 brought with it the infamous rumor of Sinatra getting out of his contract with Dorsey in which Dorsey maintained one-third of the lifetime earnings of Sinatra. The story is that Sinatra had assistance from the mafia to get out of his contract for only a few thousand dollars. This story was also dramatized in the movie The Godfather. Sinatra saw great success in his early solo career during the 1942-44 musicians strike. His career trended upward until about 1948 when it stalled.

That takes us to about the midpoint of Frank Sinatra’s career. Next week I will cover the latter half of Sinatra’s career and even a brief introduction to the Rat Pack.