Stamp of the Month: May 2023

Frank Sinatra

The American singer, actor and entertainer Francis Albert “Frank” Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey. He died in Los Angeles on May 14, 1998, at the age of 82. May 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of his death.
 
Frank Sinatra was already touring the bars of his hometown Hoboken as a teenager with his ukulele and a small music system. He made his first small radio appearances from 1932 and won a talent contest with the vocal quartet “The Hoboken Four” in 1935. In 1939 he was discovered by bandleader Harry James, who

USA 13.5.2008
signed him on as lead singer for his big band. His national breakthrough came a year later when, after joining Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra, he scored his first number one hit with “I’ll Never Smile Again”. For many years Frank Sinatra could be heard on the radio several times a week. He had several radio shows of his own and was also successful as an actor in musicals and comedies.

USA 13.5.2008
(Back side)
After numerous affairs, his star began to decline at the beginning of the 1950s and he even found himself without a recording contract in 1952. In 1957, he finally managed to return to the concert stage and to a weekly programme “The Frank Sinatra Show” on television via a diversion via film. In 1966, his song “Strangers in the Night” was the biggest commercial success of his musical career to date. In 1968 he recorded the version of the French chanson “Comme d’habitude”, written by Paul Anka, which was to become a world hit and his own signature tune under the title “My Way”.
Frank Sinatra was awarded numerous prizes in the course of his career, which lasted until the 1990s, and his albums sold more than 150 million copies.
 

Frank Sinatra live at Madison Square Garden, New York City (1974)