Frank Sinatra Research Paper

Frank Sinatra was an actor, producer, and singer in the 20th century. He was born on December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey, to Italian immigrants. He had to be delivered with the aid of forceps, which caused severe scarring to his left cheek, neck, and ear, and perforated his ear drum, damage that remained for life. Due to his injuries at birth, his baptism at St. Francis Church in Hoboken was delayed until April 2, 1916. A childhood operation on his mastoid bone left major scarring on his neck, and during adolescence he suffered from cystic acne that scarred his face and neck. Sinatra's mom, Dolly, was said to have been abusive and also ran an illegal abortion service that catered to Italian Catholic girls for which she was nicknamed "Hatpin …show more content…
He did, however, learn to follow a lead sheet during a performance by "carefully following the patterns and groupings of notes arranged on the page" and made his own notations to the music, using his ear to detect semi-tonal differences. Granata states that some of the most accomplished classically trained musicians soon noticed his musical understanding, and remarked that Sinatra had a "sixth sense". Though Sinatra once famously described it as "sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons," it's hard to imagine rock 'n' roll, or contemporary pop stardom, without his example. His sexual energy and knowing — evident in his phrasing, even early on — and sheer charisma spawned the bobby soxers who prefigured those girls and women screaming for Elvis, The Beatles and all the rest. Sinatra also carried his swagger and irreverence offstage: The various accounts of his womanizing, physical and verbal confrontations and run-ins or near-run-ins with the law rival those attached to anyone from Jerry Lee Lewis to Justin Bieber. He helped integrate American music. A civil rights advocate from early on, Sinatra used his influence to promote African-American musicians. Wynton Marsalis notes that his mentor, trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, worked frequently with Sinatra. "Sweets said that during a time when America was segregated, Frank Sinatra made sure (black) musicians were paid well and treated with respect." Quincy Jones remembers that when he and Basie's orchestra joined Sinatra in Vegas in 1966, the town "was still segregated. And I mean very segregated. Frank assigned a very imposing bodyguard to every member of the band and gave them orders to break anyone's nose that looked at us