Sinatra's Birthday
Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:42 pm
December 12th is Frank Sinatra's birthday. He was born on December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey, and died on May 14, 1998 in Los Angeles. I think it is an interesting coincidence that Frank Sinatra and Matt Monro had birthdays only 11 days apart. I'm not a big believer in astrology but it does make you wonder.
I had the good fortune to have attended a Sinatra concert in Boston Garden in October of 1974. Virtually the same concert was repeated in Madison Square Garden in New York several days later and made into an album — "Sinatra: The Main Event." My favourite song from that concert was one of his standards — "I've Got you Under My Skin." The orchestra followed Nelson Riddle's arrangement for the song faithfully, and I've heard it so many times I know every note. And I think that at the age of 59, Sinatra's voice was even richer than when he recorded that song for Capitol back in the 50s.
In the days when Sinatra was growing up in Hoboken, it was a rough-and-tumble port city filled with shipping wharves and very tough dockworkers. I imagine it was not unlike Liverpool in the days when the Beatles lived there. But today, the city has become "gentrified," and most of its apartments have been converted into expensive condominiums owned by two-income professional couples who commute to nearby Manhattan.
I had the good fortune to have attended a Sinatra concert in Boston Garden in October of 1974. Virtually the same concert was repeated in Madison Square Garden in New York several days later and made into an album — "Sinatra: The Main Event." My favourite song from that concert was one of his standards — "I've Got you Under My Skin." The orchestra followed Nelson Riddle's arrangement for the song faithfully, and I've heard it so many times I know every note. And I think that at the age of 59, Sinatra's voice was even richer than when he recorded that song for Capitol back in the 50s.
In the days when Sinatra was growing up in Hoboken, it was a rough-and-tumble port city filled with shipping wharves and very tough dockworkers. I imagine it was not unlike Liverpool in the days when the Beatles lived there. But today, the city has become "gentrified," and most of its apartments have been converted into expensive condominiums owned by two-income professional couples who commute to nearby Manhattan.