Frank Sinatra, Framed
Frank Sinatra is one of the greatest singers of all time, and the first real pop music superstar. A larger-than-life figure, Sinatra came up during the Big Band Era with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey bands; by the mid-1940s, his appearances were causing riots. In the 1950s, after a decline, he recast his career with a string of legendary releases on Capitol Records, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in From Here To Eternity, and by becoming a mainstay on the Vegas strip.
This week's video, "High Hopes," is not at all typical of the moody saloon singer. The novelty song is from a 1959 movie, A Hole In The Head, and it won the Oscar for Best Original Song that year. A delightfully corny and optimistic tune, Sinatra sang it with a children's chorus, and it's still a part of pop culture today.
So please enjoy this look back at a simpler time, and one of America's greatest vocal talents, and, as always, let us know what you think.
1 - "Oh, yeah? Well, I'm rubber and you're glue--so you're all mobbed up!"
2 - ...and the kid's son would go on to great success with OneRepublic!
3 - "Yes, Frank, I do need an uplifting campaign song. That, and Marilyn's phone number."
4 - Frank occasionally gathered all the paternity suit exhibits in one place.
5 - Few remember now that Sinatra routinely opened for They Might Be Giants.
6 - "Dino's? Oh, like this."
7 - "Regrets? I've had a few."
8 - Frank explains that the ant was--in fact--a super-powered ant of frightening intelligence who, after moving that rubber tree plant, would kill and eat all the human children.
9 - "Was that ant smart like a perfesser, Mr. Sinatra? Like some kinda perfesser?!"
10 - "OK, now let's do dis one about dis broad who's a tramp!"
11 - When the storied singer began eating his own fingers in a spectacularly gruesome display, some of the children were disquieted.
12 - Mia Farrow, lookin' good!
