I actually really enjoyed completing this task. The insight and knowledge I gained from researching Frank Sinatra expanded my understanding of the developing United States. From the history of music and art and their influence on society to the changing American mentality and the development of organized crime, Frank Sinatra was right at the center of it all. I chose to research Ol Blue Eyes because of my love for music and wanted to know his greatness as an artist and singer. I knew little about his influence on American culture and his involvement with the prolific mobsters of the 1930s and 1940s. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Widely considered the greatest singer in the history of American pop, Sinatra was also the first modern pop superstar. Frank Sinatra has set musical trends for over half a century. Sinatra's style and personality seemed to change over time from decade to decade. In fact, he served as a trendsetter for two different musical styles in the 1940s and 1950s. He defined that role in the early 1940s, when his first solo appearances caused the kind of mass pandemonium that later greeted Elvis Presley and the Beatles. But don't let the Pop label fool you, Ol Blue Eyes provided much more than just popular entertainment for the world. America experienced a cultural explosion to which Sinatra contributed greatly. Over the course of an entertainment career that spanned more than 50 years and included recordings, films and television, as well as countless performances in nightclubs, concert halls and sports arenas, Sinatra was a singular reflection of the American psyche. During World War II, Sinatra's tender romanticism served as a dreamy emotional connection between millions of women and their husbands and boyfriends fighting overseas. By the late 1950s, Sinatra had become such an embodiment of American entertainment success that his life and art became emblematic of the mood of the times. His evolution from the idealistic crooner of the early '40s to the sophisticated swinger of the '50s and '60s seemed to personify the country's loss of innocence. (Lahr, 1997) And innocence had lost, according to the media portrayal of Sinatra as a thug or gangster. The media and political figures such as J. Edgar Hoover, from the time he achieved stardom until the day of his death, questioned Sinatra's affiliation with organized crime. Sinatra used his fame and talent to express his socio-political views on equality for Americans of all ethnicities. Frank Sinatra is acclaimed as the most influential American singer of all time. Along with Sinatra's gentle but persuasive tone, his lyrical phrasing set him apart from others and provided a model for musicians to follow for half a century. Sinatra emerged on the scene with Columbia Records in 1942 and at 47 was America's favorite popular music star. He topped the charts with hits like I Fall In Love Too Easily and Hollow Arms. However, as Sinatra aged, his style and perhaps some of his personality changed. Thus emerged Frank's second period of greatness, the Capitol Records years. Frank Sinatra introduced himself to the world as a sweet crooner of love ballads in the early 1940s, when he decided to leave Tommy Dorsey's band and pursue solo activity. A still young at heart and innocent Sinatra captured the hearts of young women across the nation. The skinny blue-eyed crooner,Quickly nicknamed the Voice, he made hordes of bobby-soxers swoon in the 1940s with a remarkably smooth and flexible baritone that he handled with unparalleled skill. (Lahr, 1997) His mastery of long phrasing inspired imitations by many other male crooners, notably Dick Haymes, Vic Damone and Tony Bennett in the 1940s and 1950s and more recently pop-jazz star Harry Connick Jr. In a certain sense however, the Sinatra of this period, his first great period (1943-1952) seems difficult to recognize from the figure who emerged later. How do we reconcile the vulnerable boyish crooner of this period with the finger-snapping, jingle-jangling chairman of the board of the next period? (Mustazza, 1995). The changes in Sinatra's vocal timbre coincided with a precipitous career decline in the late 1940s and early 1950s. But in 1953, Sinatra made one of the most spectacular career comebacks in entertainment history, re-emerging as a jazzier, rougher-voiced interpreter of popular standards who put a more aggressive personal stamp on his songs. After his voice lost its velvety youth, Sinatra's performances became more personal and idiosyncratic, so that each performance became a direct expression of his personality and mood at the time. (Wikipedia, 2001) Expressing anger, petulance and bravado, attitudes that had been largely excluded from the acceptable vocabulary of pop sentiment, Sinatra pioneered the unbridled vocal aggression of rock singers. (Mustazza, 1995)This reemergence of Sinatra coincided with the introduction of Swing music into American society. Swing is a less structured form of jazz music with faster rhythm sections and percussion. As jazz in general, and swing jazz in particular, began to grow in popularity throughout the United States, numerous changes occurred in the culture surrounding the music. First, the introduction of swing in the early 1930s, with its strong rhythms, loud melodies, and "swinging" style led to an explosion of creative dance in the black community. The various boisterous, energetic, creative, and improvisational dances that came into existence around that time became known, collectively, as swing dancing. The second change that occurred as swing music increased in popularity outside the black community was, to some extent, an increasing pressure on musicians and band leaders to soften (some would say dumb) the music to satisfy an audience more serious and conservative. , Anglo-American audience. Well, Sinatra rebelled against these pressures and prospered by continuing to contribute to the Swing culture of the 1950s. Indeed, almost single-handedly, he helped lead a revival of vocalized swing music that took American pop to a new level of musical sophistication. Coinciding with the rise of long-playing record albums (LPs), his recordings of the 1950s were instrumental in establishing a canon of American pop song literature. With Nelson Riddle, his most talented arranger, Sinatra set the standard for sound, style, and song selection in pop recordings during the pre-Beatles era. The aggressive, uptempo style of Sinatra's mature years spawned a genre of punchy, rhythmic singing associated with Las Vegas, which he helped establish and popularize as an entertainment capital. The adulation reached its peak on October 12, 1944, the day of the inauguration. of a three-week return engagement at the Paramount, when 30,000 fans - most of whom were bobby-soxers - formed a frenzied crowd in Times Square. "They were the war years and there was great loneliness", he later saidSinatra, who had been kept away from the draft due to a punctured eardrum. "I was the kid in every corner drug store who was gone, drafted into the war. That's all." From 1943 to 1945 he was the lead singer of "Your Hit Parade" and at the same time began recording for Columbia. Due to a musicians' strike, the accompaniment in his first recording sessions for the label was a vocal choir called the Bobby Tucker Singers, instead of an orchestra. Reinventing himself in the 1950s, the starry-eyed boy next door transformed into the cosmopolitan man of the world, a wounded romantic with a tough streak and a song for every emotional season. In a series of brilliant conceptual albums, he codified a musical vocabulary of adult relationships that millions of people identified with. The tormented voice heard on a jukebox in the early hours of the morning lamenting the end of a love story was the same voice that jubilantly invited the world to "fly with me" to exotic realms in an endless party. For years Sinatra seemed the embodiment of the hard-drinking, hedonistic swinger who had his pick of women and was the leader of a party-loving entourage. (Petkov, 1998) Sinatra appeared in more than 50 films and won an Oscar for best supporting actor for his portrayal of the exuberant misfit soldier Maggio in "From Here to Eternity" (1953). As an actor, he could communicate the same complex blend of emotional honesty, vulnerability and cockiness that he projected as a singer, but he often chose his roles with indifference or recklessness. It was as a singer that he exerted his strongest cultural influence. Following his idol Bing Crosby, a pioneer of the use of the microphone, Sinatra transformed popular singing by infusing the lyrics with a personal and intimate point of view that conveyed a constant current of eroticism. On a deeper level, Sinatra's career and public image touched many aspects of American cultural life. For millions of people, his rise from humble Italian-American roots in Hoboken, NJ, was a symbol of ethnic achievement. And more than most entertainers, he has used his influence to support political candidates. His change of allegiance from pro-Roosevelt Democrat in the 1940s to pro-Reagan Republican in the 1980s paralleled a sea change in American politics. Rumors of mob ties haunted Frank Sinatra throughout his tumultuous and legendary life. His denials were as ready on his lips as his song "My Way" became in his twilight years. (crimemagazine.com) J. Edgar Hoover didn't buy it. He thought Ol Blue Eyes was a murderer and a mobster with a golden voice. Although Hoover's FBI amassed the largest file on Sinatra of any artist in U.S. history, none of the damning information ever made it to the grand jury. The government came close to indicting Sinatra many times, but never did. Sinatra had friends in high places, first President Kennedy, then President Nixon, and finally President Reagan. Each, in different ways and at various levels, came to his aid when he needed it most, allowing him to face the crowd with impunity. In the 1960s, most Americans learned of Sinatra's friendship with Sam Giancana, the Chicago mob boss. Many people were unaware of Sinatra's family ties and the help he received from mobsters in his career. His FBI files definitively show that Sinatra was completely immersed in mob-related schemes and activities throughout his adult life. Sinatra's connection to the mobsters actually began at birth. His uncle, Babe Gavarante, was the driver of a gang of robbers in.