Walter Betz Jr

2/17/14
Old Blue Eyes
Very few men can say can claim to have fame of a popular singer. Less can say they
started the entertainment business in an entire city. One of the people who can say all this though
is Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra would end up becoming a revolution in the world of singing due
to early life influences, his success in singing and the outcry of his fans.
A lot of his success is due to his early life influences from music. He was born in
Hoboken, New Jersey on December 12
th
1915. He was the son of Italian immigrants, where he
grew up in Italian-American working class neighborhoods for most of his life. His first
experience with first hand music was when he was given a ukulele, by his uncle, where he would
play it on hot summer days while singing
1
. He would listen to musicians like Bing Crosby and
Rudy Vallee, which would later become his major influences in music and how he portrayed
himself. From an early age he knew he wanted to have a career as a singer and in music, as he
dropped out of Highschool and began singing at clubs. His first big break came when the group
he was preforming at the time with, The Hoboken Four, won an amateur radio talent show.
From then on his career would only skyrocket due, mainly due to him sticking to his style of
music, which he got from early life influences.
After winning the talent show his career as a singer, which he is most well-known for,
started to take off. After winning the radio talent show he cut ties with The Hoboken Four and
was signed by The Harry James Band for seventy-five dollars a week. One of his major hits
with the band included All or Nothing at All. In 1940, after attracting the attention of Tommy
Dorsey, he was invited into the Tommy Dorsey Band, which he was a part of for two years
before trying to strike out on his own
2
. After leaving the Tommy Dorsey Band he would get

1
www.notablebiograohies.com/sc-st/sinatra-frank
2
Mr.Szecklys lecture on 2/10/14
Walter Betz Jr
2/17/14
into acting as well as singing, actually win awards in films like the ten minute short, The House I
Live In
3
. In between 1943 and 1946 he would chart 17 different Top Ten Singles as his career
blossomed and he was becoming a sensation throughout the country. In the sixties is when he
would make his Vegas debuts and build the entertainment business in Las Vegas for years to
come. He would also join a group of entertainers called the Rat Pack who helped him establish
the entertainment business in Vegas. From then on his fame would wane on and off as the years
went by, but would always be appreciated by fans. His major hits would include Strangers in
the Night, My Way, and Come Fly with Me
4
.
Another factor of Frank Sinatra becoming one of the greatest singers of all time was
taking advantage of a new audience never used much before him. I am of course referring to
teenage girls, they revered him like teenage girls revere One Direction in todays time, but back
in his time they were referred to as bobby soxers due to their ankle high socks. Before Frank
Sinatra nobody had utilized this fan base at all, making him one of the first artists to do so. It had
worked so well actually that there was a near riot at Paramount theaters, because the fans were
not allowed in right away. Recording for a whole new audience was one of the biggest factors in
his legacy considering popular music was mainly recorded for adults only before his time.
Frank Sinatra, using his early influences throughout his whole entire career, making him
into one of the greatest singers of jazz ever, and utilizing a new audience never before used in
popular music, became one of the greatest artists of the 20
th
century. There is much more that
could be said about this artist, since the records on him are extensive and very thorough, so
further endeavor into his life would yield very little fruit on his already very well documented
life. All we can do now is just appreciate all the good things he had brought into this world.

3
www.imdb.com/name/nm0000069/bio
4
www.biography.com/people/frank-sinatra
Walter Betz Jr
2/17/14