Come Blow Your Horn – Remembering Sinatra

When you make a visit to Comic Book Jones you are greeted by comics, collectibles, wonderful and friendly people, and more often than you might realize…

By Frank Sinatra

I can’t count all the times I have walked through those doors and had my ears graced by the man known as Old Blue Eyes, The Chairman of the Board, The Voice, or (my favorite) Mr. S.

It’s hard to believe that Sinatra has been gone for sixteen years this month because not a day goes by that I don’t run across him in some way. And so have you, whether you know it or not. Frank has so influenced popular music that he continues to shape musical tastes to this day. Just ask Michael Buble. Ask Harry Connick Jr. Ask Paul Mccartney!

No less a publication than Rolling Stone has this to say about the Great Man:

“Baritone Frank Sinatra was indisputably the 20th century’s greatest singer of popular song…”

Rolling STONE!

Sinatra, like Muhammad Ali and Babe Ruth was a game changer. His personalization of lyric and phrasing has become the Rosetta Stone for modern vocalists.

Sinatra conquered every level of the entertainment business in a career that spanned sixty years. Aside from his remarkable recording career, Sinatra was a key figure in outing Vegas on the map. Along with his Rat Pack (Martin, Davis and Bishop), Mr. S defined cool for generations.

As if that was not enough Sinatra was an academy award winning dramatic actor with a filmography of over 50 films including classics like “From Here To Eternity”, “The Man With The Golden Arm” and “The Manchurian Candidate”.

No less a personage that the immortal Gene Kelly stated that a young Sinatra was the best dancing student he ever coached.
There was literally nothing in the entertainment world that Sinatra couldn’t do.

Back to his recording career. If you have ever listened to a concept album by any artist (That is an album with a central theme) , you can thank Sinatra. While recording for the Capital label Sinatra, along with Woodie Guthrie invented the concept album. His 1955 album “In The Wee Small Hours “ inspired other artists to create concept albums. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” anyone?

Of course Frank’s off hours exploits were legendary, filled with booze, broads and bar room brawls. But the lesser known Sinatra helped financially strapped and even terminally ill people whom he never really knew. Among them the legendary heavy weight champion Joe Lewis. Sinatra built schools and encouraged young artists. He was mercurial with wide mood swings. He got up off the deck when his singing career crashed in the early 1950’s with his performance in “From Here To Eternity”. He said great things and very stupid things.

Sinatra was completely and utterly human. We shall NOT see his like again.

Come Blow Your Horn!



That’s 30…Pally!

Mitch