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Sinatra: The Singer

He held the "patent" for the popular song

• Inspired by Bing Crosby
• The songs, the voice, the style
• Elder statesman
• "Still as sweet"

(CNN) -- "No one sells a song like Francis Albert Sinatra," a music critic once wrote. And that remained true through nearly six decades of sweeping changes in music and pop culture.

Sinatra cut his first record in 1939, and by the time he had finished he had made some 1,800 recordings, gathered nine Grammys, and was considered by many critics to be the preeminent singer of this century.

Sinatra: The Early Years
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Sinatra sings "New York, New York"
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Sinatra sings "My Way"
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As music critic John Rockwell once said, Sinatra is "the greatest singer in the history of popular music."

Fellow crooner Mel Torme echoed the praise, saying Sinatra "held the patent, the original blueprint on singing the popular song."

Perhaps Sinatra's mass appeal is best summed up by a date: 1996, the year he won his last Grammy -- 47 years after his first record -- for the album "Duets II."

The second in a series of CD's, "Duets" paired Sinatra with contemporary artists like Bono of U2 and Gloria Estefan, and symbolized a resurgence in the popularity of swing era music in the 1990s.

"Sinatra has got what we want: swagger and attitude," Bono had been quoted as saying. "Serious attitude. Bad attitude. Frank's the chairman of the bad. I'm not going to mess with him. Are you?"

Inspired by Bing Crosby

Ignoring the elder Sinatra's claim that "singing is for sissies," young Sinatra, living in Hoboken, New Jersey, attended a 1933 concert by his idol, Bing Crosby. Sinatra was so moved by Crosby's singing, he decided at that moment, he too, would pursue a singing career.

Gigs at local clubs and bars led to a radio contest in which Sinatra, teamed with another trio, took first prize.

A succession of concert dates and radio shows followed. By 1939, he fronted for bandleader Harry James.

Taking note of Sinatra's slim build and huge ego, James remarked, "He considers himself the greatest vocalist in the business. Get that! No one's ever heard of him! He's never had a hit record, and he looks like a wet rag, but he says he's the greatest."

In 1940, big band legend Tommy Dorsey signed Sinatra, and in the years that followed, the team made several hit records for an edgy nation consumed by World War II.

By 1942, Sinatra became the idol of bobby-sox-wearing high school girls.

A concert at New York's Paramount Theater, according to many observers, was the official launch of Sinatra's career as a solo artist.

The songs, the voice, the style

And what a solo career it was. Sinatra put his stamp on dozens of tunes familiar to the music lover's ear, including the timeless theme of the Big Apple, "New York, New York" and the anthem of every iconoclast, "My Way."

Some other Sinatra classics include "Night and Day," "Witchcraft," "Love and Marriage," "Strangers in the Night," "September of My Years," "The Lady is a Tramp," and a duet with daughter Nancy, "Something Stupid," along with countless others.

Critics raved that Sinatra was one of the first to care about the words he was singing, "reading" the lyrics with a clarity that had never been matched, wringing emotion from each line.

"What is the point of singing wonderful lyrics if the audience can't understand what is being said or heard?" Sinatra once said.

Claiming he never took voice lessons and could never read sheet music very well, Sinatra said swimming helped him build lung capacity, which gave him the ability to lengthen phrases, a Sinatra trademark. It was a singing style that was often imitated.

In the early 1950s, Sinatra's singing career was nearly cut short by severely damaged vocal cords. But by the middle of the decade, the voice was back, and the nation, distracted by a new rage -- rock 'n' roll -- still made Sinatra a best-selling recording artist. His 1955 album "In The Wee Small Hours" reached No. 2 on album charts, and "Songs For Swingin' Lovers" in 1956 spent 66 weeks on the charts, also topping out at No. 2.

Musicologists, however, often refer to this period as a low point in Sinatra's singing career.

Elder statesman

In the 1960s, Sinatra formed his own record label -- Reprise Records -- and topped charts again with the albums "Nice and Easy," and "Strangers in the Night," while performing Las Vegas concerts with fellow "Rat Pack" members Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

By the 1970s, Sinatra had become the elder statesmen of the entertainment industry, and his legend as one of the foremost talents of the 20th Century continued to grow.

In 1990, Sinatra celebrated his 75th birthday with a national tour, showing his fans that he was still king of music's hill, despite the fact his legendary voice had faded with age. At the 1994 Grammy Awards in New York, Sinatra was honored for a lifetime of musical accomplishments with the prestigious "Legend" award.

A few days later, the singer passed out after becoming over-heated during a Virginia concert. He was released from the hospital hours after being admitted, but the incident effectively marked the end of his days as a performer.

"Still as sweet"

In 1995, Ol' Blue Eyes lit up the town he loved, literally. As the music world gathered to pay tribute to Sinatra on his 80th birthday, New York City showed its appreciation by lighting the Empire State Building in blue light. It was an unmatched tribute for a man of unmatched talents.

One of his favorite songwriters, the late Sammy Cahn, summed up Sinatra's singing career in this way: "When he was young, in the '40s, he was a violin. In the '50s, he was a viola. By the '60s, he was a cello and when he got to the '80s, he was a bass."

"The music was still sweet. It was just played on a different instrument," Cahn said.

From his early days to the end of his career, Sinatra always approached a performance on the same note.

"I swear on my mother's soul, the first four or five seconds, I tremble every time I take the step and walk out of the wing onto the stage," he once confessed to CNN's Larry King. "Because I keep thinking to myself, I wonder if (the voice) will be there when I go for the first sounds that I have to make; will it be there?"

But the sound was always there. Maybe, like the song title, it was witchcraft.

"There will never be another Frank Sinatra," entertainer Vic Damone once said. "He is all by himself, with what he's done with his life as a performer and as a man."

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