Accessibility links
Frank Sinatra Frank Sinatra artist page: interviews, features and/or performances archived at NPR Music

Frank Sinatra

Watch A Rare Frank Sinatra Performance Of 'The Lady Is A Tramp'

Frank Sinatra's new video for "The Lady Is A Tramp" is from his upcoming collection of previously unreleased recordings, World On A String. ©Frank Sinatra Enterprises/Courtesy of Frank Sinatra Enterprises hide caption

toggle caption
©Frank Sinatra Enterprises/Courtesy of Frank Sinatra Enterprises

All Songs TV

Watch A Rare Frank Sinatra Performance Of 'The Lady Is A Tramp'

The 1962 recording is from World On A String, an upcoming collection of unreleased live Sinatra performances.

All Songs Rewind: The Best Opening Tracks

Prince & The Revolution's Purple Rain. Amazon.co.uk hide caption

toggle caption
Amazon.co.uk

All Songs Considered

All Songs Rewind: The Best Opening Tracks

All Songs intern Julian Ring picks his all-time favorite episode of the show, one that asks: Can you judge an album by its first song? For a handful of classic records, absolutely.

All Songs Rewind: The Best Opening Tracks

Listen · 42:36
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/421214773/421480830" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Jittery Jams: 10 Songs For Coffee Lovers

Frank Sinatra's "The Coffee Song" makes light of a perceived Brazilian coffee glut. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Music

Jittery Jams: 10 Songs For Coffee Lovers

With the Beastie Boys taking their "sugar with coffee and cream," Carly Simon finding "clouds in my coffee," and countless singers using black coffee as a metaphor for a life in need of a swift kick, it was actually tough to narrow a caffeinated playlist down to just 10 selections.

Jittery Jams: 10 Songs For Coffee Lovers

Listen · 2:08
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/178849497/178956974" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Sinatra And Jobim: David Gray On 'Quiet Nights'
Michael Ochs Archives/ Getty Images

Music Lists

Sinatra And Jobim: David Gray On 'Quiet Nights'

The British singer-songwriter first heard "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars" 10 years ago, and he says he's had it on repeat ever since. He explains why he loves this 1967 collaboration between Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim — and why other listeners might love it, too.

Sinatra And Jobim: David Gray On 'Quiet Nights'

Listen · 4:42
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112684280/113091909" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Music News

Obama, McCain Find Sinatra 'So Easy To Love'

The latest issue of Blender magazine includes a piece titled "White House DJ," which features lists of the top 10 favorite songs of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. Jonathan Schwartz talks about the candidates' selections, as well as their only commonality: Frank Sinatra.

Obama, McCain Find Sinatra 'So Easy To Love'

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/93640670/93661804" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Music News

New Stamp Puts Sinatra Back in the Spotlight

The United States Postal Service releases its commemorative Frank Sinatra stamp Tuesday — a day before the 10th anniversary of the singer's death. It features his trademark fedora, a big smile and Ol' Blue Eyes.

New Stamp Puts Sinatra Back in the Spotlight

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/90384989/90394688" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Music Interviews

Frank Sinatra's Life and Legacy

Fresh Air

Record producer and Sinatra historian Charles Granada discusses his book Sessions With Sinatra: Frank Sinatra And The Art of Recording and the box set — Frank Sinatra: The Best of the Columbia Years 1943-1952 — he helped to create.

Frank Sinatra's Life and Legacy

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/90315084/90322955" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Music Interviews

Frank Sinatra's Life and Legacy

Fresh Air

Record producer and Sinatra historian Charles Granada discusses his book Sessions With Sinatra: Frank Sinatra And The Art of Recording and the box set — Frank Sinatra: The Best of the Columbia Years 1943-1952 — he helped to create.

Frank Sinatra's Life and Legacy

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/90315084/90322955" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Review

Music Reviews

Learning to Love Sinatra, Vegas-Style

A son who grew up with Frank Sinatra music playing all the time — compliments of his father, "the hippest black man I've ever known," — finally comes to appreciate Sinatra's Vegas stylings.

Learning to Love Sinatra, Vegas-Style

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/6594288/6594289" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Music Interviews

'Treasures' from the Chairman of the Board

A new book, The Sinatra Treasures, celebrates the life of the legendary crooner with never-before-seen photographs, music and pull-out mementos from the Sinatra Family archives. NPR's Liane Hansen talks with Frank Sinatra, Jr. about his father.

'Treasures' from the Chairman of the Board

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4222710/4224243" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Music Interviews

Sinatra, as Remembered by His Valet

For more than 20 years, George Jacobs saw legendary crooner Frank Sinatra as few others did: at home, relaxed, even without his hairpiece. Jacobs was Sinatra's valet. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Jacobs and his co-author, William Stadiem, about their new book, Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra.

Sinatra, as Remembered by His Valet

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1394743/1394744" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Music Interviews

Sinatra In Hollywood

Guest Host Renee Montagne talks with music historians Charles Granata and Didier Deutsch about a new boxed set called Sinatra in Hollywood 1940-1964. The six-CD set chronicles Frank Sinatra's career in the movies, including studio tracks, outtakes and classic songs. (7:07) Sinatra in Hollywood 1940-1964 is produced by Rhino Records.

Sinatra In Hollywood

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1147701/147701" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Music Interviews

Record Producers Charles Granata and Didier Deutsch

Fresh Air

Record producers Charles Granata and Didier Deutsch have collaborated on the new CD box set, Frank Sinatra In Hollywood (1940-1964) (Reprise records/Turner Classic movies) which collects Sinatra's film recordings - many of them rare. In fact only ten percent of the 160 tracks included on the collection have been released before. Granata is a Sinatra historian and author of Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra And the Art of Recording (A Capella Books, 1999). He was Project Director for the box set: Frank Sinatra: The Best of the Columbia Years 1943-1952. Deutsch is a music producer and historian and is author of MusicHound's Soundtracks (Visible Ink Press,

Record Producers Charles Granata and Didier Deutsch

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Music Interviews

'New York, New York'

Liza Minnelli first sang "New York, New York," but Frank Sinatra really made it a big hit. NPR's Jeff Lunden spreads the news about the Kander & Ebb tune as part of the Present at the Creation series about American cultural icons.

'New York, New York'

Listen · 8:26
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1137093/137093" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Music Interviews

Nelson Riddle

NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg talks to biographer Peter Levinson about Nelson Riddle, the conductor, whose distinctive musical arrangements helped define the sounds of Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. (8:05-9:39) (The book is September in the Rain: The Life of Nelson Riddle Watson-Guptill Publishers; ISBN: 0823076725)

Music in Susan Stamberg's piece on Nelson Riddle in order of appearance: "Too Marvelous for Words" (from Songs for Swingin' Lovers); "Second Time Around" (from Frank Sinatra: the Reprise Collection); "Mona Lisa" (Nat King Cole's The Greatest Hits); "I've Got the World on a String" (The Capitol Years: The Best of Frank Sinatra); "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" (The Capitol Years: The Best of Frank Sinatra); "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" (from Swing Easy); "I've Got you Under My Skin" (from Songs for Swingin Lovers); "How About You" (from Songs for Swingin Lovers).

The Capitol Years: The Best of Frank Sinatra is on Emd/Capitol; Classic Sinatra is on Emd/Capitol; Frank Sinatra: the Reprise Collection is on Wea/Warner Bros.; Frank Sinatra's Songs for Swingin Lovers is on the Emd/Capitol label; Songs for Young Lovers/Swing Easy is on Emd/Capitol; Nat King Cole, The Greatest Hits is on Emd/Capitol.

Nelson Riddle

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1134972/134972" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Music News

Sinatra: The FBI Files

NPR's Alex Chadwick talks to journalists Tom and Phil Kuntz, about the voluminous files the FBI kept on Frank Sinatra. After Sinatra's death two years ago, the Kuntz brothers obtained the files, under the Freedom of Information Act. In this interview, they discuss the surveillance the FBI carried out simultaneously into Sinatra's relationship with John Fitzgerald Kennedy and with Chicago crime boss, Sam Giancana.

Sinatra: The FBI Files

Listen · 8:51
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1075739/75739" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
From Hoboken To Hollywood: The Story Of 'Frank'
Bill Dudas

Music Interviews

From Hoboken To Hollywood: The Story Of 'Frank'

Novelist and journalist James Kaplan has written a new biography about Frank Sinatra's life between 1915 and 1954. It's a period that took Sinatra from obscurity to superstardom, from Ava Gardner to call girls, and from pop hits to suicidal despair. The book is titled Frank: The Voice.

From Hoboken To Hollywood: The Story Of 'Frank'

Listen · 10:20
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/131042155/131122270" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Browse archive or search npr.org