Sinatra's Century: One Hundred Notes on the Man and His World – A Celebration of Frank Sinatra's Life, Music, and Romance

by David Lehman

In celebration of his one-hundredth birthday, a charming, irresistibly readable, and handsomely packaged look back at the life and times of the greatest entertainer in American history, Frank Sinatra. Sinatra’s Century is an irresistible collection of one-hundred short reflections on the man, his music, and his larger-than-life story, by a lifetime fan who also happens to be one of the poetry world’s most prominent voices. David Lehman uses each of these short pieces to look back on a single facet of the entertainer’s story—from his childhood in Hoboken, to his emergence as “The Voice” in the 1940s, to the wild professional (and romantic) fluctuations that followed. Lehman offers new insights and revisits familiar stories—Sinatra’s dramatic love affairs with some of the most beautiful stars in Hollywood, including Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, and Ava Gardner; his fall from grace in the late 1940s and resurrection during the “Capitol Years” of the 1950s; his bonds with the rest of the Rat Pack; and his long tenure as the Chairman of the Board, viewed as the eminence grise of popular music inspiring generations of artists, from Bobby Darin to Bono to Bob Dylan. Brimming with Lehman’s own lifelong affection for Sinatra, the book includes lists of unforgettable performances; engaging insight on what made Sinatra the model of American machismo—and the epitome of romance; and clear-eyed assessments of the foibles that impacted his life and work. Warm and enlightening, Sinatra’s Century is full-throated appreciation of Sinatra for every fan.

Genres: Biography, Music, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 2015

About the author

David Lehman is a poet and the series editor for The Best American Poetry series. He teaches at The New School in New York City.

Reviews

[Don LaFountaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book with 100 author notes on Frank Sinatra and found it kept my interest throughout the book.

Though I have often enjoyed the music and movies of Frank Sinatra, I really did not know too much about the man. The stories were enlightening to a person whose knowledge is very limited, and though I would not categorize myself as an expert on his life, I feel as if I learned some important things about him. Some of the things I learned were:
- That he played with Tommy Dorsey for a while before embarking on his own. Tommy was not a nice person and only agreed to let Frank out of his contract after he agreed to sign over part of his current and future earnings. This was illegal because though Sinatra’s prior bandleader, Harry James, let him out of his contract, he did it only on a handshake agreement and never legally released Frank. However, Dorsey didn’t take all “his cut” from Frank. Rumor has it that Dorsey was “made an offer that he could not refuse”.
- Frank was a Democrat who proudly supported FDR and JFK. When the mafia felt betrayed by the Kennedy’s, especially Bobby, they turned to Frank to help “control” them. Sinatra felt he was Kennedy’s friends, having set up JFK with female companionship when he went west. But as it became politically uncomfortable for JFK to be seen with Sinatra due to the Mob connection, Kennedy started to freeze Sinatra out, even going so far as to back out of a prearranged stay at Frank’s home.
- Frank’s career was not a smooth ride to stardom, as he fell to the depths of despair after he left his wife for Ava Gardner, who he had been having an affair with. Frank and Ava’s marriage was tumultuous, highly sexual, and ultimately doomed. During this time, he also lost his voice on stage, and his offers started to dry up. He rebounded in his role in “From Here to Eternity”, and before everyone knew it, he was on the rise again.

I liked this book and thought that the author did a pretty good job fleshing out Frank Sinatra in the 100 short essays/notes that he wrote. I think it was entertaining and informative, and I think it is a good introduction book on Frank Sinatra for anyone interested in learning more about him. It is not a “biography”, but is more like a “trailer” to a biography. I would certainly recommend it to anyone interested in learning about Sinatra.

[☮ morgan ☮ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting anecdotes, but so much of this just fills like filler with no relevancy to anything else. It's mostly just the authors opinions on certain things, and inflicting emotions onto FS with no proof that he was feeling that way. I thought this would mostly be people who knew FS and quotes on what they said about him, but those were few and far between.

[Harold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. This book is exactly what it's title says it is. I totally enjoyed it.

[Christine Jasica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!!!

[Joe Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful appreciation of the great singer by a New York poet. Full of great anecdotes and fine criticism

[Carla Bayha]

I grew up on top 40 radio, hearing "Strangers in the Night" way too many times. (Sinatra was also sick of it.) The great 2015 HBO documentary "Sinatra: All or Nothing at All" led me to learn more about the man, who along with the microphone, has had the greatest influence on popular singing in the past century. If you've let Sinatra's sometimes ugly personal life interfere with appreciating his oeuvre, this is an easy introduction to Sinatra's innovations and the best of his recordings. Lehman is the series editor of "Best American Poetry," so this book is also elegantly written and organized.

[Jay French · Rating 4 out of 5]

My father-in-law lived with us for a year before he passed, and I played him a lot of Frank Sinatra songs while he was here. I bought this book for him, and he read it but wasn't so impressed. I think he'd already heard most of the anecdotes and had a lifetime of guys waxing poetic on their favorite Sinatra lyric. I decided to give it a try, and found that I liked the mix of anecdotes and reviews of Sinatra's work, usually summary reviews, like a listing of some of the best rarely heard songs, with some description that went deeper than typical liner notes. I tracked down and listened to a lot of the uncommon songs on Apple Music - very nice. A nice appreciation of Ol' Blue Eyes.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glimpses of the man and the music of Frank Sinatra, as seen by his contemporaries and present day fans/music scholars. Sometimes veers into celebrity gossip drama (Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner) and became a little soap opera-ish. My favorite part is when the author goes into how being Italian-American formed Sinatra, and how his public presence helped other Italian-Americans be proud of their heritage (especially in the 1940s). I learned the most about Sinatra's politics and how his politics changed (or not changed, but the political world changed) over time. I went listening to all the songs mentioned, especially the ones that were from the 40s.

[Gracelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, though made up of broken up notes, was an intense deep dive into Sinatra’s personal life. It was honestly a bit disorganized, and you REALLY have to know jazz history, like intimately, to understand what’s going on. I mean I studied jazz in college and I didn’t understand what this guy was rambling about half the time or who all these random people were that were brought up abruptly with no introduction. But I did learn a few things about Sinatra. I mean it was interesting, I guess the way it was written just felt like an inside joke that I wasn’t a part of. I wasn’t alive during Sinatra’s life, so I guess it just wasn’t written for my age group!

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book with many bits of information that help give a more complete view of Sinatra's life.

[Debby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short chapters of unique moments in Sinatra's life. I especially enjoyed learning about songwriters and arrangers.

[Carla JFCL · Rating 5 out of 5]

You’ll want to read this with all of your Sinatra music close at hand. What a delightful book for Sinatra fans!

[Tim Duff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book of short chapters (sometimes only one page) with facts and tidbits of one of the greatest American singers of all-time.

[Robin Dix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much fluff. This was difficult to read. It just wasn't that entertaining.

[Julie Failla Earhart · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Ol’ Blue Eyes since I discovered music as a teenager. None of that rock ‘n
roll for me! I’ve read many books on Mr. S.; I love to learn more about him. One of the first
things I check out in a book about Mr. S., is who is writing it and how does he/she know this
stuff?

The author, David Lehman, had no connections to Mr. S’s. inner circle as far as I can tell. Yet,
the book is about one of my idols, so how could I resist at least not flipping through it. All I can
say is thank God for libraries and their interlibrary loan service. I didn’t want to take the risk of
missing something because I didn’t want to spend twenty-five bucks on a bad book. Lehman is a
big, huge fan of Sinatra’s, and I’m that come through.

I love the style of this book. It’s one-hundred short reflections on the man, the legend, and his
music. He touches on every aspect of Mr. S’s life from beginning to end. The reflections are
short, ranging from a half-page to four pages.

Like I said, there is nothing new in this volume, and it’s not very well written of is “one of the
most prominent voices in contemporary American poetry.” Therefore, Sinatra's Century: One
Hundred Notes on the Man and his World gets 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sinatra's Century is a cololection of 100 "impressions" of Sinatra by poet David Lehman. Not a lot - if any - new insights here, but enjoyable and engaging none the less. I found it rather curious that the author, who wrote this book in 2015, did not reference James Kaplan's exhaustive two-volume biography of Sinatra, of which at least volume one would have been available to him. Instead, Lehman drew from books by Kitty Kelley, Pete Hammil, Gene Lees, and magazine profiles. The middle chunk of impressions are a bit repetitive, but the last 100 pages or so is worth the price of admission.

[Jack Getz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank was a guest singer, an wonderful giver and a huge taker. His story as told her is a complex one but highly readable and done in bite sized chapters that often leave me wanting more. Yes, he was the best singer of the century, probably true of any century, but his complexities, friendships with the mob, his endless sexual exploits and his volatile temper made him someone better to read about than know.

I loved this book, learned a lot and began to see the man with the Voice and the man with the Mouth. His talent was remarkable a d he excelled in all aspects of music, including writing, arranging, leading and selling a song. His music was a reflection of his own story, struggles and victories.

Read this is you love his music, read this if you remember the time, read this and then sit down and listen to him sing with new understanding and appreciation. Someone said Italians came in two forms: Lucky Luciano and Michangelo. Sinatra was rare. He was both. I am so glad I got to have shared space with him.

[Nicholas Petraglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worthy read. Learned new things.

[Brian Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eschewing the traditional start-to-finish, throughly detailed moment by moment approach to biography, this book is a portrait, perhaps an impressionist one, of the legend on his one hundredth birthday. It mostly succeeds and is an effective look in bite size moments, with beautiful photographs and often stirring poetic moments. There are some extraneous moments and some meandering, but often illuminating and worth reading for ardent Sinatra fans, particular as it does often focus on the elements that made him a great artist.

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a lot of biographies on Frank Sinatra, and this new collection of 100 stories, sound bytes, if you will, has been one of the most enjoyable. Lehman mixes up little-known anecdotes with familiar history, detailed notes on specific songs, and one liners that are like little "By the way..." mentions. Lehman knows his stuff, and I learned things I hadn't come across before. Now he's got me inspired to really dive into Sinatra discography like never before.

[Nooilforpacifists · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. No need to -- in fact don't -- read it all at once. It's composed of 100 epigrams of facts and quotes about "the Voice." You rocket from disaggregating breath techniques to pure Hollywood dish.

[More, with quotes, to come]

[Sandra Cohen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not a fan of short stories. I found that these vignettes were not even stories but name dropping throw aways.