Author:Anthony Summers,Robbyn Swan
In 1941, at age twenty-five, Sinatra told a friend, 'I'm going to be the best singer in the world'. Two years on, the bobbysoxers were already weeping and screaming for him in their thousands. Half a century on Bono defined him as 'the Big Bang of popular music'. 'To hell with the calendar,' a music critic wrote before his death in 1998, 'The day Frank Sinatra dies, the twentieth century is over.'
There have been many books about Sinatra, but the last comprehensive biography was Kitty Kelly's HIS WAY, published in 1986. it has taken renowned biographer Anthony Summers years to research this new biography, which promises to be the definitive story of a musical and film career spanning six decades. In this massively documented book, meticulous investigation is coupled with sensitivity to examine every aspect of Sinatra's life, public and private, from his obscure beginnings in an immigrant neighborhood in Jersey City to his twilight years as a living legend in Palm Springs. It tells the human story of an American icon who was irresistible to women and who was plagued throughout his life by scandal and hints of links with the Mafia. In this book, Summers finally uncovers the whole truth.
Astonishingly well-researched...incredibly well-sourced
—— Independent on SundaySummers and Swan tell us much that is new, and with panache. Compelling ...sterling work
—— Sunday TimesAstonishing book...uncovers new evidence
—— Daily ExpressA definitive, generational work
—— Vanity FairFirst-rate reporting...dense and intimate
—— PeopleAnthony Summers never writes a book that fails to offer accurate material you will find nowhere else...No surprise then that Sinatra: The Life is one of the very few, bona fide, three-dimensional portraits of an amazingly complex, interesting and sometimes god-awful guy
—— Norman MailerOften books about jazz musicians make the mistake of over-focusing on the music. Blackburn is more interested in Billie as a person
—— Mike Figgis , GuardianThis is a really marvellous book, the most uninhibitedly intimate portrayal ever of the short, hard life and overall musical triumph of Lady Day...With Billie vividly reflects the chaos that Billie Holiday was born into and only rarely escaped from
—— Spectator