The Legacy Of An Original
His voice, his swagger, and his way of doing things (his way) won him fans of all ages. But what is the legacy of Frank Sinatra?
"The legacy is that voice. I think Sinatra was always about music," Rolling Stone magazine contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis told CBS "This Morning" Co-Anchor Mark McEwen.
DeCurtis remembered an interview with rock singer Bono, who went to see Sinatra perform in Las Vegas. Bono visited the entertainer in his backstage dressing room, where they began to discuss music. Sinatra locked the door when the topic came up.
"Bono just said, 'You know, it occurred to me that probably no one even talks to this guy about music anymore'," DeCurtis said.
In many ways, rock 'n' roll was "invented to overthrow the kind of prominence of singers like Sinatra," DeCurtis said.
Nevertheless, many young rock musicians such as Bono - who is young enough to be Sinatra's grandson - have felt a strong bond with the performer.
Sinatra's appeal may have had to do with his purity. He never "pandered to the rock 'n' roll crowd" DeCurtis noted, but maintained his independence.
"He was kind of an unreconstructed sort. There was kind of a rock 'n' roll thing about [Sinatra]. He has the smoke, he's got the drink. You know - he's not somebody who's conforming in any sense, and that degree of his kind of personal force really appealed to the rock 'n' roll crowd," DeCurtis said.
Sinatra, like many originals, kicked down doors for other performers. He was one of the first stars to bring an end to the Big Band Era by ushering the role of the singer to the foreground.
"It wasn't about who was playing the trombone anymore. It was the guy with the voice," DeCurtis said.
The introspective quality of Sinatra's singing influenced the way other vocalists performed and wrote. In the '60s and '70s, singers-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne appeared to take to a new generation the personal tone Sinatra had pioneered.
Sinatra also brought minority entertainers into the spotlight. He spoke of Billie Holiday as being one of his major influences, and championed black singers Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat King Cole.
An activist in the early days of the civil rights movement, Sinatra created "a kind of model across racial lines," DeCurtis said.
The cool intrigue of Sinatra's Rat Pack has even made a resurgence among today's younger generation. The notorious group consisted of Sinatra's friends and fellow performers: Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford. The group made several movies together, and created the Las Vegas "cocktail culture," as DeCurtis describes it.
Smoking cigars, drinking martinis, and wearing gangster-slick clothes, each one of the foursome was tough enough to have their own Rat Pack. But Sinatra was the "eye of that storm," DeCurtis said.