Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture: Essays on an American Icon

by Leonard Mustazza

Overview

Frank Sinatra's influence on American popular culture has been wide reaching and long lasting. This diverse collection of essays written by historians, music critics, and popular culture personalities offers a myriad of perspectives and commentaries on this multitalented legend. The essays attest to the interest in Sinatra that has spanned six decades and shows no sign of diminishing—even after his death. From singer to actor, from mass media personality to humanitarian and cultural trendsetter, the many contributions of Frank Sinatra are brought to life in this entertaining volume.

Written to appeal to Sinatra fans, these unique essays, including one by Frank Sinatra himself, are organized into three sections. The first examines Sinatra's fame and the ways in which his image was formed, the second looks at his music, and the final group of essays are personal reminiscences by the people who knew him. Together these essays will provide new material for the ever-growing dialogue about Frank Sinatra's place in and influence over twentieth-century American popular culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275964955
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/09/1998
Series:	Contributions to the Study of World
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

LEONARD MUSTAZZA is Professor of English and American Studies at Penn State University. He is the author of The Critical Response to Kurt Vonnegut (1994), Ol' Blue Eyes: A Frank Sinatra Encyclopedia (1998), and the forthcoming Sinatra: An Annotated Bibliography, all published by Greenwood Press.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction by Leonard Mustazza
Celebrity, American Culture, and Frank Sinatra
What's this about Races? by Frank Sinatra
Love in the Western World: Sinatra and the Conflict of Generations by T.H. Adamowski
The Swinger and the Loser: Sinatra, Masculinity, and Fifties Culture by Roger Gilbert
Bobby Sox and Blue Suede Shoes: Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley as Teen Idols by James F. Smith
The Composition of Celebrity: Sinatra as Text in the Liner Notes of Stan Cornyn by Gilbert L. Gigliotti
Sinatra's Fans: Discussions in Three Tenses—The Past, the Present, and the Future by Ken Hutchins
Sinatra: Psychiatric Musings by Lloyd L. Spencer
The Troubadour as Modern Hero
Listening to Frank Sinatra by Gerald Early
At the Heart of American Music by Daniel Okrent
Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording by Charles L. Granata
Sinatra on Broadway by Philip Furia
Sinatra and Jazz by Will Friedwald
Sinatra and the Great American Style by Richard Iaconelli
Theology and Music in a Different Key: Meditations on Frank Sinatra and Eros in a Fallen World by Edmund N. Santurri
Personal Reminiscences
Eye Witness by Stan Cornyn
Sinatra and the Atlantic City Connection by Richard Apt
A Kid in Line Who Made It Backstage by Bill Boggs
Sounds of Sinatra: A Conversation with Sid Mark by Charles L. Granata
Appendix: Career Highlights
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

A collection of essays by historians, music critics, and popular culture personalities, offering a myriad of perspectives on Sinatra's influence on American popular culture. Section I examines the singer's fame and the ways his image was formed, and Section II looks at his music. A final section offers personal reminiscences by people who knew him. Includes a speech by Sinatra himself, given in 1945, addressing the issue of civil rights. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

This collection of 18 essays (including a 1945 plea for racial harmony by Sinatra himself), 13 of them new, is a mixed bag of superb musical and technical insight, interesting cultural studies analysis, and pure blather. In his concise and well-judged introduction, Mustazza (English and American Studies/Penn. State Univ.), the author of two previous books on the Chairman, makes a case for Sinatra as "an iconic hero" and promises a volume that will explore "the factors that led to the sculpting of the iconic Sinatra, and the nature of the changing culture that fashioned it." The best (and longest) essay in the collection, written by Sinatra archivist Charles L. Granata, is a fascinating detailed recounting of Sinatra's recording history, showing how he developed his mastery of song and the studio; rather than an academic analysis of pop culture, this is music history at its most sophisticated and, unlike most of the other contributions here, genuinely illuminates the art on which Sinatra's reputation is based. By comparison, everything else in the book pales, but there are some notable offerings. Perhaps the most convincing and offbeat is Roger Gilbert's essay placing Sinatra in the context of other '50s icons of troubled masculinity, Marlon Brando, Jackson Pollack, Robert Lowell, and Miles Davis. Although he has too little space here to completely develop the notion, Gilbert makes an interesting case for Sinatra as "the classic embodiment of fifties culture [who] fully articulated [the] contradictions, anxieties and ambivalences" of maleness in that decade. Those contributors who focus directly on the music-Will Friedwald and Richard Iaconelli among them-have the most to offer. Otheressays border on the embarrassing; the worst is a stunning piece of self-aggrandizement by psychiatrist Lloyd L. Spencer. The Granata essay is almost worth the price of this volume. If he ever writes a Sinatra book, it will be one to look for. .

Kirkus Reviews