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Pete Hamill knew Frank Sinatra well—so well, in fact, that he almost coauthored the singer's autobiography. In preparing for that never-to-be-written volume, Hamill and Sinatra spent many hours discussing the singer's long, successful career, and it is on those conversations that Hamill based the book-length essay that is Why Sinatra Matters.
Terry Teachout
A graceful reminiscence of Sinatra.
—New York Times Book Review
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
If [Hamill] fails to make you feel the same amount of affection for Sinatra [as he does], he certainly conveys his hero's rough charm. . . .[And] his book does admirably convey why Sinatra's music has been so much a part of the lives of so many generations. . . .his music keeps floating, sustained by memory. — The New York Times
Megan Harlan
. . .[T]he most intimate and thoughtful eulogy for 'the Voice' yet. . . .leave[s] you wanting . . .to listen again to Sinatra's best songs.
—Entertainment Weekly
Kirkus Reviews
What a perfect match: the world's greatest 'saloon singer' eulogized superbly by the author of The Drinking Life. Hamill knew Sinatra, nearly co-authored the singer's autobiography, and in preparation for that never-to-be-written volume, the duo had many long conversations. But this slender volume, an essay really, is not the collection of revelations and self-justifications that a ghosted autobiography might have been. Rather, it's an unusually thoughtful contribution to the growing body of literature of appreciation of Sinatra as an artist, a supreme interpreter of the great American popular song. Hamill has a good journalist's finely tuned antenna for the Zeitgeist. In his recounting of Sinatra's career (the author limits himself tellingly to the rise to stardom, the disastrous fall in the early '50s and the comeback shortly after), Hamill's antennae get a useful workout. More than almost any other of Sinatra's critics, he understands the centrality of the immigrant experience (both Sinatra's parents were born in Italy), Prohibition, and the Second World War to Sinatra's career and his meaning as an icon. At the same time, Hamill is savvy enough to know what he doesn't know; like any good reporter, he relies on well-chosen expert testimony to fill in the blanks, here mostly in technical matters of music-making. And while Hamill is clearly not an entirely objective observer, a point he addresses with candor, this is anything but a bronzing. The essay touches on Sinatra's failings with frankness (no pun intended), and if the author dismisses the stories about Sinatra's Mob ties a little too quickly to satisfy some carpers, he does so with a deft intelligence that brings usback to the most important point: 'In the end only the work matters. Sinatra's finest work was making music.' Despite its brevity, Why Sinatra Matters belongs in any collection of important books on American popular music of the 20th Century.
New York Times Book Review Terry Teachout
A graceful reminiscence of Sinatra after hours serves as the frame for shrewd reflections on the singer's art, his personality, his audience, and—most interesting—his ethnicity, a subject about which Hamill, against all odds, contrives to say fresh and persuasive things.
Entertainment Weekly
The most intimate and thoughtful eulogy for 'the Voice'....It leaves you wanting to listen again to Sinatra's best songs.
Philadelphia Inquirer Dan DeLuca
Hamill's illuminations are considerable without ever stooping to facile psychologizing....He does a better job of placing Sinatra's saga in a social and political context than any of his biographers have....Why Sinatra Matters is most valuable in its explication of how Sinatra came to formulate a musical style that was a sound track to urban American life.
Seattle Times Adam Woog
As succinct and laconically classy as its title.
LA Weekly Tom Chaffin
A brief but eloquent homage....Hamill succeeds—convincingly, with natty aplomb—in explaining why Sinatra, even now, matters.
From the Publisher
"The most intimate and thoughtful eulogy for 'the Voice'....It leaves you wanting to listen again to Sinatra's best songs."—Entertainment Weekly
"As succinct and laconically classy as its title."
—Adam Woog, Seattle Times
"Hamill's illuminations are considerable without ever stooping to facile psychologizing....He does a better job of placing Sinatra's saga in a social and political context than any of his biographers have....Why Sinatra Matters is most valuable in its explication of how Sinatra came to formulate a musical style that was a sound track to urban American life."
—Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer
"A graceful reminiscence of Sinatra after hours serves as the frame for shrewd reflections on the singer's art, his personality, his audience, and—most interesting—his ethnicity, a subject about which Hamill, against all odds, contrives to say fresh and persuasive things."
—Terry Teachout, New York Times Book Review
"A brief but eloquent homage....Hamill succeeds—convincingly, with natty aplomb—in explaining why Sinatra, even now, matters."
—Tom Chaffin, LA Weekly
