Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2372430 in Books
• Published on: 1985-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover

From Publishers Weekly
Nancy Sinatra's biography may prove to be her father's best gift on his approaching 70th birthday. Combined with an album of hundreds of photos in color and black-and-white, this is a lavish tribute to Francis Albert Sinatra, by his oldest child. She writes colorfully about him, their family, friends and colleagues, who recall "The Voice" before and after he emerged from Hoboken and became a world-class entertainer. The author offers her opinions on accusations that her father has been involved with gangsters, on his changing political loyalties and other news-making stories that have made the star controversial. A musician herself, she makes knowlegeable observations about her father's apparently effortless singing techniques. She also details his bounce back after a stalled career in movies and concerts, several retirements, etc. She reminisces about the sad effects of the first Sinatra divorce on his children and their reactions to his successive marriages. She writes with pride about her father's considerable charitable contributions, known heretofore only to a few. Although the biography is decidedly personal and biased by a loving daughter, it is a welcome change from the memoirs by others who savage their famous parents. Literary Guild special selection. November 8
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Glossy, but some interesting details
Unlike the recent book by Tina Sinatra (which I give five-stars) this book softsells any of FAS's well known liabilities. Nonetheless, it does contain some interesting details about his life. My one complaint is that Nancy Sinatra's other book "Frank Sinatra, American Legend" seems to be indistiguishable from this one, and indeed contains 80% of the same material yet was not published as a revision. This, earlier version is better in my mind because of her notes about each of his movies and albums at the end of the book. That material is missing in the American Legend version. Given her softsell, I do have to wonder what Nancy has to say about her sisters more forthright approach to their father's story.

A Daughter's Shining Perspective

I have loved Mr. Sinatra since I was very young, have heard most of the bad stuff about him, and it seems that this book's purpose is to discuss his GOOD qualities. Which is a proper perspective from a daughter. If a father has raised his daughter well, she will recognize his faults, but focus on the things that made him a hero in her eyes. Remember that notion? I lost my mother in death at about the same age that Frank and Nancy Sr. divorced, and I appreciate the closeness that developed between the man and his oldest daughter. It's a precious thing. It's a mistake to read the book without understanding that it's biased. But almost ANY book about him will be, as will any book written by a daughter about her father. I'm glad for both of them that their relationship was that sweet, and for us, that we get to see a glimpse of it.
Whatever else he was,the man was..... a man. And a father. And an incredible influence on our culture. I think all that shows up in this book, and I loved it. There's plenty of other people to demonize him, thank you Nancy for letting us see the other side.

Too subjective: forget this if you want the truth
This is Nancy Sinatra's biography on her father, the legendary Frank. There have been many stories about him over the years; his drinking, his suspected alliance to the mafia, his womanizing... In Nancy's world none of this existed. No, Frank was a saint according to her, with no faults whatsoever. The greatest man that ever lived! I am not interested in some kind of tabloid-style, gossip-based diving into the rumours about him, but it would have been interesting to read a more nuanced view of who Frank really was. Nancy ignores all of that, and her perpetual praise of him, page after page, is very tiresome. Also, she takes the opportunity to use the book as a sort of biography on her own career (almost a third of the book is about herself -that's OK but then the title is misleading, I think). The only credit I can give the book is that there is interesting detailed information on Frank's career and I learned a lot about the music industry in the 40's and 50's. But I would like to read an outsider's story about Frank, a more objective one.