Sinatra was stylish, mercurial and temperamental. He was, on occasion, unwise in his choice of friends. He accumulated more than his fair share of enemies in the media and elsewhere. But he must be remembered for what he was; the most recognised, the most celebrated voice of the century. Sinatra was the first teen idol, the first popular singer to build a credible, Oscar-winning acting career, the man forever viewed by his peers as the Chairman of the Board. Time may have taken its toll on that extraordinary voice - he was hardly at his best when he performed, aged 70-plus at Lansdowne Road, Dublin - but it did nothing to dim his reputation. Rather, his stature increased as his seminal influence on popular music came to be acknowledged by a new generation. Bono of U2 said that Sinatra invented the kind of style and swagger that all rock stars crave. On his 80th birthday, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan lined up to pay homage; but Tony Bennett and Peggy Lee were also in attendance.
Sinatra had great style. And he had The Voice. "The world did not need another Bing Crosby. I decided to experiment.. and hit on the bel canto Italian style without making a point of it," was how he once explained his unique vocal style. Sinatra wrapped his voice around the lyrics, diction perfect. And he had an uncommon ability to punch out the lyrics with drive and verve, while still respecting the integrity of the material. One of his contemporaries said yesterday that Sinatra's phrasing transformed popular songs into mini-screenplays. He gave us classic versions of some of the greatest songs of this century: I've Got You Under My Skin, I Concentrate On You, In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning, The Lady Is A Tramp and dozens of others, above all, One For My Baby.
Much has been made of Sinatra's alleged links with the Mafia. The portrayal of a Sinatra-style pop singer in thrall to his Mobster sponsors in The God- father tended to corroborate the rumours that clung to Sinatra since he was linked to the mobster Lucky Luciano in the Fifties. In 1963, his licence to operate a casino in California was withdrawn after his relationship with a Chicago Mafia boss was uncovered. Unsurprisingly, his once-cordial relationship with Kennedy's Camelot presidency cooled as the First Family distanced itself from its tainted supporter In truth, the precise nature of Sinatra's mobster links has never been fully detailed. It may be that Sinatra, the son of a Sicilian boilermaker, even enjoyed the notoriety; the sense that for all his fame he was at one remove from the political and media establishment. But the fact remains that he did court the respectability and the aura of power of the political establishment, even switching allegiance from the Democrats to the Republicans when the Kennedys dumped him. There is no small irony in the fact that the voice of all the loners and losers in love, who once rarely courted establishment approval, should wind up seeking to rub shoulders with the great and the good.
Sinatra was also a hard-drinker, a heavy smoker, a womaniser who would rarely brook compromise in either his personal or his professional life; he could be abrasive, feisty and difficult. None of this will count for much when, within weeks, the obituaries are put away and the flow of tributes cease. What matters is that Frank Sinatra bequeathed us a glorious, legacy of popular music at its best. And, as President Clinton, was the first to remind everyone yesterday, he did it his way.