When considering the greatness of Frank Sinatra–both as an individual and in the music he created–it is important to place his achievements within the context of the man’s life. It is easy to forget that there was a time when he wasn’t ‘The Chairman of the Board’ and when he wasn’t regarded as the greatest male popular vocalist in history. There was a time when he was just another washed up teen idol trying to figure out a way to jump start his career and continue collecting a paycheck for being a singer. And then there were his personal problems–the love of his life, Ava Gardner had left him, his vocal chords were shredded from overuse, and he was on the skids financially as well as no longer in demand professionally. Frank recalled this time in his life by saying “It was all Mondays.”

To make things even worse, his bosses at Columbia Records were mis-managing his talent in an ill-advised effort to make him a ‘novelty singer’. This included a short lived pairing with Mitch Miller–the very low point of which was a horrible record called ‘Mama Will Bark’. Here the greatest voice of the 20th Century recorded a duet with a busty actress named Dagmar and a dog impersonator barking and howling in the background. These records were poorly received by the public–not a surprise in retrospect–and in 1952 Columbia Records dumped Sinatra.

In 1953, several singers who here friends of Sinatra, most notably Jo Stafford and June Hutton brought him to the attention of Capitol Records A&R man Dave Dexter, Jr. This led to a contract, and begun a nine year association with Capitol that most critics consider the finest era of Sinatra’s work. Initially, Frank worked with Axel Stordahl (June Hutton’s husband, with whom he had worked at Columbia) and these sessions produced some decent recordings, including “I’m Walking Behind You” and “Lean Baby”, but nothing incredibly significant. Dexter wanted Frank to try something different, and with Stordahl leaving to accept a job with Eddie Fisher in New York, he agreed reluctantly to a pairing with Nelson Riddle. Riddle was an experienced big band conductor, known best at that point for his work with Nat King Cole. Dexter had envisioned this pairing ever since he had signed Sinatra, but its doubtful that even he could have foreseen the magic that was to result.

The Riddle/Sinatra collaboration was an unabashed success. Their early sessions produced among other songs “I’ve Got The World On The String” which is something of a ’shot heard round the world’ for Sinatra’s career and popular music in general. The well known standard was given new vibrancy with Riddle’s buoyant arrangement and Sinatra’s new found vocal maturity. The song was only a modest commercial success at the time, reaching #14 on the single charts, but became a classic. It was also a favorite of Sinatra himself, and he continued to perform the song live, frequently as a show opener, for the rest of his life.

When the phoenix-like rebirth of Frank Sinatra’s career is put into a modern context, it becomes even more remarkable. Today one can scarcely imagine a ‘teenybopper’ idol–say, Jordan Knight from ‘New Kids on the Block’ or one of the Jonas Brothers-being able to sustain a serious musical career at all after their initial stardom among the adolescent set. Frank Sinatra not only revived his career, but left an imprint on America popular music–and its culture–that is unlikely to ever be equaled. “I’ve Got The World On A String” can easily be considered the ‘big bang’ in the creation of Frank Sinatra’s world that we all inhabit. It is a celebration of the good life, of which the music of Frank Sinatra will always remain an intrinsic part.