Frank Sinatra

The saxophonist Frank Mane wanted to cut a couple of tracks with some musicians to see if he could further his career as a dance band leader and he asked Sinatra to sing on one of them. The song he chose, ‘Our Love’, worked perfectly as a wedding present. It was a romantic ballad adapted from a theme in Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet

Frank was no lover of David Bowie and when it was mooted that Bowie was going to play him in a film, he stated that he was not going to be played by ‘that faggot’. Bowie didn’t have the voice but at times he did have the look with his trilby hat and cashmere overcoat. On the other hand, Bing Crosby recorded a schmaltzy duet with him. Seymour Stein, the owner of Sire Records, says, ‘I do regard Bing Crosby as more important than Frank as he totally changed popular music – and he also did that nice little duet of ‘Little Drummer Boy’ with David Bowie just before he passed away. But when it comes to the actual quality of the voice, I would pick Nat ‘King’ Cole’s over both of them. I just loved his voice.’

In 1932 Franklin D Roosevelt became the Democratic President with the promise of a New Deal, although this was far easier to say than deliver