"Sinatra 100" is a spacious and mesmerizing picture book, documenting Frank Sinatra's life, from his birth in Hoboken, N.J., through his final years. It's full of the cool and class we expect from the Chairman. We see him reading sheet music at a lectern, cigarette in hand; dressed as a sultan and riding a camel; singing with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. while holding a scotch on the rocks; seated on a divan in an orange cardigan, three women lustily staring at him. What a life! There are also photos of him relaxing while making a sandwich or playing with his dog Ringo. Through hundreds of artful photos, one gets a full impression of the man — probably as much as a full biography could do in 300 more pages.
“As we celebrate his one-hundredth birthday,” Tony Bennett notes in the book’s foreword, “Frank Sinatra is still relevant. While I miss him, it is a great comfort that his legacy — the wonderful music he left us — lives on for future generations to enjoy as I have.”
One can say the same for this treasure of a book.
Timothy R. Smith is on the staff of Book World.
Sinatra 100
By Charles Pignone
Thames and Hudson. 288 pp. $60
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