Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

Frank Sinatra Jr. honors father’s legacy

When your name is Frank Sinatra Jr., the world will have its own perceptions about you before you even speak — nevermind sing — your first word. It’s a legacy that can haunt you, one you spend a lifetime evading or embracing.
Sinatra Jr., who was his father’s musical director during his last run as a performer and now sings those legendary songs in concert, chose the latter.
“Well, people had certain attitudes that I had to fill for them when they first saw me, and if I didn’t fill those attitudes, they were disappointed,” Sinatra Jr. says during an interview from his home in California.
The singer, who will bring his “Sinatra Sings Sinatra” show to Gypsies at the Mount Airy Casino Resort at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 17, chatted with us — in a smooth, distinct voice that evokes his dad’s — about keeping the tradition alive, his appearances on “Family Guy” and “The Sopranos” and a longtime band member from Northeastern Pa.

Weekender: What was it like for you to work so closely with your father as his musical director late in his life?

Sinatra Jr.: It was an important pairing at the time, because when I came into his service in that capacity, he was already into his 70s, and like most people in their 70s, he was beginning to slow down a little bit. He needed someone not only to understand what he was doing, but what he was going to do. And I could read him very, very well.

Weekender: Why do you sing his songs?

Sinatra Jr.: I always sang them. I used to do one per show, but it was pointless for me to dedicate an entire program to his music when the people still had him to go to. After his death in 1998, we started doing more of them.
The music is wonderful music, and I do it because of the fact that people still continue to come to our program, which indicated he’s been gone nearly 12 years, but as it happens, his audience is still there. They love what it is that he did, and I love what it is that he did.

Weekender: You acted and sang in two “Family Guy” episodes (“Brian Sings and Swings” in 2006 and “Tales of a Third Grade Nothing” in 2008). What drew you to doing the show?

Sinatra Jr.: I like “Family Guy.” Those guys that do that show aren’t wrapped too tight. They don’t have all their buttons in the right holes.
I like the show because it’s not comedy, it’s satire. Its funny, a lot of people don’t know the difference between the two. As a kid, we had to read “Gulliver’s Travels” and (James Thurber’s) “The Thurber Carnival.” Satire’s an art form.

Weekender: You played yourself again on “The Sopranos” (“The Happy Wanderer” in 2000). How did that come about?

Sinatra Jr.: I was told that like once a week Jack Nicholson’s manager called the office, Al Pacino’s manager called their office — they all wanted to go on “The Sopranos.” … So when they asked me to go on “Sopranos” — that was 10 years ago right now, right after Labor Day in 1999 — I was seated in somebody’s office, and when they asked me to do the show, I about fell off the chair, because nobody was asked to do “Sopranos.” And they only asked me to go on as a cameo part as Frank Sinatra Jr.

Weekender: Your longtime bass player, Paul Rostock, is from Pittston and now lives in East Stroudsburg. How did you find him?

Sinatra Jr.: Paulie joined this show when he was 20. Paulie’s a nice kid from the mountains, from Scranton, and I was at the time traveling in the mid-1970s, and we needed a bass player.

Weekender: You’re a singer, a conductor and an arranger. You’re performing, and you’re lending your voice to books on tape.What are you most proud of?

Sinatra Jr.: I have made myself a good musician. I have made myself a good singer, and my presentation when I work is of the like quality of any show that’s around today, the excellent shows. I don’t mean the amateurs.
w

Frank Sinatra Jr.’s “Sinatra Sings Sinatra,” Saturday Oct. 17, 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., Gypsies Lounge and Nightclub, Mount Airy Casino Resort (44 Woodland Road, Mount Pocono). Tickets: $40. Info: 877.682.4791, www.mountairycasino.com.