Frank Sinatra: A Voice in Time (1939-1952) (popmatters)
In the 1940s Sinatra was the original template for the phenomena of the teen idol. After the war’s end and a brief creative recession in which he heroically did battle against the forces of stultifying novelty recordings which had infiltrated postwar American record stores (those with strong constitutions should track down “Mama Will Bark”, his sole concession to this fashion), he returned to the spotlight with one of the most amazing second acts in American history. Along the way he established a template for sophisticated adult musicianship within a pop context, which has rarely if ever been matched in the many decades since.