On November 19, 2014 Google commemorated the 57th birthday of Ofra Haza with a Google Doodle. Who?
Also in 2014, Google Doodle honored the 151st birthday of Annie Jump Cannon. Who?
A few days after that, Wassily Kandinsky was similarly recognized with a Google Doodle on his 148th birthday. Who?
Well today is the 100th birthday of Frank Sinatra so obviously Google Doodle must honor Ol' Blue Eyes. If you thought that you would be wrong. Relative nonentities receive honors from Google but when it comes to a major cultural icon on his 100th birthday, they amazingly chose to ignore him. Truly pathetic. To get an idea of how Frank Sinatra changed the world, let us read this column by David Lehman, author of Sinatra's Century: One Hundred Notes on the Man and His World:
December 12 is the 100th birthday of Frank Sinatra.
From Las Vegas to New Hope, Pennsylvania, fans are toasting Old Blue Eyes at black-tie dinner parties with Rat Pack entertainment. Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is going wall-to-wall Frank. He is the star of the month on Turner Classic Movies.
But not at Google. Instead of toasting Ol' Blue Eyes, Google Doodle is ignoring him on his 100th birthday.
The first of his nicknames was "The Voice." The young man's voice was incomparable in its power, timbre, range and agility. There are the songs he sang in the 1940s as the boy singer in the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey bands and when he went on his own and wowed the girls who rioted at the Paramount in New York City for a chance to hear Frankie. And there are the songs he sang in the 1950s when the voice deepened and he began to epitomize a grown-up masculine ideal.
...In the 1960s, the third decade of his dominance, Sinatra took swing to new heights with Count Basie ("Fly Me to the Moon"), dabbled in the Bossa Nova ("The Girl from Ipanema"), and made great songs sound like chapters in his own autobiography ("It Was a Very Good Year").
More often than not, it is Sinatra's version of a song that is definitive. He recognized that the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne, Jimmy Van Heusen and many others had created classic American popular songs. By recording them, Sinatra renewed the life of great music.
...Sinatra's influence goes beyond music. He's an exemplar of style, proof that appearances matter. The fedora tilted just so ("a flower's not a flower if it's wilted, / a hat's not a hat till it's tilted"); the tuxedo; the trench coat; the splash of sour mash in a glass. It is because of his style that you see Sinatra on television today in commercials for vodka or whiskey. You hear him sing "My Way" in a late episode of "Mad Men" when Don Draper and Peggy Olsen dance. His voice belts out "New York, New York" after every Yankee game, win or lose, at Yankee Stadium, home of champions.
There is yet one more reason to celebrate this centenary of Sinatra's birth. Dean Martin cracked, "It's Frank's world. We just live in it." This has been Sinatra's century -- and his career arc, in its political dimension, mirrors that of the American journey. He began as an FDR Democrat, a young rebel who campaigned hard for social tolerance. As JFK's pal he produced an all-star inaugural ball in January 1961. He ended a Reagan Republican. Yet the love of his music transcends all barriers of class and race.
Hmm... Could Sinatra's friendship with the Reagans explain why Google refused to honor him today on his 100th birthday while awarding Google Doodles to so many folks most of us never heard of?
Although Google has turned its back on Frank Sinatra, let us recognize and honor him by listening to at least one of his tremendous songs today. Even his lesser known songs such as the following will amaze you.
UPDATE: Today Google has a Doodle celebrating the 97th birthday of BKS lyengar. Who?
