--- title: Sinatra at 100: Tony Bennett on the Singer's Legacy description: Read an excerpt from Bennett's introduction to the LIFE special edition 'Sinatra at 100' canonical: https://time.com/4142581/tony-bennett-frank-sinatra/ author: LIFE Books article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-11T16:00:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:47.229Z article:section: History og:title: Sinatra at 100: Tony Bennett on the Singer's Legacy og:description: Read an excerpt from Bennett's introduction to the LIFE special edition 'Sinatra at 100' og:url: https://time.com/4142581/tony-bennett-frank-sinatra/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40aace9221e57f05/698874a2428a9e1ccdcd07f3/sinatra1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Photo of Frank SINATRA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sinatra at 100: Tony Bennett on the Singer's Legacy twitter:description: Read an excerpt from Bennett's introduction to the LIFE special edition 'Sinatra at 100' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40aace9221e57f05/698874a2428a9e1ccdcd07f3/sinatra1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Tony Bennett on Frank Sinatra: 'The Man Was Full of Love' > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Tony Bennett / LIFE Books](https://time.com/author/life-books/) ## Tony Bennett / LIFE Books Dec 11, 2015 4:00 PM UTC  Frank Sinatra circa 1960 Frank Sinatra circa 1960GAB Archive / Redferns / Getty Images by [Tony Bennett / LIFE Books](https://time.com/author/life-books/) ## Tony Bennett / LIFE Books Dec 11, 2015 4:00 PM UTC Loyalty: That one word overrides anything else you need to know about Sinatra. And of course it worked both ways with him. If he loved someone, he loved them for life. It didn’t matter if you were the queen of England or a waiter. If you just said a nice thing about Jilly \[Rizzo, Sinatra’s aide\], for instance, that would get a smile from him. He’d get a kick out of that. He really loved Jilly. The man was full of love. One night my mother and I were watching Sinatra on TV doing _The Main Event_. He knew my mother was dying, and he turned to the audience and said that Tony Bennett was his favorite guy in the whole world. My mother’s face lit up like a Christmas tree—this image will stay with me as long as I live. That was the kind of small thing he would do that would make such a big difference. And then there was this other night, years ago. It’s just moments before I’m about to walk out onstage for opening night at the Empire Room at the Waldorf, here in New York. All of a sudden I get a call. It’s Judy Garland. She’s on the phone, telling me that she’s at the St. Regis Hotel and she’s being beaten up—a domestic thing or something. And I don’t know what to do. My ex-wife says to me, “Call Frank.” He was at the Fontainebleau in Miami. I call him up. He had just finished making the movie _The Detective_, so he knew all the detectives and all the police who had helped with the movie. I tell him, “Frank, Judy Garland’s getting beat up at the St. Regis. I don’t know what to do.” He says, “I’ll call you back in a few.” I go and do my show, and after it’s over, Judy calls me up. “I asked for help,” she says, “but this is ridiculous. There’s five lawyers in my suite and 900 policemen outside in the street!” And then Frank calls me up and says, “Was that all right, kid?” He loved doing things like that. Absolutely loved it. It’s what he lived for. Sinatra was like Barrymore. He poured a lot of champagne for a lot of people—and he loved to do the pouring. When I think of Sinatra, I think of the way that Laurence Olivier depicted Hamlet. He was Everyman. He ran the gamut of emotions. Sinatra conquered every aspect of his world, the entertainment world. He was the two masks of the theater—the comedy, the tragedy. Underneath it all, he was a very, very sensitive, nice person. Once, I read _The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini_. Benvenuto was a sculptor in Renaissance Italy whose works were pure magic. Kings and popes from Italy and France demanded his works. Benvenuto’s father demanded true justice from everyone he encountered, and he passed this philosophy down to his son. Benvenuto would draw his sword and battle every hypocrite and phony who stood in the way of truth. It reminded me so much of Sinatra that I once sent a copy of the book to him for his birthday. I inscribed it: “If Shirley MacLaine’s philosophy is right, you must have been this cat in another life.” Sinatra leaves behind a legacy of music, a legacy that will live forever. Five hundred years from now, people will still be listening to his recordings, watching his films, and they’ll say, “There was only one Sinatra.” And that’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.  LIFE Books _Read the rest of Tony Bennett’s remembrance of Frank Sinatra in the LIFE special edition_ Sinatra at 100. _LIFE’s special edition_ Sinatra at 100 _is available now. Pick up your copy in stores today._ ### Best of Frank Sinatra  25-year-old Frank Sinatra poised at the microphone, singing "As Time Goes By" at the Riobamba nightclub, 1943. Herbert Gehr—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Sinatra with wife Nancy and 3-year-old daughter Nancy Jr. at home, 1943. Herbert Gehr—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Sinatra singing "Close to You" in CBS radio broadcasting studio as admirer Rita Stearns, the winner of the "Why I Like Frank Sinatra" contest, looks on, 1944. Herbert Gehr—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Sinatra singing "Five Minutes More," 1946. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ethel Merman and Frank Sinatra singing the duet "You're the Top" in a preliminary rehearsal for "Anything Goes," presented on "The Colgate Comedy Hour," 1954. John Swope—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Sinatra and Donna Reed (R) holding Oscars received for their performances in "From Here to Eternity," with presenter Mercedes McCambridge at the 26th Annual Academy Awards Ceremony, 1954. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sinatra singing to Vivian Blaine in a scene from the film "Guys and Dolls," 1955. Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, 1958. Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sinatra during the filming of "None But The Brave," which he directed in 1964. Don Cravens—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Nancy Sinatra with her father, Frank Sinatra, during the production of "None But The Brave," 1964. Don Cravens—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Frank Sinatra with girlfriend Mia Farrow on the deck of the yacht Southern Breeze, 1965. Bill Eppridge—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Frank Sinatra, 1965. John Dominis—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sinatra giving musicians of the Count Basie Orchestra direction at a rehearsal at a Los Angeles sound stage, 1965. John Dominis—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sinatra relaxing at home with pet dog Ringo, 1965. John Dominis—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sammy Davis Jr. talking with Sinatra at Sinatra's farewell performance, at UCLA, 1971. Michael Rougier—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sinatra waves at the camera during a rehearsal for a benefit concert, 1971. 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