I never saw Gone With The Wind, but I basically know what it’s about; Southern Belle, Civil War, lost love, racist depictions of black people, “Frankly Scarlett, I don’t give a damn,” and ‘The End.’ Likewise, I never really listened to Frank Sinatra, but I know his basic life-story; poor Italian kid, Tommy Dorsey feud, Bobby Soxers, Ava Gardner, From Here To Eternity, Rat Pack, Mafia ties, Mia Farrow, “New York, New York,” forgets lyrics, and ‘The End.’ However, how he got from A to B is a lot more interesting than my curt summation. I now know this thanks to brisk but thorough 2015 documentary Sinatra: To Be Frank, currently available for streaming on Netflix.

Produced by Vision Films, the same people behind the atrocious David Bowie documentary The Man Who Changed The World, and directed by Simon Napier-Bell, whose name I recognized from the back of my Yardbirds records and who also managed Wham! at their peak, the film was made to celebrate what would have been Sinatra’s 100th birthday. Unlike the Bowie doc, which suffered from a lack of his music and an oversimplification of his life and legacy, Sinatra: To Be Frank does a good job covering Sinatra’s career highlights and explaining his importance as a singer, actor and celebrity.