On Dec. 12, Frank Sinatra would have been 104. In those 100-plus years, few people in modern history have been as iconic, with as much influence on popular music as he had. Sinatra's songs are timeless and his persona was legendary. I recently came across some vintage pix of "Ol' Blue Eyes" and it reminded me just how much he was a part of my "inner culture."

Francis Albert Sinatra, the "Chairman of the Board"-to-be, was born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey. The wiry, blue-eyed kid with a huge smile loved to sing, and at the tender age of 8, sang publicly for the first time. His father, Antonio, a lightweight boxer and Hoboken Fire Department captain, propped him up on the bar in the local saloon operated by Frank's mother, Dolly, to entertain his fellow firemen, and "The Voice" was born.