That’s Life (1966) – Frank Sinatra

I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king
I’ve been up and down and over and out, and I know one thing
Each time I find myself flat on my face
I pick myself up and get back in the race

I wondered how I didn’t recall this spectacular song when Nancy at The Elephant’s Trunk recently posted on it. I’m hardly a Frank fan or even the least bit cognisant of his discography apart from his mega hits including New York, New York and My Way, but when I heard today’s featured song That’s Life it knocked me for six. Put simply, I revelled in it and found it downright inspirational and the vocals: my God the vocals! – sung with such gusto and conviction which few other singers could ever hope to emulate.
It reinforced to me a quote from a movie (which title escapes me) when someone said about Frank: ‘No one has ever loved and lost like Frank has‘ (or words to that effect). Until hearing this song I never could appreciate the significance of that utterance, or more broadly all the fuss surrounding Frank’s music and legacy – but now I get it.

The other revelation to my musical senses upon listening to ‘That’s Life‘ was how much it refers to the implication of the Christian Wheel of Fortune symbol seen in a lot of Gothic Cathedrals. At the top is a King, the bottom a Pauper, at one side is a king who has lost his crown and the other a man climbing a ladder. In the middle is a picture of Christ. The Wheel represents Life. This song encapsulates all of that from a secular perspective by illustrating the ups and downs of life as an entertainer.

The Christian folk might say: where you should live is at the centre (of the wheel), where Christ is. The secular interpretation might be finding a form of ‘Indifference‘ and detaching oneself from the rim of the wheel, ie: detached from success, failure, more success or less success.
Another famous song which also deals with the Wheel of Fortune is John Lennon’s – ‘Watching the Wheels‘. John Lennon acknowledges he rode this wheel like crazy, but near the end of his life he found a certain ‘indifference’ to it and relief and sense of bemusement by detachment:

I’m just sitting here
Watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll

For an entertaining and informative breakdown about this song and Frank’s life, I point readers to Nancy article – That’s Life!:

Every so often a performer comes along who takes the world by storm …. not for a day or a month or a year but for all time. We’ve seen it in varying degrees with personalities such as Elvis Presley and Tom Jones; when panties and hotel room keys get tossed on stage, that’s a pretty good indication of the entertainer’s impact on his audience. As a budding teenager, I was caught up in the phenomenon known as Beatlemania …. the most magical and exhilarating experience of my young lifetime….. 

The following was extracted and abridged from the Wikipedia reference below:

That’s Life is a popular song written by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon, and first recorded in 1963 by Marion Montgomery. The most famous version is by Frank Sinatra, released on his 1966 album That’s Life. Sinatra recorded the song after hearing an earlier recording of it in his car by O.C. Smith. He stopped the car, called his daughter Nancy and told her to find the publisher of the song because he wanted to record it; she did. Sinatra took two passes at the song. He ended the first take with, “Oh yeah.” Bowen asked him to perform it again, which annoyed ‘one take‘ Sinatra – resulting in the biting performance Bowen was looking for – which Sinatra tagged with the defiant, “My, My“.

Sinatra first performed the song on his television special A Man and His Music – Part II in 1966. The song proved successful and reached No. 4 on the Billboard. Following the success of Sinatra’s version, it was subsequently recorded by a plethora of artists including Aretha Franklin, Shirley Bassey, James Brown, Van Morrison and Lady Gaga.

[Verse 1]
That’s life (That’s life), that’s what all the people say
You’re riding high in April, shot down in May
But I know I’m gonna change that tune
When I’m back on top, back on top in June

[Verse 2]
I said, that’s life (That’s life), and as funny as it may seem
Some people get their kicks stompin’ on a dream
But I don’t let it, let it get me down
‘Cause this fine old world, it keeps spinning around

[Chorus]
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king
I’ve been up and down and over and out, and I know one thing
Each time I find myself flat on my face
I pick myself up and get back in the race

[Verse 3]
That’s life (That’s life), I tell ya, I can’t deny it
I thought of quitting, baby
But my heart just ain’t gonna buy it
And if I didn’t think it was worth one single try
I’d jump right on a big bird and then I’d fly

[Outro]
That’s life (That’s life), that’s life and I can’t deny it
Many times I thought of cutting out but my heart won’t buy it
But if there’s nothing shaking come this here July
I’m gonna roll myself up in a big ball and die
My, my

References:
1. That’s Life (song) – Wikipedia

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“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand