Today is my parents’ anniversary and I’m marking the occasion by featuring a song by their favorite singer, Frank Sinatra. My dad was a big Sinatra fan back in the 60s when he and my mom became a couple… he largely bypassed the rock music bursting on the scene in favor of ol’ blue eyes. He’s one of those guys who was already 60 when he was 18 (and now that he’s in his 60s he looks like he’s 38, so he’s all over the map).

My mom made room for Elvis and The Beatles but she, too, was a Sinatra fan at heart. She’s been a little more adventurous musically than he has (though I’m admittedly stretching the definition of “adventurous”) but come dinner time in that household, nine times out of ten it’s going to be Sinatra coming out of the speakers. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Now if I have this correctly, and I very well may not, Close to You was the first Sinatra album my dad ever gave to my mom. Many years later he gave her a new copy, the old one having been lost over time. I remember this (or think I do) because the album cover made an impression on me in that I believed Sinatra looked, in that photo, like a Chinaman.

I use the term Chinaman not out of racial insensitivity but because that’s the word Sinatra himself would have used. I’m paying tribute to the master here, folks.

So happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! This one’s for you.