Today is my father’s 75th birthday, a grand milestone for a grand man!

I’m cheating a bit by not featuring an individual song but instead an entire TV special as today’s SOTD. This is the 1990 celebration Sinatra 75: The Best is Yet to Come, a TV special that combined documentary footage with a live performance by the birthday boy himself.

I have always associated my dad with Frank Sinatra. Not just because Ol’ Blue Eyes is my father’s favorite artist by far, but because they share so many qualities: confidence, grace, effortless cool, and a dash of surly charm.

My dad doesn’t sing (not in public, anyway) but if he could, he’d sing like Sinatra. He does so many other things that well.

He writes like Sinatra sings; he builds furniture like Sinatra sings; he wins at Jeopardy like Sinatra sings. He loves and supports his wife, his kids, his grandkids, his son- and daughter-in-law, like Frank Sinatra sings.

Life is a stage, and my father has commanded it with style and substance for decades, a consummate performer of feats both great and small.

Happy Birthday, Dad! I love you, and I know that, yes indeed, the best is yet to come.