From the American Made Music Series
Let Me Be Frank
How the son of one of the most famous performers in history fought for his own star as a musician.
by Bruce H. Klauber and Andrea Kauffman
October 15, 2025 release
As an American singer, conductor, composer, and actor, Frank Sinatra, Jr. (1944–2016) had a long and successful music career and was recognized for his many contributions to American popular song. Yet, his own star has often been overshadowed by his world-famous father. The first book ever published about Frank Sinatra, Jr., Let Me Be Frank: The Extraordinary Life and Music of Frank Sinatra, Jr. details how this complex and often misunderstood artist dealt with professional struggles, personal demons, and endless comparisons with his father to emerge as a thriving performer who finally made peace with the name “Sinatra.”
Let Me Be Frank chronicles Frank Sinatra, Jr’s life and music career including the lifetime loyalty of his friends and bandsmen, and his notorious womanizing. It also, of course, details the challenging relationship with his father, including an incident with his father that may have changed Frank, Jr., forever. He ran from comparisons to his father and lost work due to his refusal to sing his father’s songs. The book also details Frank, Jr.’s kidnapping in 1963 when he was nineteen.
Included are over forty interviews with Frank, Jr.’s friends, family, and colleagues. It also features a compelling narrative from Andrea Kauffman, Frank, Jr.’s personal manager and close friend of thirty-one years, and an in-depth musical analysis of four decades of Frank, Jr.’s recordings and stage shows. Let Me Be Frank finally sets the record straight about a brilliant man and a brilliant performer who never truly got the credit he deserved.
The Authors
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Philadelphian Bruce Klauber played drums for many jazz icons, including Charlie Ventura, Milt Buckner, Buster Cooper, Anita O’Day, Al Grey, Marty Napoleon, Joanie Sommers, Bernard Peiffer, and Peggy King. He has recorded for several notable jazz record labels, including DBK Jazz and Concord Jazz, and has produced historic reissues and discoveries for England’s Jasmine records, Barcelona’s Fresh Sound records, and state side’s Dot Time label.
Combining his love for jazz and his talent for writing, Bruce wrote and edited books on Krupa, Buddy Rich, and produced more than a dozen videos for Warner Bros. and Hudson Music, focusing on drummers such as Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, and Louie Belson.
He graduated Temple University with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and Theater, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Combs College of Music..”
As a journalist, his articles have appeared in Down Beat magazine, Jazz Times magazine, Jazziz magazine, Atlantic City Magazine, The Trentonian, Naples Daily News, National News Bureau, The Drummer newspaper, Icon magazine, the Broad Street Review, Inside Magazine, Video Insider, Film Bulletin, and The Counselor magazine. He currently writes a weekly column for the Atlantic City-based Shore Local Newsmagazine.
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Andrea Kauffman, now retired, was a powerful, respected, and influential entertainment industry concert producer, personal manager and agent, responsible for bringing dozens of jazz legends—including Mel Torme’, Bobby Scott, George Shearing, Mongo Santamaria and Morgana King just to name a few—to Atlantic City hotel/casinos as well as produce, along with her partner, the only production show to play three casinos in the Atlantic City market, “Shaboom." She brought Frank Sinatra, Jr. to the mainstream casino showrooms and concert stages that had eluded him prior to his involvement with her.The entertainment business was second nature to the Kauffman family. This has been a successful, enjoyable and rewarding career for Andrea Kauffman.
This is her debut memoire, Let Me Be Frank; The Extraordinary Life and Music of Frank Sinatra, Jr.
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Get in touch.
To contact the authors and media inquiries, please email:
contact@letmebefrankbook.com