The Candy Frank Sinatra Always Requested In His Dressing Room

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When a music artist or group performs, a rider is drawn up that details everything required at a venue from the lighting to the technology to what they want in their dressing room. Van Halen famously had a clause in their hospitality rider that precluded brown M&Ms (aka brown lentils, which is the strange name for a single M&M). It's likely that they were just testing to see if the promoter was reading the rider thoroughly. But long before Van Halen was making sweet demands, Frank Sinatra was setting his own candy standard. Ol' Blue Eyes required 12 rolls of cherry-flavored Life Savers and 12 rolls of assorted-flavored Life Savers. Why so many?

No one really knows why, but maybe the "Fly Me To The Moon" crooner liked to suck on them before a performance to ensure he didn't have a dry mouth, risking the dreaded clearing of the voice or coughing. He clearly had a penchant for the cherry-flavored variety because it is rumored that he was buried with a roll tucked inside his suit pocket. In addition to the Life Savers, Sinatra's demands included 12 boxes of Luden's cough drops in cherry and honey flavors. While these were designed to alleviate throat irritation, they also offer a sweetness other cough drops do not.

What else was on Frank Sinatra's rider besides sugary, sweet Life Savers, which you can purchase in bulk rolls via Amazon? The artist also required there be three cans of Campbell's chicken and rice soup, along with a total of six sandwiches that included two egg salad, two chicken salad sandwiches, and two turkey sandwiches that had to free from lettuce and tomato, and the condiments, mayo and mustard specifically, had to be on the side. 

Did anyone join Sinatra to nosh on these sandwiches before his performance? The artist's publicist said the singer didn't generally invite guests to his dressing room. Yet, in true Rat Pack style, Sinatra requested Absolut vodka, Jack Daniel's whiskey, Chivas Regal scotch, Courvoisier cognac, and Beefeater gin to be available. There had to be six rocks glasses and a bucket of ice cubes because why have rocks glasses if you don't? And in addition to the glasses, there needed to be a hot plate, which makes complete sense because no one likes to eat cold chicken and rice soup.