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Editors note: This article is from the Summer 1996 issue of Jazz Beat (Vol 8, #1) This is an excellent article that describes Connie's unique talents in music. Article reprinted with permission from the author, Alex Cuoco.
"Stupid Cupid," "Lipstick On Your Collar," "Don't Break The Heart That Loves You," "Vacation," "Where The Boys Are," are just a few of her hit million-seller songs. Who would ever think of Connie Francis as a jazz artist? Well, the truth is, not too many people outside her worldwide fan club, close friends, and family were aware of this facet of Connie's career. But now you know, too!
Having become a singer at a young age, Connie has always loved the sound of jazz, dixieland and swing. Her love for these rhythms has kept her seeking such recordings which resulted in three remarkable albums, "Songs For a Swinging Band", "A New Kind of Connie" and "Connie and Clyde, Hit Songs of the Thirties" which is her favorite album and recording of all time. She has also recorded pop LP's "Bacharach/David," "On Broadway" and "Movie Greats" in a jazz vein.
Connie's first venture into the jazz/pop field was an LP called "The Exciting Connie Francis" with Ray Ellis. One side of the LP was devoted to up tempo classics such as "Come Rain or Come Shine," Ray Charles' "Hallelujah, I Love Him So" and Berlin's "I Will Go My Way, By Myself Alone" as well as Connie's trademark on ballads "How Did He Look?", "Blame It On My Youth" and a "Melancholy Serenade." She was aware that being queen of the POP charts was only a temporary thing. While turning out rock singles such as "Lipstick On Your Collar" Connie also proved that she could stand up and sing like a pro. Many of these LP recordings were released as "B" sides or "teasers" and Connie's jukebox sales soared to the top, making her for many years in a row "Top Jukebox Artist in America- Male or Female." With her affinity for foreign languages, she would later become the World's Most Popular and Programmed Female Vocalist as well as topping the charts simultaneously in 9 different languages!
Having recorded a slew of ethnic LPs such as "Italian Favorites," "Jewish Favorites" and "Spanish and Latin American Favorites" and topping Billboard and Cashbox's LP charts with them, Connie decided to get back to mainstream America and work with her former sweetheart's (Bobby Darin) arranger, the late Richard Wess. Dick had just created the monster smash "Mack the Knife" for Bobby. Bobby and Connie shared techniques and having worked the Catskills and various supper clubs throughout the United States, both were ready for their stints at the top nightclub of the U.S.--the Copacabana (both recorded successful LPs "live" there) and proved that they weren't merely teen artists but could attract that important adult audience. The result of Connie and Dick's working together resulted in LP "Songs to a Swingin' Band" which produced great recordings of "Ole Man Mose" (New Orleans' own Louis Armstrong who would later make a movie with Connie), "Swanee" (released as a teaser single) and "Taboo" to mention just a few of the gems. Connie proved she had what it takes to be a great entertainer and also had quality which could measure with even the great jazz entertainers of her time.
In the year 1964, Connie grew into one of the nation's most popular "live" and sought after performers realizing the important pacing of a show. She had a regular two-month commitment to the Sahara in Las Vegas. Many of her swing numbers were arranged by Claus Ogerman, Marty Paich, Don Costa, Joe Mazzu, Ralph Burns, or Joe Mele. In 1963, she filmed an MGM vehicle "Looking for Love" with cameo appearances by Johnny Carson and Danny Thomas among others. Claus arranged some jazzy numbers for this film as well as standards and would later work on a contemporary LP "Connie Sings Bacharach/David" with a heavy jazz theme (in 1968) which caused Burt himself, to state that Connie had interpreted some of his compositions in a way that no one else had. Perhaps one of the most exciting LPs recorded by Connie, however, is one arranged by Marty Paich on June 1st and 3rd of 1964 ("live" of course, in the usual jazz vein). The LP done in a couple of hours entitled simply "A New Kind of Connie" exhibits Connie's vocal talent at its peak. She handles classics such as: "I'm Glad There Is You" (with the rarely-heard opening verse "Said many times..."), 'Where Can I Go' Without You?" "My Man, and "Where Did Everyone Go?" Veteran songwriter Jimmy McHugh even wrote a new song for her which she performed on "The Ed Sullivan Show" introduced and congratulated by Frank Sinatra upon her end crescendo note. There is no doubt that she was a singer's singer and a textbook for many new female vocalists. To say that Connie excited top songwriters such as McHugh, Mercer, Les Reed, Burt Bacharach was an under-statement. They were in her West 54th Street office on a daily basis but MGM insisted on keeping Connie as a "singles" artist paying little attention to the promotion of her great LP output.
In May of 1968, Connie again had the opportunity to work with the brilliant and one of her favorite arrangers, Dave Costa. In 1962, Costa provided Connie with the Top Ten "When the Boy in Your Arms" and #1 jukebox record of the year, "Don't Break the Heart That Loves You" again in 1965 she scored high on the charts with Costa arrangements of "For Mama" and "Forget Domani." However, apart from an obscure LP of Irish tunes (considered to be one of her finest), Don had not done a full LP with her since 1962. Their collaboration on the "Connie & Clyde" LP is an obvious labor love as well as a blending of outstanding talents.
The session was live and not overdubbed as artists do today. Connie was an integral part of the arrangements and feel. Connie sang "Ain't Misbehavin' and "Please Don't Talk About Me" as the clock neared midnight and the Saturday sessions contained the heavy and wonderfully-performed ballads "Maybe," "Just a Gigolo," "Am I Blue?" and "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place." Although all of the songs are gems, "Am I Blue?" released as a single, and "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?" stand out as two of the greatest Connie performances of all time. Who could say after listening to this LP that Connie is not a great jazz performer. After all what is jazz, if not a feeling for swing, the blues and a lot of heart...?
When she heard the news that the G.H.B. Jazz Foundation in New Orleans was releasing the album on CD, it brought Connie much happiness due to the fact that Polygram Records, who owns all of her MGM recordings, would never release it because they don't see her as a jazz artist. Much to their mistake, Connie is an all-fields artist whose hidden talents have been kept that way by the money-making minds of the big recording companies. But thanks to Mr. George H. Buck, president of the G.H.B. Jazz Foundation and Audiophile Records, Connie will have a chance to show to the jazz lover audience that she loves jazz too! She is also very excited about the Foundation's care to preserve and keep all of their releases in-catalog and forever available to fans and serious collectors.
Connie considers herself very lucky to have been able to record three great jazz albums and other spare jazz tunes. Now that "Connie & Clyde" is available on CD, perhaps sometime in the future the other two albums will also be released. With the release of "The Swinging Connie Francis" she rejoices knowing that she can give a gift that may touch the lives of many people.
The original LP "Connie & Clyde" was recorded in three short sessions in New York, May 6, 7, and 11, 1968, conducted by Joe Mazzu, arranged and produced by Don Costa with clever engineering and an authentic swinging orchestra. For those who have not heard the jazzy side of Connie, this CD will certainly be a treat and for her fans, a long-awaited gift.
During the 50s and 60s to the present, Connie Francis sold more than 120 million records. "America's sweetheart" sang the songs that touched the hearts of teenagers and older folks alike. Today she is still remembered for great hits such as "Who's Sorry Now?", "Where The Boys Are", "Among My Souvenirs", "Mama" and many others. She is still the number-one best-selling female recording artist in the world, coming after only the Beatles and Elvis Presley.
Connie has recorded numerous albums in several languages and has received rave reviews from the critics for her spectacular sellout shows, complete with the accompaniment of a twenty-four piece orchestra and her distinctive voice stylings.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, Connie began singing at age 10 on local TV talent shows and worked her way up to NBC's "Star Time" and other popular shows of that time. It was Arthur Godfrey, of "Talent Scouts" who suggested her name change from Concetta Rosa Marie Franconero to Connie Francis. At the age of sixteen, she signed her final contract with MGM records and In 1958 "American Bandstand" host Dick Clark started playing her recording of "Who's Sorry Now?" and Connie struck gold. The record sold a million copies in two months and catapulted Connie Francis to International stardom. For 10 years she was never out of the charts.
After becoming internationally famous, Connie brought her music to the world and was the first American artist to record each of her singles in Japanese, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Dutch, and Greek. On her world tours she sang 85% of her concerts in each country's native language, endearing herself to millions of fans worldwide.
Today Connie continues to perform to sold-out audiences in the US and abroad and [recorded] with SONY Records, which [released] in September [1996] a CD of a live concert recorded in Atlantic City's Trump Castle. The German Bear Family label has released their third five-CD box set containing close to one hundred fifty songs. Polygram also [released] a four-CD box set in September [1996], containing one hundred twenty five songs. A recent Polygram poll has shown that Connie is their number one reissue artist and bestseller. Most recently Connie returned from England where she recorded a tribute CD to Buddy Holly and did several performances for British audiences.
Connie is very thankful to Mr. George Buck for the release of her CD because many artists from her time have master tapes collecting dust in the tape libraries of large recording companies with little hope of being released.
So the question is: "Who's Sorry Now?" Certainly not Connie.
For a song list and ordering info this CD, see Swinging Connie Francis [Jazz songs of the 30's] (click here) in the CD Review section.
Jazz Beat is published quarterly by the
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Jazz Beat is mailed free to all Collector's Record Club members. Members also receive discounts on quality jazz albums and CDs. For information on joining, contact the GHB Jazz Foundation above.
Editors note: This article is the liner note from the Connie Francis CD Canzoni Italiane Con Amore, Conbud-2, Polygram-South Africa 1995. This CD is the first official Polygram released compilation of Connie's Italian songs. Previous released Italian CDs have been bootlegs and were not transferred from the original master tapes. This custom compilation CD was released exclusively for and limited to members of the Connie Francis Fan Club in 1995. Article reprinted with permission from the author, Ron Roberts.
As proud of her Italian heritage as she is of her American nationality, Connie Francis has, from the outset of her singing career, made the music from the land of her forebears an integral and essential part of her repertoire. Indeed, within a year of being signed to the MGM label in 1955, she cut Believe In Me (Credemi), the melody of which had featured heavily on the soundtrack of the Venice-based Katharine Hepburn-Rosanno Brazzi romantic movie Summertime, and thereby the first of several hundred Italian-sung or themed selections to be recorded by her.
The success of her first hit record, Who's Sorry Now?, prompted the need to record similarly updated standards or youth-oriented material, and, until 1959, the closest she came to another Italian recording, was with the title word only of Siempre, cut as part of a special Warner Brothers soundtrack collection for the movie Jamboree.
Given her background, it is perhaps ironic that it was Britain who helped steer both the pattern of her career and future recordings; for it was in that country that she recorded Connie Francis Sings Italian Favourites, the first in what was to become a series of foreign language or ethnic collections. Britain, in which she spent 12 weeks at number 1 with Who's Sorry Now? and Stupid Cupid in 1958, had made Connie a much bigger record star than her homeland, and had been the venue of her third album, My Thanks To You, consisting entirely of songs from that country. So pleased had Connie been with the studio and orchestral sound of that set that, over the years, several more sessions would be undertaken at the same Abbey Road, London location. From her 1959 Italian Favourites collection, Mama was selected for release on a single. Although it became a major worldwide hit, selling over a million copies, it "only" reached number 4 in the USA, but in Britain hit number 1 according to Disc magazine, and number 2 in the Record Mirror. From that same original Italian Favourites collection, this CD has culled Comm'e Bella A Stagione and Santa Lucia.
The gold disc winning success of the first set led to More Italian Favourites, from which has been selected Chitarra Romana (Roman Guitar) and Senza Mamma E Nnaumarata; the latter featuring English lyrics penned by Connie. This follow-up collection had been recorded in July 1960, by which time Connie had topped the US charts with Everybody's Somebody's Fool, and also placed its flipside, the Italian and English sung Jealous of You (Tango Della Gelosia), high in the charts. The "A" side, aided by a subsequent German version (Die Liebe Ist Ein Seltsames Spiel), went on to become Europe's biggest hit that year, and the flip established itself as Italy's all-time best-selling single.
It was not until November 1960 that Connie began recording material specifically for Italy, her first venture being C'e Qualcuno, an Italian translation of Where The Boys Are Other original Stateside hits were similarly adapted (No One, Many Tears Ago [Piangere Per Te Mai Piu]), before her first Italian 'original,' Un Volo Di Gabbiani in the summer of the following year. From her 1961 sessions has been assembled the rock'n'roll-style Capatosta Sweet and Connie's own Italian chart entries Un Violino Nel Mio Cuore (A Violin In My Heart) and Luna Caprese. In 1962, a year which was to prove a particularly prolific one for Italian recordings, Connie scored heavily with the dramatic Io Sola Andro, the German (Ich Bin Allein) and English (I'm So Alone) versions of which were inexplicably kept waiting for release for, respectively, 26 and 33 years; cha-cha rhythmed Dammi Le Mano E Corri, and up tempo smile-in-the-voice style of Un Bacio All'ltaliana; the last-named "stolen" for the German market in chart-topping fashion as Zwei Kleine Italianer by her near namesake, former child star Connie Froboess. It was also the year of her first recorded-in-Italy song collection Connie Francis Sings Modern Italian Hits, source for the San Remo Song Festival winner Nessuno Al Mondo, which had been popularised worldwide as No Arms Can Ever Hold You by Irish singing trio The Bachelors.
Also from 1962 is Portami Con Te which, originally familiar in its English version as In Other Words, gained new bossa nova rhythm lease of life as Fly Me To The Moon. It was released in Italy on a single coupled with Mala Femmena (Evil Woman), with which it had been recorded at the same 28 September session. Unfortunately, the complete original recording of Mala Femmena no longer exists, having been vocally overdubbed in part by Connie in 1963; this 'hybrid' then lending itself to the title of an album of Neapolitan versions of her "pure" Italian song hits, among them the perennial favourite La Paloma, the afore-mentioned Un Violino Nel Mia Cuore, Luna Caprese and Portami Con Te, and the 1963 success Nessuno E'Solo (No One Is Alone).
Connie had a 1965 US hit with Forget Domani, the English lyrics of which had been written by Norman Newell. The Italian only version included here features lyrics by Katyna Ranieri, who introduced the song in the movie The Yellow Rolls Royce, and is the wife of its music composer Riz Ortolani.
In October 1966 Connie recorded some of her very finest material. As well as including one of her most dramatic titles in Per Questa Notte, and the lilting Il Mio Amore E Cosi, the Italian original of the coarser English adaptation All The Love In The World, that month was also responsible for the quality album Love Italian Style. No apologies for the use of nine cuts from that LP are necessary. Whether gently caressing like Terra Straniera, La Violetera, Passione, 'Na Voce, Na Chitarra, E'O Poco 'E Luna, and Statte Vicino A 'Mme, carefree as Chella Lla, or passionately tear-jerking like Scalinatella, Piscatore E Pusilleco and I'Te Vurria Vasa, they are love songs at their heartfelt best. Indeed, like all the selections on this compact disc, they are no more than what one would expect when Connie Francis canzoni Italiane con amore.
Editors note: Mr. Roberts has so far assembled an extensive discography of Connie Francis with over 10,000 titles.
[See Connie Francis CD Reviews for the Song List of this particular CD Canzoni Italiane Con Amore.]
To hear her name
It should spring to mind
A remarkable woman
Truely, one of a kind.
Her voice plated with silver
Her heart made of gold
She has always thrilled audiences
The young and the old.
With "Where The Boys Are"
And "Who's Sorry Now"
Connie's a million seller
There was never any doubt.
With her mind that is strong
She managed to lose those thoughts
Of that horrifying incident
In 1974.
Her career did tumble
And she faded from view
But there was something to fight for
And this, Connie knew.
Comeback is a word
That is seldomly used
And it's not an action
That one should be abused.
Oh yes, she's back with us
And she looks and sounds fine
Connie Francis
A legend in our time.
(Editors Note: Connie Francis was the first popular singer to release an album of Italian songs. In the late fifties and early sixties, many vocalists of Italian heritage they stayed away from Italian music fearing it would damage their careers. But Connie made these tunes popular for everyone. She went on to release more than one Italian Favorites album, and probably everyone who is Italian has a Connie Francis album in their collection. This article by Joe tells of how Connie affected a whole family of Italian descent.)
Back in the early sixties, one of the first albums I had was Connie Francis sings Italian Favorites, and this album was thoroughly abused. I mean played, re-played and parlayed. I could sing songs like Anema E Core and Arrivderci Roma backwards and forwards by the time I was eight years old -- not understanding one word of what I was singing. My Grandfather was an immigrant who became an American citizen. He believed that the USA was his country so he would speak no Italian around us at all, but he listened to Connie sing those songs. He was one of those macho men that showed no emotion until Connie sang Mama, then the tears would appear. My grandmother told me part of the story behind Senza Mamma e Nnammurta. It was from a movie where a young girl takes her own life at her mothers grave because her life is so unhappy.
I watched American Bandstand after school with my mom and we would sing and dance to all the songs, but Connie was and still is very special to us. My parents, grandparents and myself all enjoyed her music together. The reason for her popularity is that more than one generation listened to Connie sing, a feat that very few singers have achieved. [known in the music business as "crossover"]
I don't think there's a 50s rock and roll fan alive that has not heard music by Connie Francis. Why not, these songs are as popular and fresh today as they were when they were first recorded. Even my fourteen year old rap listening son admits Stupid Cupid and Lipstick on Your Collar are good songs to dance to. He laughs when I tell him that I kissed my first girl in a school basement while dancing and listening to Among My Souvenirs.
I have been lucky enough to see Connie live in concert on two occasions. Listening to her powerful voice sing songs like Al Di La, Malagenua and the theme from the Exodus made me a fan all over again. It was more than that, seeing the emotions on many of the faces of the audience proves there is not now nor will there ever be another entertainer like Connie. Hearing her beautiful voice and listening to her sing these foreign language songs provoke memories in all of us. Thanks for everything Connie.
Did you know that Connie Francis wrote a book "For Every Young Heart" that was published in 1962. In this book Connie "talks" to teenagers about growing up and gives her thoughts about dating, clothes, beauty, diet, marriage, parents, and teenage relationships. The book received lots of praise. The Newark News said it was "A cheerful book, full of enthusiasm, warmth and good sense, that characterizes the singer's personality." The Portland Oregonian wrote that "The love and understanding at the heart of her own family life led Connie to help other people in terms they can understand and this is reflected in "For Every Young Heart." The Omaha World Herald said that "This book would be enjoyed by all teenagers because she [Connie] makes them realize that everyone has some problems and that they must learn to cope with them."