What was Connie Francis' first album?
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After her breakthrough in early 1958 with her single "Who's Sorry Now?", a rock 'n' roll oriented version of the 1923 standard, and a subsequent album of the same title, Francis chose to take a more adult approach to her second album. For "The Exciting Connie Francis", she chose twelve American standards. Francis clearly marked the album as a concept album by dividing it into two sections with different moods: Side A is filled with songs differing between mid-tempo and up-tempo, while Side B consists solely of ballads.
The Exciting Connie Francis
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Released in November 1968, "Connie Francis sings Bacharach & David" is the first album by Francis on MGM Records released exclusively in stereo. All previous albums had either been released in both stereo and mono or exclusively in mono. In 1979 Polydor Records released a two-record set of this album together with the "Connie Francis Sings the Songs of Les Reed" album.
Connie Francis Sings Bacharach &amp; David
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In the wake of this success, Francis returned to Nashville several times to record further singles and albums with Bradley's highly prolific team of musicians and arrangers until her contract with MGM Records ended in 1969. ""Connie Francis sings Folk Song Favorites" was the first of these album projects to be recorded. Another album, ""Connie Francis sings 'Never on Sunday'"", had was recorded two days later on August 10 and 11, 1961 but was released in October 1961, one month prior to the Folk Song album.
Connie Francis Sings Folk Song Favorites
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In the wake of this success, Francis returned to Nashville several times to record further singles and albums with Bradley's highly prolific team of musicians and arrangers until her contract with MGM Records ended in 1969. ""Connie Francis sings 'Never on Sunday'"" was the first of these album projects to be released. Another album, ""Connie Francis sings Folk Song Favorites"", had been recorded two days before on August 8 and 9, 1961 but was released later.
Connie Francis Sings &quot;Never on Sunday&quot;
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In 1978, Francis returned to the recording studio to cut an album titled "Who's Happy Now?" The leading recording on this album was a disco version of "Where the Boys Are". She recorded this song also in Japanese, Italian, and Spanish, as she had done before with her original 1960 version. Several songs from the "Who's Happy Now?" sessions were subsequently recorded in Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and German. The Spanish and German recordings became albums of their own in as "Connie Francis en Español" in Spain and as "Was ich bin" (What I Am) in Germany. All three albums and the singles culled from them were released on United Artists Records.
Connie Francis
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The album follows the concept of a tribute to the great crooners of the 1950s and their most famous hits. Between August 22, 1959 and August 26, 1959, Francis recorded the following songs at EMI's legendary Abbey Road Studios in London:The album was scheduled for release in early 1960 as MGM Records 12" Album SE-3815 (stereo) and E-3815 (mono), but the overwhelming success of Francis' first Italian album, "Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites", led to the cancellation of "One for the Boys" in favor of three further albums containing "Spanish and Latin American Favorites", "Jewish Favorites", and a second volume of "Italian Favorites". The project of a follow-up album to celebrate the female stars of the era, "One for the Girls", was abandoned and never recorded.
One for the Boys (Connie Francis album)
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According to Ron Roberts, all the recording dates and titles included in the 1975 edition of his series of Connie Francis discographies were faithful copies of sessions logs compiled at the time by Connie herself. The entire Jewish album was recorded at EMI's Abbey Road studios, together with her preceding release, "Connie Francis Sings Spanish & Latin American Favorites", and subsequent album "More Italian Favorites". It was the last album that could not be completed during the July sessions, and final tracks by Connie were cut in September 1960.
Connie Francis Sings Jewish Favorites
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Following another idea from her father, Francis traveled to London in August 1959 to record an Italian album at EMI's famous Abbey Road Studios. Entitled "Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites", the album was released in November 1959. It soon entered the album charts where it remained for 81 weeks, peaking at number 4. To this day, it is still Francis' most successful album. "Mama," the single taken from the album, reached number 8 in the United States and number 2 in the United Kingdom.
Connie Francis
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Unlike the other installments in Francis' series of "Favorites"-albums, "Connie Francis sings German Favorites" does not focus on the traditional songs of a certain country or ethnic group. Beginning in 1960 with the overwhelming success of "Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel", a German version of her U.S. #1 hit "Everybody's Somebody's Fool", Francis had established herself in Germany as a respected performer of contemporary German music. By the time of the album's release Francis had enjoyed six # 1 hits on the German charts. Hence, "Connie Francis sings German Favorites" is more a typical Greatest Hits Album in the Pop Music genre.
Connie Francis Sings German Favorites
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In July 1960, Francis was in Hollywood for the interior shots of her first motion picture "Where the Boys Are" which made it impossible for her to record the album during live sessions at EMI's famous Abbey Road Studios in London as she had done with "Connie Francis sings Italian Favorites". Hence, the playbacks to these songs were pre-recorded in London under the supervision of Francis' British producer Norman Newell and were conducted by Geoff Love. The tapes containing these playbacks were shipped to Hollywood where Francis overdubbed her vocals.
Connie Francis Sings Spanish and Latin American Favorites