Connie Francis - Souvenirs

THE Most Glaring Absentee From The R&R Hall Of Fame

Back at the dawn of R&R, circa 1955, the legendary originals began to be heard on mainstream radio after several years of relative obscurity insofar as a national audience was concerned. The King, of course, was the catalyst, and when Elvis Presley broke down the doors R&R was here to stay. Soon the unique sounds of Bill Haley & His Comets, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Little Richard joined Presley's on most radio stations, followed in short order by Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and The Everly Brothers. All had one thing in common. They were all male.

Indeed, for the first few years following the advent of R&R, there were precious few female vocalists able to hold their own on the charts, and to share air time, jukebox play, and record sales with those pioneers. Brenda Lee was one. So was Ruth Brown, and who can forget LaVern Baker. Right there with them, hit for hit, was Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero, better known as Connie Francis. But whereas those other three great ladies of R&R, as well as every one of the male vocalists just mentioned, are in the R&R Hall Of Fame, Connie is consistently ignored. Which is just plain ludicrous.

I loved the music of those three as well as later inductees such as Dusty Springfield and Patti Smith, and in no way would I ever attempt to dispute their justified recognition. But when you compare their songs to Connie's there is simply no way you can say they belong but she does not.

The lady had 56 Pop Top/Hot 100 hits from 1957 to 1969 (all of them here along with 10 of the uncharted B-sides and four that made the "Bubble Under" charts after their introduction in 1959), saw 8 cross over to the R&B charts, had 2 Country cross-overs and one more that made only those charts (including her last registered hit, There's Still A Few Good Love Songs Left In Me on Polydor in the spring of 1983 - and sadly omitted here). Also, in addition to scoring 24 Adult Contemporary (Easy Listening) cross-overs from their inception in late 1961, she added another 5 that made those charts only and 2 more that hit the Hot 100 "Bubble Under" listings. And, with one exception, that being her last such hit, the # 40 I'm Me Again in early 1981 on MGM, all are here, including my personal favourite, My World Is Slipping Away (# 35 AC in February 1968).

Yes, many of her songs were love ballads that could not be described as R&R in any way, shape or form. But that also applied to those other female inductees as well. On the other hand, Connie probably had more legitimate R&R hits than any of them! Keeping in mind that you can only judge the music in the context of its time, these hits of hers were all R&R in every sense of the word AT THAT TIME: Stupid Cupid (# 14 in 1958); Fallin' (# 30 in 1958); Lipstick On Your Collar (# 5 Pop/# 10 R&B in 1959); Plenty Good Lovin' (# 69 in 1959); Everybody's Somebody's Fool (# 1 Pop/# 2 R&B in 1960); My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own (# 1 Pop/# 11 R&B in 1960); Many Tears Ago (# 7 in 1960); Breakin' In A Brand New Broken Heart (# 7 in 1961); (He's My) Dreamboat (# 14 in 1961); Vacation (# 9 in 1962); and many more. All of which are in this wonderful compilation, as already related in some of the other fine reviews.

Along the way, and always with MGM, she was backed by some of the best musical directors in the business: Stan Applebaum, Sid Bass, Artie Butler, Don Costa, Morty Craft, Ray Ellis, Tony Hatch, Leroy Holmes, Bill Justis, Gus Levene, Guilio Libano, Joe Lipman, Alan Lorber, Marty Manning, Bill McElhiney, Billy Mure, Claus Ogerman, Tony Osborne, Cliff Parman, Bill Ramal, David Rose, Joe Sherman, and Shelby Singleton.

All of this is detailed within the superb packaging, which comes in book form measuring 5" x 10" (accounting for the distortion in the picture shown here), with liner notes comprising an essay by Don Charles, and track-by-track annotations by Charles, Bill Levinson and Patrick Niglio, a complete discography of the contents, a listing of all her LPs and their contents, complete with album covers, and some great, candid shots of Connie at various stages of her illustrious career, including one in a leopard-skin bathing suit that will take your breath away.

This is the very best of a terrific entertainer who overcame some very difficult times in her life to rank right up there with the giants in the Golden Age of R&R, and who should be honoured at the very next opportunity by the R&R Hall Of Fame. If she isn't, shame on them. April 14, 2008

has them all!

This was a gift to my dad who is a big Connie fan. It met with his approval which says it all. January 28, 2007

A MINOR MASTERPIECE

This 118 track 4 disc set contains all her "A" side sings but not all her "B" sides. Several lp cuts have replaced and damaged the original concept of this collection. But this is of little importance. This is the MAJOR release in the US of Ms. Francis. The packaging is great with a wonderful color booklet loaded with pictures and information on each song and covers her career in almost minute detail. Connie Francis has always been underrated in her own country and it has been up to other lands to pay homage to her. This venture is a nice tribute to her. It was a long time coming. A must have for nostalgia and music buffs alike. May 21, 2006

a NEAR-MISS...it COULD HAVE been a COLLECTION OF THE CENTURY

(Polygram...what's wrong with you?) Here we have another one of those "wonderful mediocre" collections that the record companies are so fond of foisting on us.....This collection is truly a must-have, but it is only PART of the story. We are presented with 4 wonderful discs loaded with some of Ms. Francis' best songs, but Polygram has chosen to memorialize and take us through the first "2/3" of Connie's truly fabulous and vast recorded repertoire, but stops dead and leaves out some of her truly very best work...come on, Polygram, what was wrong with making it 5 discs, and really getting to something that really looks like a complete overview to present us with. If we would spring for the expense of 4 discs for most of her greatest, don't you think we would have gone for the cost of 5 discs to get it all? This is not a totally negative review, it's just that the four discs are so wonderful for as far as they go, it's a SHAME not to have another disc that would have rounded out the collection the way it should have been. Now that Universal has this material, who knows, we might get another, expanded, version of this collection. As the title of this review says, with a better fleshing-out of the later works to coincide with what we have here of her earlier and mid-career works, this could have been, truly, one of the greatest rock and roll collections of the century, bar none...remember Connie had the whole field to herself for a long time, and in addition to her great r&r hits, we also got those wonderful ballads, and country, ethnic, and art songs she was so GREAT at, not to mention all the glorious, wonderful "B" sides. This rating would have been 5+ stars had it included another disc, filling in the gaps that will be noticeably missing to any true Connie fan. March 12, 2003

All The Charted Hits Of One Of The Best Female Vocalists

Connie Francis was one of the most romantic singers of the 1950's and 1960's and is my choice for the sexiest. I don't buy CD's for the pictures included in the inserts, but the hardcover book which contains the 4 CD's in this collection is the best I have seen. The notes are excellent and there are many beautiful pictures of Connie.

She had the ability to write songs, but chose not to. She was the co-writer of one of her earliest recordings, Forgetting which is a beautiful up-tempo ballad, and my favorite Connie Francis song, and she also wrote the lyrics to her #9 hit Vacation. This collection contains all of the songs recorded by Connie which charted in the U.S. Fans of Connie who are interested in her other recordings should consider the four Bear Family collections which cover her Italian, German, and 1950's and 1960's American recordings.

Connie was a most dramatic performer without being pretentious as for example, Barbara Streisand and Bette Midler sometimes are. She was one of the most versatile singers and was equally comfortable singing up-tempo rock songs and slow, dramatic ballads. She was also one of the best international singers, with some superb Italian and Spanish recordings and even some good German music. Connie was one of the best song interpreters. Her covers of many classics such as Never On Sunday, Malaguena, Exodus are outstanding.

Two of my favorite tracks from this collection are songs written by Tony Hatch, Roundabout which is superior to Petula Clark's excellent recording and Love Is Me, Love Is You, Connie's most up-tempo song, which I played hundreds of times during the 1960's. I wish Connie would have recorded more Tony Hatch songs, but he worked almost exclusively with Petula Clark and his wife, Jackie Trent during the 1960's.

I am surprised that this collection is currently not available. Fans of Connie Francis will enjoy the Souvenirs Box Set. January 18, 2003

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