CONNIE FRANCIS

 CANZONI ITALIANE CON AMORE

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 No.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'é 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.

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  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 Più]), 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 weaiting 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’Italiana; 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 Mio 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 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.