''Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites'' is a
studio album recorded by American singer and entertainer
Connie Francis
Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero (born December 12, 1937),
known professionally as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Called the “First Lady of Rock & Roll” ...
.
Background
The album consists of
tradition
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
al Italian and
Neapolitan songs (e. g. ''
Santa Lucia'') as well as then-current contemporary songs like ''
Volare (Nel blu dipinto di blu)'' or ''
Piove'' which both had risen to international fame after being Italy's entries to the
Eurovision Song Contests of
1958
Events
January
* January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being.
* January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
* January 4
** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...
and
1959
Events January
* January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance.
* January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...
.
''Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites'' was recorded following a suggestion from Francis' father, George Franconero Sr., who played an active part in directing Francis' career. He had realized that Francis would have to make a timely transition from the youth-oriented
Rock 'n' Roll music to
adult contemporary music
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
if she wanted to pursue a successful long-term career in music.
To make the album appealing to both Italian immigrants as well as listeners not familiar with
Romanic languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fa ...
, Francis sang most of the songs
bilingual in either
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
/English or
Neapolitan/English. Only ''Volare'' and ''Piove'' are sung entirely in Italian whilst ''Torna a Surriento'' is sung entirely in Neapolitan. Francis, who didn't learn to speak Italian and Neapolitan fluently until 1962, received assistance from a
Berlitz teacher to achieve the correct pronunciation of the lyrics' Italian and Neapolitan lines.
The album was recorded between August 22 and 27, 1959, at
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...
's famous
Abbey Road Studios in London under the musical direction of
Tony Osborne
Anthony Wayne Osborne (July 13, 1926 – August 27, 2010) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Tough" Tony Borne.
Professional wrestling career
Osborne was an amateur wrestler in both high school and in the Unit ...
and was released in November 1959. Soon afterwards it entered the album charts where it remained for 81 weeks, peaking at # 4. It remains to this day as Francis' most successful album release.
[Connie Francis: ''Souvenirs'', Booklet of 4-CD-Box, Polydor 1996, Cat.-No. 314 533 382-2]
Following the success of ''Connie Francis sings Italian Favorites'', Francis recorded seven more albums of "Favorites" between 1960 and 1964, including
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
Favorites, among others.
Track listing
Side A
Side B
Not included songs from the sessions
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Connie Francis sings Italian Favorites
Connie Francis albums
1959 albums
Italian-language albums
MGM Records albums
Albums produced by Danny Davis (country musician)