Friday 28 November 2014

Greatest Hits/More Greatest Hits – CONNIE FRANCIS*****

Greatest Hits: Robot Man/Fallin’/Happy Days & Lonely Nights/Stupid Cupid/Carolina Moon/Plenty Good Lovin’/ Valentino/It Would Be Worth It/You’re Gonna Miss Me/If I Didn’t Care/My Happiness/I’m Sorry I Made You Cry More Greatest Hits: Jealous Of You/My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own/Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool/Mama/No One/God Bless America/Among My Souvenirs/Where The Boys Are/Many Tears Ago/Malaguena/Valentino/ Senza Mamma E Nnaumarata

Early compilations from Connie Francis who was the most popular female vocalist at the turn of the decade. Greatest Hits reached No. 17 in the US and No. 16 in the UK, with More Greatest Hits peaking at No. 39 in the US.

“Connie Francis was the Maria Callas of pop music. Her incredible popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s was unmatched, She was the girl every father wanted for a daughter and every boy wanted for his girl. She had a singular, sing-songy, heartbreaking voice which almost no one else could do successfully. She could take pretty much any material, no matter how minor, and make it good, sometimes great.”

“The sound is true, the self-harmonizing is beautiful, and the songs that made her famous (many of which were old Tin Pan Alley standards which were old-fashioned even in her heyday) hold up beautifully over the years.”

“Her voice, as usual, is spectacular - as clear as a bell, and exuding feeling on the ballads, equally rocking out on the uptempo numbers. These songs are timeless.”

“Contemporary rock pundits, including those who govern the rock & roll Hall of Fame, tend to smirk at, and dismiss as silly fluff, the efforts of early artists like Connie. But in this they are completely wrong, for one can only rightly judge and assess any cultural component within the context of its time. And the way Connie approached her craft was no different from any of the others of that era that the Hall of Fame has chosen to honour - that is to say, to deliver their songs to appeal to the fun and innocence in the human soul.”

“Connie Francis possessed a wonderful voice when she was in her prime in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Her rich, warm and vibrant voice attracted much deserved attention wherever and whenever she performed.”

“She had a young, fresh voice that expressed so many emotions precisely the way people experienced them in real life. People could relate to Connie for her energy as well as the topics of which she sang.”

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