Film Albums: Happiness - Connie Francis on Broadway Today

This week, we lost one of the greatest talents in the music world - Miss Connie Francis - who passed away at the age of 87. Francis, or Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero as she born, skyrocketed to fame at the age of 19 with the release of "Who's Sorry Now?" which was popularized on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. During the following three decades, she churned out hits in all the most popular genres: rock and roll, country, jazz, folk, Broadway, and even disco. 

She was not only an amazing singer but a great linguist as well and recorded albums in German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. She had many hits stateside but was an even bigger sensation in Europe, notably Germany, where many of her songs made the Top Ten charts. She had an incredibly large body of work that she released over her nearly sixty-year career. It can take you weeks to explore all of her songs! 

One of our favorite Connie Francis albums "Connie Francis Sings Award Winning Motion Picture Hits" was featured in a previous Film Albums post (you can read it here), so today we are going to highlight another favorite: "Happiness - Connie Francis on Broadway Today". This album has some beautiful arrangements of popular Broadway songs and Connie belts them out like only she could. Hallelujah, Baby and Sherry are especially rousing, but my favorites are the soft songs: the lovely Happiness, My Cup Runneth Over and I Wanna Be With You. 

Happiness - Connie Francis on Broadway Today was released by MGM Records in 1967 and, unfortunately, is not one of the easiest albums to track down online but you can find a few of these songs on Youtube. Check them out! 

Track Listing


Side One:

Happiness - "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"

Together Forever/My Cup Runneth Over Medley - "I Do! I Do!"

Hallelujah, Baby - "Hallelujah, Baby"

Willkommen/Cabaret Medley - "Cabaret"

Fiddler on the Roof/To Life Medley - "Fiddler on the Roof"

Walking Happy - "Walking Happy"

Side Two:

Illya Darling - "Illya Darling"

If They Could See Me Now/I'm a Brass Band - "Sweet Charity"

Sherry - "Sherry!"

I Wanna Be With You - "Golden Boy"

My Best Beau - "Mame"

The Impossible Dream - "Man of La Mancha"

Top Music Picks: Happiness, Fiddler on the Roof, Sherry, I Wanna Be With You, The Impossible Dream

Film Albums: Connie Francis Sings Award Winning Motion Picture Hits

For this month's Film Albums post, we have a gem of an album from MGM Records: Connie Francis Sings Award-Winning Motion Picture Hits. If you like Connie Francis and you like movie music, you will love this album because there is a nice selection of songs spanning the 1920s to the 1950s all of which are well-suited to Connie Francis' powerful voice. 

In 1961, Billboard Music Week surveyed the world of music listeners and Connie Francis was ranked the number one female vocalist in the world since she had Top Ten hits in 14 countries. Her popularity wasn't surprising. Ms. Francis had a beautiful and very versatile voice and she covered just about every musical genre from rock n' roll to country music, lounge, folk, Latin, and, of course, Italian music. But what she did best were "standards", lovely ballads like Moon River and All the Way...both of which are featured on this album. Also included are songs from the films Pinnochio, The Wizard of Oz, and The Days of Wine and Roses which had just earned composer Henry Mancini the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1963, the same year this album was issued. 

Track Listing


Side One:

Days of Wine and Roses

Secret Love

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

When You Wish Upon a Star

Whatever Will Be Will Be ( Que Sera Sera )

Over the Rainbow

Side Two:

Moon River

Lullaby of Broadway

You'll Never Know

The Last Time I Saw Paris

High Hopes

The Way You Look Tonight

All the Way

Top Music Picks: Moon River, The Last Time I Saw Paris, High Hopes, The Way You Look Tonight

Click here to listen to the album on Youtube.