THE LEGENDARY FRANKIE
LANE
Of
all the great singers of the 20th Century, only a handful have
managed to weather the storm of changing trends and interests
over the years and continue to record and perform at a consistent
high level. Frankie Laine is a classic example. With a career
spanning some 6 decades, he has never failed to please audiences
worldwide ever since he burst onto the music scene in 1947, with
his first hit "That's My Desire" As a teenager, Frankie (born
Francesco LoVecchio on March 30th 1913) showed early signs of
his musical talents as he first sang in public as part of the
choir at the Church Of The Immaculate Conception. Success did
not come quickly for Frankie, and it wasn't until 1946, when he
was singing in Billy Berg's Jazz Club in Hollywood, that Hoagy
Carmichael spotted him as he sang one of Carmichael's own compositions.
This lucky meeting led to a steady job at Billy Berg's club that
eventually resulted in a recording contract with Mercury records
and his first ever commercial release "That's My Desire". Frankie's
timing could not have been better. During the late forties and
early fifties there was a general shift away from the 'Big Band'
sound and a growing interest in 'popular singers'. His chart success
proves this theory. In the UK at the end of 1952, Frankie scored
2 top ten hits with "High Noon" and "Sugarbush" (with Doris Day),
swiftly followed by a string of hits in 1953, 1954, 1955 and 1956
including "I Believe", "Tell Me A Story" (with Jimmy Boyd), "Hey
Joe", "Answer Me", "Granada", "The Kids Last Fight", "Rain Rain
Rain", "Cool Water" and "A Woman In Love". Incredibly, in 1953
alone, he spent 27 weeks at the UK No. 1 spot, and amassed 20
UK top 10 hits between 1952 and 1956. Amazingly, amidst these
hit records on both sides of the Atlantic, Frankie found time
to star in several films as well as present his own variety program
on CBS. It was during this time that Frankie became associated
with several films and television series' by singing their themes
such as Mel Brooks' classic comedy western "Blazing Saddles" and
possibly the most well known TV theme song "Rawhide". Although
the hits dried up in the 60's and 70's, Frankie's popularity certainly
did not. He continued to tour worldwide to enthralled audiences
and built up a huge repertoire, culminating in a chart topping
compilation album in 1977, "The Very Best Of Frankie Laine". Ill
health forced Frankie into semi retirement in the eighties, living
in his ocean front house in San Diego with his wife of many years,
Nanette Grey, a former Universal starlet. Health allowing, he
still ventured back into the studio, recording "A Country Laine"
in 1985 and "Round Up" in 1987. In 1996 Frankie was presented
with a lifetime Achievement Award at the 27th Annual Songwriters
Hall Of Fame awards ceremony. More recently, in 1998 he released
another album "It Aint Over 'Till It's Over". In July1999 he remarried
after the tragic and sudden death of his wife Nanette, and in
the same year he performed 3 sell-out nights in The Las Vegas
Orleans Casino, returning the following year due to his popularity
there. After the appalling events of September 11 last year, Frankie
released a single "My Buddy", with all royalties being donated
to the New York Firemen. With global sales well in excess of 100
million units, Frankie Laine can be considered a giant amongst
popular performers and one of the most important singers of all
time. Ó Christian Baldock All tracks exclusively licensed from
Frankie Laine by Prestige Elite Records Ltd
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Volume
1 - CD No.. 1
1) High Noon (Washington/Tiomkin) MCA Music
2) Moonlight Gambler (Hillard/Springer) Chappell Music/Bourne
Music
3) Mule Train (Lange/Heath/Glickman Music Sales
4) Cool Water (Nolan) B Feldman & Co. Ltd
5) The Kids Last Fight (Merrill) Intersong Music
6) A Woman In Love (Loesser) MPL Communications
7) Georgia On My Mind (Carmichael/Gorrell) Music Sales
8) Send In The Clowns (Sondheim) Warner Chappell Music
9) Life Is Beautiful (Astaire/Wolf) Chappell Morris 10) Evergreen
(Streisand/Williams) Warner Chappell Music
11) Nobody But You (Gershwin/Jackson/De Sylva) Unknown
12) Hey Good Looking (Cole Porter) Warner Chappell Music (with
Jo Stafford)
13) Hambone (Saunders/Washington) EMI Music (with Jo Stafford)
14) Don't Cry Cry Baby (Tepper/Martin/Maher) Music Sales
15) S'posin' (Denniker/Razaf) EMI Music
16) Lady Be Good (Gershwin/Gershwin) Warner Chappell Music
17) Fever (Davenport/Cooley) Lark Music
18) Roses Of Picardy (Wood/Weatherly) Chappell Music
Volume 1 - CD No. 2
1)
Riders In The Sky (Jones) Chappell Morris Music
2) Rawhide (Washington/Tiomkin) MCA Music
3) Jambalaya (Williams) Acuff Rose
4) Gunfight At The OK Corral (Washington/Tiomkin) Famous Chappell
5) The 3.10 To Yuma (Dunning/Washington) Campbell Connelly Ltd
6) Hummingbird (Robertson) Carlin Music
7) That Lucky Old Sun (Smith/Gillespie) Robbins Music 8) North
To Alaska (Philips) SBK United Partnership
9) Don't Fence Me In (Porter) Chappell Music
10) Blazing Saddles (Brooks) W B Music Corp.
11) Cry Of The Wild Goose (Gilkyson) Campbell Connelly Ltd
12) Another Someone Done Somebody Wrong Song (Butler) EMI Music
13) Wanted Man (Hillard/Pokriss) Chappell Morris Music
14) Your Cheating Heart (Williams) Acuff Rose
15) Call Of The Wild (Scaife/Scaife) MCPS
16) Along The Najavo Trail (Markes/Charles) Peter Morris Music
17) The Hanging Tree (Livingstone) Warner Bros. Music 18) Tumbling
Tumbleweeds (Noland) Williamson Music
Volume 2 - CD No. 1
1)
I Believe (Drake/Graham/Shirl/Stillman) Tro Essex Music
2) That Old Feeling (with Buck Clayton) ((Brown/Fain) Redwood
Music/EMI Music
3) Up Above My Head (with Johnny Ray) (Brown) Carlin Music
4) On The Sunny Side Of The Street (Fields/McHugh) Lawrence Wright
Music/EMI Music
5) Way Down Yonder In New Orleans (with Jo Stafford) (Creamer/Layton)
Lawrence Wright Music
6) Sugarbush (with Doris Day) (Marais) Campbell Connelly Ltd
7) In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening (with Jo Stafford) (Unknown)
(Unknown)
8) Fly Away (Unknown) (Unknown)
9) Makin' Whoopee (Kahn/Donaldson) EMI Music
10) Better To Have Loved (Graham/Parker) Red Rose Music 11) What
Am I Here For (Ellington) EMI Music
12) I'd Do It Over Again (Fuller) MCA Music
13) Basin Street Blues (with Jo Stafford) (Williams) EMI Music
14) Rain Rain Rain (with The Four Lads) (Davis) Carlin Music 15)
Stars Fell On Alabama (with Buck Clayton) (Parish/Perkins) Campbell
Connelly
16) How Lovely Cooks The Meat (with Doris Day) (Marasi) MCA Music
17) Aint It A Pity And A Shame (with TheFour Lads) (McConologue)
H&B Webman & Co
18) High Society (with Jo Stafford) (Copeland/Swain/Green) MCA
Music
Volume
2 - CD No. 2
1)
Tell Me A Story (with Jimmy Boyd) (Gilkyson) Montclare Music/Cinephonic
Music
2) Fallen Angel (Bouchard/Robins) Carlin Music
3) Memories In Gold (Barnes/Moore) Chappell Music
4) Jealousy (Gafe/Bloom/Haye) Lawrence Wright Music/EMI Music
5) Jezebel (Shanklin) Intersong Music
6) That's My Desire (Loveday/Kresa) B Feldman & Co/Redwood Music
7) Rose Allen (Stuckley) EMI Music
8) Sometimes I'm Happy (Youmans/Caesar) Chappell Music 9) Old
Enough To Be Your Father (Shaper/Morrow) Music Sales/ Morrow Music
10) It Aint Gonna Be Like That (Torme/Laine) Campbell Connelly
Ltd
11) This Can't Be Love (Rodgers/Hart) Warner Chappell Music
12) Someday Sweetheart (Jerome/Jasmyn) Miller Music
13) You've Changed (Carey/Fischer) Southern Music Ltd 14) Coquette
(Lombardo/Green) EMI United Partnership 15) Baby, Baby All The
Time (Troup) MCA Music
16) I'll Never Sing Another Song (Jurgens/Alexandra) Dick James
Music Ltd
17) Solitude Ellington/De Lange/Mills J R Lafleur
18) We'll Be Together Again (Laine/Fischer) Music Sales
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