Where the Boys Are (Connie Francis song)

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"Where the Boys Are"
Where the boys are by connie francis US early Polydor reissue.png
One of US reissues
Single by Connie Francis
B-side "No One," "Baby Roo"
ReleasedJanuary 1961
RecordedOctober 18, 1960 (A-side)
December 27, 1960 (B-side)
Genre Traditional pop
Length2:43 (A-side)
2:48 (B-side)
Label MGM Records K 12971
Songwriter(s) Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield
Producer(s) Jesse Kaye
Connie Francis
USsingles chronology
"Many Tears Ago" / "Senza Mamma e Nnammurata"
(1960)		"Where the Boys Are"
(1961)		"Breakin' in a Brand New Broken Heart" / "Someone Else's Boy"
(1961)

"Where the Boys Are" is a song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield for, and first recorded by, Connie Francis as the title track of the 1960 movie by the same name in which she was co-starring.

Contents

Original version by Connie Francis

Premise

Connie Francis recorded "Where the Boys Are" as the theme song for the motion picture Where the Boys Are a 1961 MGM release filmed in 1960 in which Francis made her movie acting debut as one of four female students on spring break in Fort Lauderdale. [1]

According to Francis she was on location in Fort Lauderdale when the film's director Joe Pasternak advised her that he had commissioned the Oscar-winning songwriting team of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen to write a theme song for the movie which Francis would sing. [1] Pasternak later recalled that when, at Francis's insistence, he agreed to consider a submission from the Sedaka-Greenfield songwriting team to follow her "Stupid Cupid" hit from that team, he told her, "They've got a week but it's got to be here by Wednesday: that's when we're picking the song." [1] Francis thereupon telephoned Howard Greenfield in New York City and Greenfield agreed to complete a "Where the Boys Are" theme song with Sedaka (although Francis recalled that Greenfield initially reacted unfavorably to the request, later saying "'Where the Boys Are'? What kind of stupid title is that? Who can write a song with a title like 'Where the Boys Are'?"). [1] Despite this reaction, Sedaka and Greenfield in fact completed two "Where the Boys Are" theme songs and in order to meet Pasternak's deadline, the demos of Sedaka singing both songs were delivered by an airline hostess who personally knew Francis and was working a flight to Florida. [1]

Sedaka and Greenfield had indicated to Francis that they both much preferred one of their two proposed "Where the Boys Are" theme songs over the other and Francis concurred. Of this, Francis later said, "One of the versions we loved and the other we [three] all hated. Joe Pasternak came to me after [the Wednesday] meeting with the decision. 'You're right, Connie,' he said: 'This is the [right] song.' And it was the version the three of us hated." [1]

An alternate scenario for Pasternak's vetting of the two Sedaka-Greenfield bids indicates that the producer witnessed a live performance of Francis performing both versions of the song to Sedaka's piano accompaniment. According to this scenario, the rejected version of the "Where the Boys Are" theme song was never recorded even as a demo. [2]

Neil Sedaka has stated that "Where the Boys Are" is the only one of his 700 plus compositions not written with any intent of his singing it himself: (Sedaka quote:) "People think I wrote [a lot of] songs for others, but the truth is I wrote them all for me to record. Other people then picked them up and recorded them themselves." [3] Sedaka did perform the song in concert, however, notably for his live album "The Show Goes On" recorded at the Royal Albert Hall.

Motion picture version

The version chosen by Joe Pasternak was recorded for the first time on July 12, 1960, in Hollywood and was only used when combined to medleys with the overture and closing credits scores written by George E. Stoll. [4]

Original released version (1960)

Francis recorded the single version of Where the Boys Are on 18 October 1960 [5] in a New York City recording session with Stan Applebaum arranging and conducting. The same session also came up with Francis' hits "Many Tears Ago" and "Breakin' in a Brand New Broken Heart" as well as the songs "On the Outside Looking In", "Happy New Year Baby", and "Mein Herz weiß genau, was es will", which all would remain unreleased until the 1980s. [2]

Subsequently, Francis recorded "Where the Boys Are" in six other languages on November 9, 1960: [5] [6]

The German and French singles of the respective translations of "Where the Boys Are" would feature as B-side a translated version of "No One," the flip of the English-language single: the German rendering of "No One" was entitled "Niemand", the French was "Personne". (Francis also recorded renderings of "No One" in Italian: as "Mai nessuno", and Japanese: "Mada".)

The various versions of "Where the Boys Are" would afford Francis a #1 hit in some fifteen countries. [7] The Japanese version Atashi-no was even released in the US on MGM Records Single K 13005. [2]

Where the Boys Are was comparatively less successful in the English speaking world: in the US, the song peaked at #4 [8] while the track peaked on both the UK and Australian charts at #5. [9] However, Where the Boys Are became Francis' signature tune and remains a fan favorite.

Charts

Chart (1961)Peak
position
Australia5
Italy ( Musica e dischi ) [10] 2
Ireland ( The Herald ) [11] 6
New Zealand ( Listener ) [12] 4
New Zealand ( RIANZ ) [11] 1
Philippines [11] 4
UK Singles (OCC) [13] 5
US Billboard Hot 100 [14] 4

Re-recordings

After several years of stage absence, Francis recorded a new album entitled Who's Happy Now? in 1978. A revamped Disco version of Where the Boys Are was chosen as the leading track of the album and issued as a single. Although the English recording wasn't able to crack the charts anywhere, Francis also recorded Spanish, Italian and Japanese Disco versions of the song.

Francis would again re-record "Where the Boys Are", the song being one of seventeen of her hits remade for her 1989 album Where the Hits Are a Roger Hawkins production recorded for Malaco Records at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. [15]

Cover versions

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Podolsky, Rich (2012). Don Kirshner the Man With the Golden Ear: how he changed the face of rock & roll . Milwaukee WI: Hal Leonard Books. ISBN   978-1-4584-1670-4.
  2. 1 2 3 Roberts, Ron: Connie Francis 1960–1962, companion book to 5 CD retrospective "Kissin', Twistin', Goin' Where the Boys Are
  3. ↑ Onesti, Ron (October 8, 2015). "Ron Onesti: Neil Sedaka … A multi-platinum legend". Daily Herald .
  4. ↑ Connie Francis in Hollywood, CD Booklet, Rhino Records SNY 42812, Hollywood 1997
  5. 1 2 Roberts, Ron: Connie Francis Discography 1955–1975, revised editions 1979 and 1983
  6. ↑ Feddersen, Jan: Connie Francis, companion book to 5 CD retrospective "Lass mir die bunten Träume", Bear Family Records BCD 15 786 EI, Hambergen 1994
  7. ↑ Francis, Connie: Who's Sorry Now? (Autobiography), St. Martin's Press, 1984, ISBN   0-312-87088-4
  8. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 240.
  9. ↑ Francis, Connie and others: Souvenirs, companion book to 4 CD retrospective "Souvenirs", Polydor (New York) 1995, Kat.-Nr. 314 533 382-2
  10. ↑ "Billboard Magazine, May 29, 1961". Billboard. 29 May 1961.
  11. 1 2 3 "Billboard Magazine, June 5, 1961". Billboard. 5 June 1961.
  12. ↑ "flavour of new zealand - search lever". Flavourofnz.co.nz.
  13. ↑ "Connie Francis: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company.
  14. ↑ "Connie Francis Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
  15. ↑ "Connie Francis - Where The Hits Are". Discogs.com. 1989.
  16. ↑ "Get Wet (2)". Discogs.com.
  17. ↑ Boston Globe 30 November 1995 "Stage Fight" by Michele R. McPhee p.75,79
  18. 1 2 St Petersburg Times 8 April 1984 "Where the Songs Are" p.6A
  19. ↑ "Tracey Ullman - You Caught Me Out". Discogs.com. 1984.
  20. ↑ "Tiny Toon Adventures - Tiny Toons Sing!". Discogs.com. 1992.
  21. ↑ "Cover versions of Where the Boys Are by Gerard Joling". Secondhandsongs.com.
  22. ↑ "Neil Sedaka – The Definitive Collection". Discogs.com. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  23. ↑ "Ricky Koole - No Use Crying". Nu.nl. January 7, 2014.
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