Connie Francis was born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero in Newark, New Jersey in 1937 into an Italian American family.  Her father encouraged her to perform or enter beauty contests as much as possible.  All the while, Connie Franconero excelled in high school, graduating with top honors.

In 1950, at the age of 13, Connie changed her name to Connie Francis before appearing on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Show.

She found work singing on demonstration records and lip syncing for actress Tuesday Weld and a few others in Hollywood movies.  She gained a recording contract with MGM Records but failed to chart any singles.

At the urging of her father and during her last recording session, she recorded the song Where The Boys Are from the movie of the same name.  Slowly, the song became a hit and Connie Francis’ career was off to a great start.  MGM Records renewed her contact, and the hits started coming.

She released many successful singles during 1959 and the early 1960s, most of which were targeted at the teen audience.  At the same time, after recording an album of songs sung in Italian, Connie Francis started recording albums in all the western European languages.  All her albums sold well around the world.

Connie Francis gained the reputation as the Queen of Rock & Roll as well as an International Pop singer and was voted Billboard’s Best Female Artist four years in a row.  Before Taylor Swift or Katy Perry, there was Connie Francis.

But success doesn’t always last, especially in 1964.  When the British Invasion hit, the Brill Building Sound was over.  Connie Francis continued to perform and record but never achieved the level of success she had before 1964.  She suffered some personal setbacks in the 1980s and her career has had a lot of ups and downs since.

This Christmas compilation CD was released by PolyGram Records in 1994.  It is almost a reissue of the Connie Francis Christmas album from 1959 titled Christmas In My Heart.  There are only 10 songs on here, and the original album had twelve songs, so right there, two are missing.  One other one is missing as well, and in its place is a song called Baby’s First Christmas.  So, we get only nine out of the original twelve songs.  But the bonus song, Baby’s First Christmas, is a nice addition to my Christmas music library.

Since this is not a true reissue of a Connie Francis Christmas album, I did not give the chart history above.  But I can tell you that the original album charted at # 16 on Billboard’s Christmas chart in 1963.  And the song not from the album, Baby’s First Christmas was released as a single in 1961 and charted at # 7 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart.  That means that all ten songs are charted hits.  It was a popular Christmas album to have in the early 1960s.

The cover of the CD is a picture used on one of the many reissue LPs that have been released over the years, but this copy is purposely over exposed.  It shows Connie Francis in a white fur coat with one red ribbon for adornment.  Her name appears at the top right in large red letters and ‘Christmas Cheer’ is below.

The back of the CD features the same font used for the name and CD title as it appears on the front and below is a numerical track listing.  Also included, below each song title, are writer / arranger credits.

The CD insert comes out and opens along a single fold-out.  On the left-hand side is a numerical track listing featuring writer / arranger credits for the first five songs and on the right-hand page, the remaining five songs are listed, all in small print.  No new information is provided and there is more empty space than words written.  Boo.

The back of the CD insert is a continuation of the photo used for the front cover.  It is mainly a plain white background.  There is a PolyGram Records, Inc. logo and a copyright notice at the bottom.  Boo again.

Overall, I find the artwork and lack of any pertinent information a bit disappointing.

The good news is that this is a terrific Christmas CD, albeit a short one.  The CD contains a good mix of traditional Christmas carols and 20^th century Christmas standards.  The orchestrations on the nine original songs to the album are provided by Geoff Love & his Orchestra.

The CD begins with I’ll Be Home For Christmas.  Right away with the first song, you hear Connie Francis’ beautiful voice and immediately understand why she was so popular.  This song showcases her natural vibrato wonderfully.  The lush orchestra of strings and celeste gives this a very soulful sound.  This version is included in my Top 500 Classic Christmas Recordings.

Silent Night, the 2^nd track, deserves mention.  Connie sings softly, and soulfully while the strings glide in the background.  This is one of the best renditions of this song I have.  In the second half of the song, Connie is joined by a soft mixed chorus.

The 3^rd song, Ave Maria, picks up where Silent Night left off.  Looking at the track list, after the first song, the next five songs are where we find all the Christmas carols and hymns.  Connie Francis applies her best performances on these songs.

This is not the kind of music most people associate with Connie Francis, but it is some of the most reverent recitals of these old carols I’ve ever heard.

Once again, Connie’s soft vocals and endearing recital of The Lord’s Prayer produces one of the most reverent Christmas songs there is.  The pace begins slowly and as the song progresses, Connie’s voice, with the choir in unison, reaches a fervent pitch before slowing and quietening down for the finish.

Connie Francis shows off the strength of her voice in Adeste Fideles.  With intermittent softer passages mixed in, Connie returns to deliver the vocals in a strong and passionate melody.

The 7^th song is an original Christmas song, Baby’s First Christmas.  It is more in line with the kind of songs that Connie Francis is known for.  It has a more modern subject matter than the previous five songs.  It is an endearing tribute to the wonder and beauty of a bay’s first Christmas.  It is very much like Where The Boys Are whereas it seems to be in the same key and has a similar melody.  This is the only song on this CD compilation that was not on the original album from 1959.  It was recorded and released as a single in 1961.  Here Don Costa & his Orchestra provide lush melodies.

The 8^th song, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) returns Connie Francis back to her soft, endearing vocal styling.  Geoff Love & his Orchestra are back to provide lush strings and reeds to deliver the perfect Christmas greeting.

The 9^th song is Winter Wonderland and Connie’s voice shows its strength once again.  The orchestra bounces along with string and reed instruments accented with bells.

The CD closes with The Twelve Days Of Christmas, the oldest carol on here, written in the middle of the 17^th century.  Connie Francis closes out this collection with one of the better selections on here due to the strength of her voice.  Throughout the whole CD, you can hear the youth in her 21-year-old voice.  Of course, the chorus is here to give more structure to the lyrics.  As the song winds down after the addition of the twelfth day, everyone comes together for a resounding finish.

If you are not familiar with Connie Francis or her beautiful voice, I will tell you that she has one of the most beautiful voices ever put on record.  She rivals all the best girl singers that came before her, Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee and others.  And she was just 21 years old at the time of this recording.

This is probably a Christmas CD you are not familiar with, performed by a girl you may not be familiar with either.  These songs were recorded and released right in the middle of the Classic Christmas Music Era.  The arrangements are top notch, and the voice is unmatched.  If you have gone beyond collecting mostly compilation CDs for your Christmas collection and are looking for specific artists to add, you must put Connie Francis on your need to get list.

There are probably a lot of Connie Francis Christmas compilation CDs out there.  This is the only one I have, so this is all I have to go on…for now.  Because I am missing three songs from the original album, I will need to either seek out a good copy of the original album or look for a larger compilation CD that contains those songs, but that would add a lot of unnecessary duplicates to my collection.  As far as I can tell, this CD and the three songs that are missing is all the Christmas output Connie Francis has.  Even the single from 1961, Baby’s First Christmas, had a general Pop ballad on the other side.

I give this CD :

****