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Fran Jeffries: the Sixties

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Fran Jeffries
Many female pop singers who were young adults in the mid-1960s ran into career trouble. Most had come up in the late 1950s with their hearts set on becoming traditional pop singers and had dreams of being signed by Capitol Records. But the powerful rock and Motown incursions of the pop charts mid-decade completely changed the landscape, devaluing '50s-style singing. The exception among older female pop singers was Petula Clark, who was 31 in 1964 when she had a No. 1 pop hit with Downtown and then skillfully embraced pop rock rather than Tin Pan Alley with the guidance of Tony Hatch. Other than Pet, most female singers of a certain age dismissed the teen movement as a juvenile fad. Unfortunately, many of them soon found themselves without a record label, replaced by younger pop stars such as Lesley Gore, Diana Ross, Cher and others.

One of these talented traditional female pop singers was Fran Jeffries, who also was a talented actress and model. Born to a Greek father and French-English mother, Jeffries was 27 in 1964 and had already appeared in The Pink Panther (1963) singing Meglio Stasera (It Had Better Be Tonight) and had a minor but provocative role in Sex and the Single Girl (1964), where she sang the movie's title song. Jeffries recorded three albums in the 1960s—Fran Can Really Hang You Up the Most (1960), Fran Jeffries Sings of Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and This Is Fran Jeffries (1966).

Let's be clear here. Jeffries wasn't merely a pretty face. Her first album was arranged by Ralph Burns, her second featured music from the movie scored by Neal Hefti and the third was arranged by Dick Grove and Bill Justis and included saxophonists Bud Shank and Bill Perkins and bassist Ralph Pena. These albums framed her voice beautifully.

As the 1960s wore on, singles released by Jeffries failed to gain traction in the marketplace. Her marriage to singer Dick Haymes in 1958 lasted until 1961, when the pair separated and then divorced in 1965. Jeffries went on to perform regularly in Las Vegas super clubs. Her daughter, Stephanie, with Haymes, married lyricist and Elton John-collaborator Bernie Taupin in 1993, a marriage that lasted until 1998. Jeffries would marry two more times.

My interest in Jeffries began yesterday afternoon during an e-chat with director Raymond De Felitta about Hefti's fabulous movie score for Sex and the Single Girl. Raymond reminded me of the scene that featured Jeffries acting and singing the title song as Tony Curtis watched from the sofa.

Jeffries was (and may still be) a terrific singer. She was a gifted vocalist and a cool, confident actress who knew how to charm live audiences and the camera. It's unfortunate she wasn't with a better label at the time and that she wasn't better managed. Or perhaps she was too mature in an age when the abundance of teen pop stars made anyone older than 25 over the hill. Regardless, Jeffries was a talented singer who should have recorded more. It remains a mystery to me why she didn't. 

JazzWax tracks. Two of Fran Jeffries' albums are available as downloads—Fran Can Really Hang You Up the Most (go here) and This Is Fran Jeffries (go here).

JazzWax clips. Here's Fran Jeffries performing Alfie and Sunny in France in 1970. Her voice is a tad pitchy in places, but dig what she does with Alfie and how she performs the song with bruised seduction...



Here's Jeffries in the movie Sex and the Single Girl singing Neal Hefti's title theme...



Here's Jeffries on the Tom Jones Show in 1969...



And here's a TV interview with Jeffries in 1993, with a clip of her and Haymes on the Ed Sullivan Show (at 12:22)...

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This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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