"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.
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.
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. 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." 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'?"). 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.
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."
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.
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: "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." 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.
Original released version (1960).
Francis recorded the single version of "Where the Boys Are" on 18 October 1960 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.
Subsequently, Francis recorded "Where the Boys Are" in six other languages on November 9, 1960:
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. The Japanese version "Atashi-no" was even released in the US on MGM Records Single K 13005.
"Where the Boys Are" was comparatively less successful in the English speaking world: in the US, the song peaked at #4 while the track peaked on both the UK and Australian charts at #5. However, "Where the Boys Are" became Francis' signature tune and remains a fan favorite.
Re-recordings.
After , 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.
References.
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