Fran Jeffries: the Sixties

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com
May 05, 2016

Many talented pop singers who were young adults in the mid-1960s ran into career trouble. Most had come up in the late 1950s hoping to follow in the footsteps of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Peggy Lee, but the powerful rock and Motown incursions of the pop charts in 1964 and '65 completely changed the landscape. Most young traditionalists stuck in Tin Pan Alley were devalued, leaving many with fewer traditional paths or opportunities. Barbra Streisand and Nancy Wilson were among the few exceptions.

One of these up-and-coming traditionalists caught in the shift was Fran Jeffries, who also was a talented actress and dancer. 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 the film Sex and the Single Girl (1964), seductively singing the title theme to Tony Curtis seated on a couch. Unfortunately, Jeffries recorded only 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). Then she spent much of her career appearing in supper clubs.

Let's be clear here. Jeffries was more than 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. Each of these albums framed her voice beautifully.

As the 1960s wore on, singles released by Jeffries failed to gain substantial 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 and Haymes had worked together as a Steve and Eydie alternative in the late '50s and early '60s, but after the split Jeffries went on to perform as a popular solo act in Las Vegas. An interesting bit of trivia: Their daughter, Stephanie, would married lyricist and Elton John-collaborator Bernie Taupin in 1993, a marriage that lasted until 1998.

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. I had it playing during a cold, rainy New York afternoon, and Raymond reminded me of the scene that featured Jeffries singing the title song. Which made me take a break to research Jeffries' career.

Jeffries, it turns out, was (and may still be) a terrific singer. She was a gifted vocalist and a cool and confident actress who knew how to charm live audiences and the camera. It's unfortunate she wasn't better managed and didn't record for a better label. Or perhaps she was too mature in an age when the abundance of teen pop stars made most singers older than 25 seem over the hill. Regardless, Jeffries was a talented singer who should have recorded more.

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)...

JazzWax note. Dig Raymond De Felitta's blog, Movies Til Dawn. He's running a series on his late father, Frank De Felitta, who was a novelist, director and documentary filmmaker. Great stuff on Frank's World War II films from the front. Go here.

Used with permission by Marc Myers