I'd never heard of the DeFranco Family before today

Cafe Society
1

Seems like I should have. My older brother and sister listened to top 40 radio in the 70s when I was a kid. I’ve gone back and caught up on a lot of acts from the time that I had never heard of. Although I’m never surprised when I discover hidden gems that weren’t mainstream, it does surprise me that there are acts that made it pretty high on the charts that I haven’t heard of.

I was listening to a podcast this week, and sometimes the audio guy will tack on a song at the end. Usually I just skip to the next episode, but I was gardening and my hands were muddy so it played. It was awful, but I could tell it was a kid singing. The production value was really high and the background singers sounded professional, but the kid was amateurish. Endearing, but amateurish.

Later I Soundhounded it and it was “Heartbeat.” I’m kinda curious as to why Tony DeFranco didn’t sound as well-produced as other child acts of the time. I’m not trying to be harsh or mean; in a way it was kinda nice NOT to hear perfect polish. Not to compare them to The Beatles, but I remember reading interviews with George Martin and he specifically made sure that there were small imperfections in The Beatles’ harmonizing. (I don’t have a cite.) I can hear these imperfections, and it makes them sound more real to me.

Anyway, if there’s an MPSIMS version of Cafe Society, this goes there :slight_smile:

2

Hah, My husband has that song on his iPod :slight_smile:

3

So do I.

4

I don’t, but I did listen to it online a while ago–childhood memories of the 70s! Nostalgia ensued.

5

Yep, me, too. I was a child of the 70s, and I remember hearing this on the radio all the time when I was a kid. It makes me think of summer, for some reason.

6

There was a point in time there, maybe a year or so, when they were pretty popular, and I suppose they were sort of the Italian-American* equivalent of the Osmonds or the Jackson 5. Not sure if it was a relative lack of talent, or what, but they quickly fell off the radar.

    • Now that I look them up on Wikipedia, they were actually Italian-Canadian. Never knew that. :slight_smile:
7

Wow, I had such a crush on Tony DeFranco… Somewhere in Mom’s basement are probably the TeenBeats to prove it.

8

I loved the DeFranco Family! I had both of their albums and even went to see them in concert! Can anyone top THAT?? :wink:

9

One of my favorite bands, The Replacements, enjoyed annoying their audiences by playing DeFranco Family covers. Sadly, they’d given up such foolishness by the time I saw them.