# I'd never heard of the DeFranco Family before today **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 29, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-never-heard-of-the-defranco-family-before-today/620371 "2012-04-29T23:08:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-never-heard-of-the-defranco-family-before-today/620371/1 "2012-04-29T23:08:09Z")
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 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SnakeBabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@SnakeBabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakeBabe)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-never-heard-of-the-defranco-family-before-today/620371/2 "2012-04-29T23:20:15Z")
Hah, My husband has that song on his iPod 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-never-heard-of-the-defranco-family-before-today/620371/3 "2012-04-30T01:17:32Z")
> [@SnakeBabe](#): > > Hah, My husband has that song on his iPod 🙂 So do I. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-never-heard-of-the-defranco-family-before-today/620371/4 "2012-04-30T01:32:07Z")
I don’t, but I did listen to it online a while ago–childhood memories of the 70s! Nostalgia ensued. ---
**Author:** ![Sally\_Mander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@Sally\_Mander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sally_Mander)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-never-heard-of-the-defranco-family-before-today/620371/5 "2012-04-30T02:01:57Z")
> [@SnakeBabe](#): > > Hah, My husband has that song on his iPod 🙂 > [@Alpha\_Twit](#): > > So do I. 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. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-never-heard-of-the-defranco-family-before-today/620371/6 "2012-04-30T02:49:03Z")
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. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![catnoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@catnoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catnoe)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-never-heard-of-the-defranco-family-before-today/620371/7 "2012-04-30T03:01:05Z")
Wow, I had such a crush on Tony DeFranco… Somewhere in Mom’s basement are probably the TeenBeats to prove it. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-never-heard-of-the-defranco-family-before-today/620371/8 "2012-04-30T03:16:09Z")
I loved the DeFranco Family! I had both of their albums and even went to see them in concert! Can anyone top THAT?? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-never-heard-of-the-defranco-family-before-today/620371/9 "2012-04-30T08:01:19Z")
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.