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. 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: (Sedaka quote:) "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. •
German (as
Wenn ich träume) •
French (as ''Je sais qu'un gars'') •
Italian (as
Qualcuno mi aspetta) •
Japanese (as
Atashi-no) •
Neapolitan (as ''C'è qualcuno'') •
Spanish (as
Donde hay chicos) 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 No. 1 hit in some fifteen countries. The Japanese version
Atashi-no was even released in the US on MGM Records Single K 13005. while the track peaked on both the UK and Australian charts at No. 5. However,
Where the Boys Are became Francis' signature tune and remains a fan favorite.
Charts Re-recordings After
several years of stage absence, 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. ==Cover versions==