Franke & The Knockouts – The Best Of: Sweetheart Anniversary Edition (2011)

Not a single month goes by without me playing a song by the legendary and still rather obscure FRANKE AND THE KNOCKOUTS. Sure they had a few hits in the USA, but in Europe only the die-hard AOR fans are familiar with the 3 records of this New Brunswick,

New Jersey based early 80s band. The band’s lead singer FRANKE PREVITE scored however a major hitsingle as songwriter for DIRTY DANCING’s “The time of my life”, a song everybody knows and gave Franke himself even the Oscar almost 25 years ago! However, the 3 early 80s records by FRANKE AND THE KNOCKOUTS are hidden gems that should be ranked alongside any FOREIGNER, TOTO, JOURNEY or SURVIVOR record. Although I already own all 3 records on both vinyl and CD, it is always nice when a new

dedicated record of the band is being released, especially when Franke himself remastered the original tracks just recently. This is the case with the new ‘best of’ CD of FRANKE AND THE KNOCKOUTS, which has been released on FRIDAY MUSIC.

Although not all their classics can be found here, because the ultimate FRANKE AND THE KNOCKOUTS tune “Keep on fighting” is sadly missing, from start to finish this is Classic early 80s AOR with a little Westcoast here and there. The band was well-known for their incredible catchy hooklines, memorable choruses and the outstanding picture-perfect vocals of Franke, while instrumental they were the typical pure early radio-ready AOR band from the US of A.

This new best of CD contains a lot of ballads, but Franke could really rock too, such as can be heard in for example “Never had itbetter” (late 70s FOREIGNER meets early 80s SURVIVOR, including the dut-dut piano-keyboardwork a la TOTO’s “Hold the line”) and “Outrageous” (their most Melodic Rock orientated song), although they had a lot more rockers, which cannot be found here however.

(from http://myglobalmind.com)

01 - Sweetheart

02 - She's A Runner
03 - Running Into The Night
04 - Come Back
05 - You're My Girl
06 - One For All
07 - Annie Goes Hollywood
08 - Never Had It Better
09 - Without You (Not Another Lonely Night)
10 - Just What I Want
11 - Morning Sun
12 - You Don't Want Me (Like I Want You)
13 - Outrageous
14 - Come Rain Or Shine
15 - You're All That Really Matters
16 - One Good Reason
17 - Blame It On My Heart
18 - Hungry Eyes [Original Version - Bonus Track]
19 - Beat Of A Broken Heart [Previously Unreleased]

Franke Previte – lead vocals
Billy Elworthy – guitars
Bobby Messano - guitars, backing vocals
Blake Levinsohn – keyboards
Tommy Ayers – keyboards, backing vocals
Leigh Foxx – bass
Claude LeHenaff – drums
Tico Torres (Bon Jovi) – drums