Many singers emerge and return to obscurity and sadly Fran Lacey is one of them. All that is known about her on the web is contained in the liner notes of her one and only LP “Frann!!” I cannot find anything at all about her anywhere else.
According to her liner notes, at the time of recording her LP Mrs. Les Menns was a housewife and mother of two small children in Buena Park, California. As a student at Visalia High School and later as a stenographer for a Los Angeles metal firm, she dreamed of a singing career. More than that, she sang whenever she had the chance. Her reputation as a vocalist was high among her friends and family, but it stopped there.
The thought of being discovered never occurred to her, especially after she married in 1955 and settled down to raising a family. Then one day some friends in the neighboring small town of Anaheim introduced her to Russ Molloy, executive vice president of Bel Canto records, and coaxed him to give her a audition, much to her embarrassment. She later arranged with her mother–in-law to baby sit with her son 2, and daughter 13 months and showed up for a recording session with the backing strings of Hugh Simon.
LA Times stated “There is an indefinite enchantment in her voice and style. She has a rare ability to combine clarity with emotional projection. With just a tint of touchiness Fran Lacey is able not only to sing you a song but to make you experience its every shading and syllable”. Downbeat magazine on the other hand gave Fran a not so good review. (See comments below.)
Yet with arrangements by Russ Garcia, Wayne Dunston and Si Zentner this was the first and last chapter of her Cinderella story as after this album nothing was heard from her again!
If anyone has any other information to add to this small write-up it would be gladly appreciated.
For “Fran Lacey – Fran!! (1958 Bel Canto)” go here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.imagenetz.de/iB7Ka
1. Beautiful Friendship 3:27
2. When Your Lover Has Gone 2:17
3. Breezing Along With The Breeze 2:36
4. Deed I Do 1:54
5. I Can't Believe That I'm In Love With You 2:06
6. You Do Something To Me 2:03
7. Lonesome Road 2:20
8. I'm Through With Love 4:15
9. Lover Man 2:53
10. All Of You 2:35
11. The Song Is Ended 2:15
12. Easy Street 3:05
Hi Bob
ReplyDeleteGreat post
It seems Fran Lacey is referenced in the book:
"The Last Musical Hurrah::Jazz and Pop Singing and the Onslaught of Rock" By Bill Reed.
Which focuses on obscure 'One Shot Wonder' jazz and artists pop artists of the 1950's and 1960's and seemingly is the only analysis of the 'One Shot' genre. Whether there is any more information in the book about her than you already have from the back of the album cover is unclear.
Bill Reed's 'CV' is here on his blog (which hasn't been updated since 2016).
https://people-vs-drchilledair.blogspot.com/2016/01/bill-reed-is-journalist-and-writer.html
I quickly scanned the posts on his blog and none mentioned Lacey in the title but thats not to say there isn't mention of her in the body of the blog.
I had a quick check and the book is still obtainable in the UK and US on Amazon and / or eBay for oficianados of the genre.
I then got even more curious and did some digging around the Internet and according to the introduction to an article I found in the Tucson Daily Citizen dated November 12th 1958 that included an interview about Fran's rise to fame (I didn't sign up to read the whole thing) Fran Lacey was 28 when she recorded the album and therefore she was likely born in 1929 or 1930.
So I continued googling using her married name and I did find a "Fran(ces) H Menns" (Menns being her married name) linked to a Les Menns deceased (her husbands name) who is 94 years old (so born in 1930). So the age fits. She also at one time lived in Anaheim where the record label was based and subsequently nevada and elsewhere in California and Family Tree records also indicate that that Francis H Menns is related to a Greg Menns born in 1957 and a Leslie Coler, who Fran currently lives with, who was born in 1957/1958 which fits with the age of her two children.
Whether that is the Fran Lacey or not is only guesswork but the information found is not a bad fit. So its possible she is still alive and living in California with one of her children.
I didn't investigate much further but beyond the Tucson newspaper article, the year books for her high school for 1945, 1946 and 1948 are available on line and there are further records/contact details etc on the likes of family tree/ people search sites for anyone determined to find out more. It's amazing how much you can find on the Internet even without signing up to anything (even people's phone numbers). So there you go.....
Update
ReplyDeleteI've now found a contemporary review of the LP in Down Beat magazine 22nd January 1959. It might explain a little why her career was so short:
Down Beat 22nd January 1959 (pg 30,32)
Fran Lacey
Fran! (Bel Canto Stereo SR-1008) marks the recording, and possibly the professional debut of Fran Lacey. Backed by the string orchestra of Hugh Simon, she sings her way through 12 standard tunes, arranged by Russ Garcia, Wayne Dunsten, Si Zentner.
Actually, Fran Lacey is Mrs Les Menns, a Buena Park Calif. housewife and mother of two. She had dreamed of singing professionally before this, but she confined her singing to groups of family and friends before this.
Since today's record market does not require experience in order to justify an individual as a performer, Miss Lacey, or Mrs Menns, found herself in a recording studio. As she makes her way through the tunes on this LP, she displays an agonizingly faulty intonation. This has proved quite effective for other singers, so I suppose Mrs Menns can use it as a bridge to fame too.
Among her other characteristics are a rather bland style (or a lack of one, depending on your orientation), an often awkward sense of phrasing.
The stereo quality of this LP is decent, but the entire project could have been accomplished on a home recorder(D.G.)
Ouch!
https://archive.org/details/sim_down-beat_1959-01-08_26_1
Link to the Tucson into too:
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/18219038/
Manny, thank you for your diligence in attempting to find more information on Fran Lacey - well done.
ReplyDeleteI have The Biographical Guide To The Great Jazz And Pop Singers by Will Friedwald which is probably the most comprehensive book on the subject but I couldn't find her name there...
Thanks for this post, Bob.
A big thanks to Manny Kent and Mel for their informative input. I only spend a few hours a day on the web and haven't the time to go in depth investigating, hence posting what I find in my small window. I've made a few alterations on the main post.
ReplyDeleteRegards, Bob.
Many thanks for 3 for the album + info
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