Connie Francis and Dionne Warwick: Two divas in Las Vegas

By Deardra Shuler

Multi-gold record winner and legendary singer Connie Francis who is known nationally and internationally, will grace the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel stage with Dionne Warwick during the weekend of May 21-May 23rd.

There was a time that Connie was dubbed Female Entertainer of the Century. Her foreign hits remained in the Top Ten for more than six months at a time, earning her titles such as “Japan’s Most Popular Singer,” “Italy’s Most Beloved Italian American Singer” and she won the European Golden Lion Award as “Most Popular Artist-Male or Female on the European Continent.”

Born Concetta Rosemarie Franconero in Newark, N.J., Ms. Francis entered the world during a dance contest. “My mother was dancing at one of those dance contests similar to the movie “They Shoot Horses...” It was during the song, “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby,” I decided to be born. My mother was rushed to the hospital where she had me,” recalled Connie who began her career at age 4, singing “Anchors Away” at Olympic Amusement Park in Irvington, NJ.

At 11 years old, she appeared on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour, the Arthur Godfry Show and became a regular on Startime,” a show featuring child performers. She signed with MGM where she recorded a series of bombs until her father talked her into recording “Whose Sorry Now.” Dick Clark played the song on American Bandstand on January 1,1958, launching Connie into musical fame.

Ms. Francis was the top-charting female artist of the 1950s and 1960s. She was voted the World’s No. 1 Female Vocalist and voted No.1 in almost every country including the United States, the Far East, Europe, South America, Australia and nearly everywhere records were sold. Connie Francis topped the
Billboard Top 100 singles chart on three occasions with”Don't Break the Heart That Loves You,” and become the phenomenon of the 20th century charting hit after hit with songs like “Where the Boys Are, “Lipstick on Your Collar,” Stupid Cupid,” “Mama” and “My Heart Has a Mind of its Own. She made 4 movies, recorded records in 17 different languages, world traveled, and was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in December 2007. She sang “Never on a Sunday,” during the Oscars where the song became the first foreign song to win an Oscar. Francis appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show 41 times.

“I don't like to talk about my movies. The movie “Where the Boys Are” was my Gone with the Wind and my other movies went downhill after that. I recorded “Where the Boys Are” in 6 languages in advance of the movie and it was instrumental in helping the film. The song and the movie put Fort Lauderdale on the map. There was about 13,000 college kids who came to the city before the movie. After the movie, about 75-100,000 kids descended upon the unprepared city, taking Fort Lauderdale totally by surprise,” remarked the endearing entertainer.

One of her proudest moments was entertaining the troops during the Viet Nam war. “The highlight of my career was my trip to Viet Nam. It was rewarding. I never felt more useful or needed. Viet Nam was a nightmare. The way these kids were treated when they came home from the war made me sick. They were booed and denigrated. We have troops all over the world. If we brought them home, America would not have problems paying for health care or college education. We have enough weapons to wipe out the world 20 times over. I think what Obama is doing with nuclear arms reduction is wonderful. When we put Obama on the world stage we put our best foot forward. Those folks that say that Barack needs to keep his socialist hands off Medicare, don't understand Medicare and Medicaid are already government run programs. Pres. Obama is my hero. In fact, I am such an Obama fan, I dreamed I married him. And guess what... it took me all night long to get rid of Michelle. That was no easy feat, I tell you!” chuckled Connie.

Connie talked about her rape at knife point at the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge after appearing at Westbury Music Hall which left her depressed for 20 years. “For 7 years, I was a total recluse. That night, my husband left a body guard with me. I told the bodyguard I would be safe so encouraged him to go next door. He checked the windows and I double locked the doors but as it turned out they were not safe. 6 months after the rape, Howard Johnson had not fixed the door so I sued them” said Connie. “It was a watershed in personal injury litigation. Hotel security started to use the cards instead of keys in doors after that. Afterwards, I received thousands of letters from victims of violent crime. When my brother was murdered in 1981 by the mafia, I could no longer wallow in self pity. I went to Washington and became head of Pres. Regan's Violent Crime Task Force where we changed laws in NJ, NY and California. I would have done more had I not been misdiagnosed as a manic depressive and spent the next 9 years in 17 involuntary commitments to mental institutions in 5 states. On May 19th I am going to be named spokesperson for the Trauma Campaign for Mental Health America with an eye toward helping others become mentally healthy. I plan to devote a lot of time to that,” stated Ms. Francis about her mental health commitment.

Fans can catch Connie Francis and Dionne Warwick via promoter Eric Floyd's Grand Divas of Stage show at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel on May 21-23 or get tickets/information by calling 800-222-5361 or 702-732-5755 or go on line at www.lvhilton.com. To hear her radio show with me on “Topically Yours,” go to Blakeradio.com, Rainbow Soul and/or visit Music Pastures on Soulinterviews.com.

George Clinton admits to being funky

By Deardra Shuler

“P-Funk” is pure funk. I do the best I can with the funk and after that... Funk It!” claimed George Clinton of the Parliament-Funkadelic, as we talked about his being inducted in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame and his years as a funkmeister.

Born July 22, 1941, Clinton revolutionized the music of the 1970s -- not only as a singer but as a producer and songwriter. He was the principal architect of P-Funk and creator of Parliament. Parliament started out as a doo-wop band in the 1950s after 15 year old George formed them. He later added a second band, Funkadelic in the 1970s, which emulated the psychedelic guitar strains of Jimi Hendrix. Funkadelic produced a sound unheard of at that time. The Funkadelic band was comprised of master musicians such as keyboardist Bernie Worrell; bassist Billy Bass Nelson; guitarist Tawl Ross; keyboard player Mickey Atkins; Tiki Fulwood on drums and lead guitarist Eddie Hazel. Even Sly Stone played with them as did the great Jimi Hendrix before Hendix became The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

“Eventually Parliament ended up at Motown. When that faded out, I started Funkadelic. Funkadelic played behind Parliament, it was our back-up band. But we were all one group because we all played together at the same time and still do. When Parliament didn't have a regular album, Funkadelic would put an album out,” said Clinton. “Funkadelic did the psychedelic music releasing songs like “Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow” and “Maggot Brain.” Parliament came out with “Chocolate City, and a single entitled “Flashlight” that became their signature” Things started to go well for us and for a long while Parliament-Funkadelic dominated black music during the 1970s,” remarked Clinton.

Once Clinton became a solo artist, he signed with Capitol Records wherein he played with the P-Funk All Stars releasing “Computer Games,” Loopzilla, “Atomic Dog,” “Nubian Nut,” “and Do Fries Go With That Shake,” etc. “The bands released a series of hits which include: “The Motor Booty Affair,” “Gloryhallastoopid,” “Trombipulation” and “Aqua Boogie,” said George who wrote songs during his Motown days for the Jackson Five and the Supremes, et al. His latest releases in 2008, were “How Late Do You Have 2 BB4UR Absent?” and “The Gangsters of Love.” Currently George is in the studio recording a series of Motown tunes.

Clinton and his bands garnered over 40 R&B hit singles, and three of their albums went platinum. George Clinton also released albums with the All-Funk All Stars entitled “You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish,” “Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends,” “R&B Skeletons in the Closet” and “The Cinderalla Theory.” "Loopzilla" was our hit that topped at #20 on the R&B charts. “Atomic Dog,” came next reaching #1 on the R&B charts ” commented the extraordinary music innovator.

Mr. Clinton devised a stage show and went on tour. This tour was known as Parliament-Funkadelic's “P-Funk Earth Tour.” The biggest feature of the show was the Mothership, a spacecraft designed as a flying saucer that landed on stage during each show with Clinton emerging from the ship as his alter-ego “Dr. Funkenstein.” Fans flocked to the shows in droves to see this grand spectacular which included wild psychedelic music and out-of-this-world costumes and multi-colored psychedelic wigs.

“The Mothership was a million dollar stage set. It landed on the stage and was 60 feet across. It landed at Madison Square Garden a couple of times. During that period everybody was playing with us. Sly Stone played with us for a time and was one of the few who actually stepped out of the Mothership. As noted earlier, Jimi Hendrix occasionally played with us. We loved his guitar style and copied Jimi's mastery of the psychedelic guitar. Eddie Hazel was our lead guitar player and the only person that could play anywhere near Jimi and also come up with his own songs. In fact, a lot of folks thought our song “Maggot Brain,” emulated Jimi's sound, ” recalled Clinton.

On tour presently, Clinton was in Tallahassee, Florida when he and this reporter spoke. “I am eager to get back home to New Jersey. I was in the Bronx and then headed to Finland and the Netherlands immediately afterwards. We toured Europe and performed in Japan. We also expect to be in Africa, near Madagascar later this year. It's been a busy tour, so I am looking forward to some down time afterwards. I plan to go fishing. Fishing is one of my favorite things to do. I caught a shark here in Florida. What was I going to do with a shark? So, I threw it back,”chuckled George concerning his fish tale.

Known as the Godfather of Modern Urban Music, Clinton has inspired artists such as the Outkasts, Snoop Dog, Missy Elliott, Dr. Dre, Busta Rhymes and Fishbone. He sang with Tupac Shakur on the song “Can't C Me” from Tupac's album “Eyez on Me.” He worked with the WuTang Clan on their song “Wolves,” from their album “Diagrams.” He also wrote the vocals for the ground breaking release “Freaky Styley” with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Most recently, George did an amusing puppet show project soon to be aired on Nickelodeon.

“I am always changing. I don't think about the music I have made already, I think about the music I am going to make. I cant think about “One Nation” “Atomic Dog”or “Knee Deep,” because if I have that on my mind, I cant come up with a new sound. I don't really listen to my music from the past unless I bump into someone playing it. “Gangsters of Love” and “How Late Do You Have 2 BB4UR Absent?” are my latest offerings. Both tunes are a departure from my early days,” said Clinton who received several awards including “The Heroes Award,” “Lifetime Achievement Award,” and the “NAACP Image Award.