Song:Sweetheart
Album:The Best Of Franke & The Knockouts: Sweetheart: Anniversary Edition
Franke & The Knockouts scored a top ten hit with Sweetheart in 1981. Personnel and record company problems would lead to the band's demise. The leader of Franke & The Knockouts was lead singer and songwriter Franke Previte. He was born in New Brunswick, NJ. His dad was an opera singer. He was in the hard rock band BullAngus. They released a couple of albums on Mercury in the early 70s. Previte formed Franke & The Knockouts with guitarist Billy Elworthy. The two wrote Sweetheart. Other members were Blake Levinsohn on keyboards, Leigh Foxx on bass and Claude LeHenoff on drums. Franke & The Knockouts signed with Millennium Records owned by former 20th Century Records head Russ Regan. They were distributed by Casablanca Records. Sweetheart was the band's first single and it reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. They started to have personnel problems. Levinsohn and LeHenoff left in 1982 and were replaced by session keyboard player Tommy Ayers and future Bonjovi drummer Tico Torres. Then Elworthy left in 1984 and was replaced by Bobby Messano. That had to really hurt because Elworthy wrote most of the songs with Previte. Then Millennium closed and Franke & The Knockouts recorded their third album Makin' The Point for MCA. When that album didn't sell, the band split up. Previte went on to write a couple of songs for the 1987 hit film Dirty Dancing. He co-wrote Hungry Eyes and The Time Of My Life and he won a Best Original Song Oscar. It looks like Previte lives off of The Time Of My Life royalties. And he released this Franke & The Knockouts comp. Here's the video for Sweetheart by Franke & The Knockouts.
I heard that song back in the 70's and for many years could not find it, until one day a radio station that is no longer in business played it and said who the group was that sang the song. One of my big favorites from growing up in the 70's. It is pure nostalgia for me. Thank-you so much Frank.
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