Hidden Treasures - Franke and the Knockouts

This week's Hidden Treasure post is a two for one...

That feeling you get when you accidentally find an album on CD that you thought would never see again.
Having that album be twice as good as you remember it!

There are a few albums I have that I've kind of lost hope of ever seeing on CD. Sometimes there is that one band or that one release by an artist that seems to get forgotten and no matter how many times you tried to find it, it’s just not available. Well this week while picking around iTunes I stumbled onto some of them and immediately placed an order.

Maybe you remember this band by name, maybe not, but if you're at or near my age you will know at least one of these tracks. The band is the strangely named "Franke and the Knockouts", and they played a large role in my musical experience in the very early 80's. I couldn't believe it! But here their story as told by Wiki...

Franke and the Knockouts was a short-lived band, formed in New Jersey, USA and fronted by singer/songwriter Franke Previte.

Franke and the Knockouts were signed by Millennium Records in 1981 and had three U.S. Top 40 singles and two Top 50 albums. Franke and the Knockouts' biggest single, "Sweetheart," was written by Previte and Guitarist Billy Elworthy and became a Top 10 hit in 1981, peaking at #10 in the U.S. They also wrote and released the original versions of Eric Carmen's 1987 hit single "Hungry Eyes" as well as the song "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," (both of which were featured in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing). Previte would later be an Academy Award winner. After Millennium folded, the band switched to MCA Records in 1984. They released an album, which wasn't as successful as their other 2, they disbanded in 1986.

Not much there! But there you have it! I actually had no idea they had a 3rd release and from the sound bites they are actually pretty good, but it’s really keyboardy so I'm still thinking about that one.

And so there you have it! This week I'm sharing 2 tracks from each of the CD's I bought. Have you ever experienced this? If so, who was the band/artist? What releases are you still waiting/hoping for?

PLAYLIST --> http://snack.to/atjex220

	Self Titled debut 1981 Come Back Sweetheart
	Below the Belt 1982 Without You (Not Another Lonely Night) Just What I Want

Next week I'm going to do this all over again with 2 more albums I found, this time from different artists...

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Scott on May 29, 2013 at 3:58pm

So..... I'll take that as a No, youve never heard of them...

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Permalink Reply by Dannolonghair on May 29, 2013 at 4:28pm

and with any luck I never will again. This is the very reason why some albums find their way in the cut-out bins.

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Permalink Reply by Scott on May 29, 2013 at 5:43pm

eh... you win some, you lose some.. I think you may enjoy next weeks much much better.

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Permalink Reply by Jon on May 29, 2013 at 6:16pm

I will wash this bad taste out of your mouth this weekend. It's the only thing I can do.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Pell on May 29, 2013 at 11:30pm

YOU?

With fur balls coming out of your own mouth, LOL?

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Permalink Reply by Jon on May 30, 2013 at 3:09am

Wonder if that could be taken the wrong way?

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Permalink Reply by Scott on May 30, 2013 at 8:18am

Yes, and constantly referred to in thread after thread after thread...

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Permalink Reply by Niels (Mod) on May 30, 2013 at 9:41am

I don't know, if this falls under this catagory, but I've just been listening to "Next Posision Please" from the box-set I bought recently, and that album was at least twice as good, as I remembered it to be.

When it was released in ´83, I was dissapointed, because I felt, it was the first time, that CT released an album, that wasn't a progression in their sound. I really liked the "modern" sound of "One On One", and at the time, I though NPP was a step in the wrong direction. These days, that album has dated much better than "OOO". It also helps, that on the album from the box-set, there's 4 (I think? I've only heard it once) "new" tracks from that time, and those songs are pretty good. One of them, I think appears on the "real" CT-box-set "America, Sex..", but the other 3, I don't think, I've heard before. It was a pleasent surprise, hearing that album again. The last time I heard the original LP, must have been in the beginning of the 90's.

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Permalink Reply by Jon on June 1, 2013 at 10:14am

None of these songs were familiar at all. But I remember the name of the group!

The more I think about it, maybe it wasn't these guys that were huge for a bit. Maybe it was The Michael Stanley Band. Maybe there's another song by these guys that was big, but none of these ring any bells at all.

With that said...

Ya know, with "Knockouts" in the title, I expected them to be a bit harder. It's basically soft rock, kinda like Air Supply, maybe with a bit more geetar. It's almost bordering on elevator music.

Now, I do like some softer stuff, but this doesn't do anything for me at all. Actually, all these songs seem like that would fit into a crappy 80's teen comedy, they could be the bar band in a scene or two.

Sorry Scott, but no dice for me here. I am truly sorry. Just don't post these guys ever again?

I had Patrick Simmons' (Doobie Brothers) first solo album and there was one really good track on it, I believe the rest kinda sucked though. It was released on CD but the price was too high, it went OOP and the price really skyrocketed so I'm SOL on that one.

Would like to see all the Donnie Iris albums released on CD, there was a two-fer package that came out a few years ago which I have, but would be nice to see his complete catalogue released.