Singer-songwriter
and one-time teen-pop sensation who had a number
of top-thirty hits back in the day.In 1959, he released "Lil' Girl" backed with
"Your Only Love".A
couple of years later, he cracked the Billboard top thirty three
times:
" Lullaby of
Love" went to #23, "Princess" to #30, and
"Utopia" to #27 and #174 for the entire year of 1961.In 1962, he released "Ain't That Fun" backed with "She Make
Me Wanna Dance".A year later, Jimmy Hannan
and the Bee Gees recorded the Frank Gari-Roger McGuinn
composition, "Beach Ball".Gari, McGuinn,
and Bobby Darin had recorded the song previously as the City Surfers.A number of other Frank Gari solo singles are now available on anthologies: " Be My Girl" appears on Teen Town USA...Volume 17;
"The Last Bus Left At Midnight" was bound for Hideaway Heaven...Volume 3;
"There's Lots More Where This Came From" appears on Teenage Time...Volume 2; and
"You Better Keep Runnin'" is on
Hideaway Heaven...Volume 4.Frank early teeny-bopper work also
appears on the appropriately titled Hard
to Find 45's on CD, Vol. 7:60's Classics and Hey!Look What I Found, Vol. 6.In 1978, Frank changed tack and
concentrated on composing and sometimes singing TV theme songs for news
shows, such as "Hello News" which originated in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, on WISN-TV, and eventually was used by stations throughout the
U.S.A year later, he appeared on Frank
Sinatra's
boxed set, Trilogy.In 1981, Frank Gari
Productions produced the theme song "ABC is the Place" for
ABC-TV.Four years later, in
tandem with Frank, Randy Newman turned "You'll Love It"
into another theme song for ABC.Frank also did some arranging for The Wonderful World of Disney, including a disco version of
"When You Wish Upon A Star" which was used from 1981 until
1983.He then did a pop-rock
version of the same song and Disney used it between 1983 and 1985, and an
orchestral rendition used between 1985 and 1986.Frank continues to run Frank Gari Productions, now also known as Gari
Communications, Inc., in Westlake Village, California.
