Ho bisogno di vederti

Ho bisogno di vederti is the A-side of two Italian singles recorded by U. S. entertainer Connie Francis.

Background

In 1964, Francis was approached to appear at the 1965 addition of the annual San Remo Festival. After giving her acquiesence, Francis recorded the song Ho bisogno di vederti in late 1964.

In accordance to the then-applying rules after which each entry had to be presented by two different artists using individual orchestra arrangements to emphasize the contest's meaning as a competition for composers, Connie Francis was not the only one to present Ho bisogno di vederti at the festival, which took place from January 28 to January 30, 1965: Gigliola Cinquetti – whose Non ho l'età had come in # 1 at both the San Remo Festival and the Eurovision Song Contest the previous year – became Francis' team partner.

Ho bisogno di vederti passed the semifinals, and after the final evening of the festival on January 30, 1965, the song finished on # 5 of the ranking.^[1]

First Release: MGM Records Single K 2102

Connie Francis' recording of Ho bisogno di vederti was released for the first time prior to the San Remo Festival. To make sure that the San Remo entry would gain the bigger attention, an English number was chosen for the B-side: Whose Heart Are You Breaking Tonight, a song by Ted Murry and Benny Davis which had been a # 43 on Billboard's Hot 100 and a # 7 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary Charts for Francis in the United States.

Second Release: MGM Records Single K 2109

The second release of Ho bisogno di vederti came after the success at the festival. This time, a second Italian song was chosen for the B-side: C'è una cosa che non sai, a cover version of No better off, which had been released in the U. S. on the Album Connie Francis sings "For Mama". Interestingly enough, C'è una cosa che non sai had also been the A-side of the single which had been released between both releases of Ho bisogno di vederti. On that occasion, C'è una cosa chen non sai had been coupled with Francis' Italian version of Forget Domani.

English version

On March 24, 1965^[2], Francis recorded an English version entitled You're Mine (Just When You're Lonely). While one chorus of the original Italian lyrics was kept, an entire verse was omitted, hence the English version had a running time of only 2:56 minutes as opposed to the running time of 3:30 minutes of the original all-Italian version.

You're Mine (Just When You're Lonely) was released as the B-side of Francis' single Wishing It Was You. While the latter song peaked at # 57 of Billboard's Hot 100 and at # 14 on the Adult Contemporary Charts, You're Mine (Just When You're Lonely failed to chart.^[3]

References

1. ^ Italian Wikipedia article on the 1965 edition of the San Remo Festival
2. ^ Ron Roberts: Connie Francis Discography 1955 – 1973, Fan Club Project of 1973
3. ^ Connie Francis: Souvenirs, Booklet of 4-CD-Box, Polydor 1996, Cat.-No. 314 533 382-2