Frankie Valens - Frankie's Place

More about Frankie...

Frankie had the opportunity of singing in front of 35,000 enthusiastic Quixstar folk, where on the same ticket were former president Ronald Reagan and country singer Crystal Gale.

He sang for the inauguration of a former mayor of San Diego, California, and for former California Governor Pete Wilson's 60th birthday party at Sea World in San Diego.

For two consecutive years he was a featured performer at First Night San Diego, an alcohol-free alternative for New Year's Eve in San Diego, California.

The Byrds, The Platters, and The Boxtops are 60s groups with whom Frankie has shared the spotlight over the past few years.

He was the guest performer for international lecturer / motivational speaker, John Maxwell's 25th wedding anniversary celebration in San Diego, California.

Performing at Vietnam Veterans functions has been Frankie's way of honoring those service men.

Frankie was the featured performer for KAKE-TV's Adult Literacy Telethon on Easter Sunday, 2000, and for the Diabetes Association through "Up On The Roof," a Wichita River Festival event, which is a national 10-day celebration.

He sang for the 80th Birthday Celebration of the Wichita Center For The Arts.

With his wife, Phyllis, he performed several times for The Candle Club, a local private club, and the Wichita Country Club, both places having sold-out crowds.

Featured at a school music program where the students were imposters of famous singers, Frankie was "the real thing."

With his wife, Phyllis, they presented a concert at Wichita's famous Orpheum Theatre. With three standing ovations, the concert was such a success that the Theatre manager invited them back to do another one later on.

Other concerts with his wife include 4th of July celebrations, Labor Day celebrations, "Old Settlers Days," etc.

Entertaining at Car Shows, Class Reunions, business organizations, and seminars, have been a part of his schedule.

Whatever happened to Frankie Valens?

Click HERE to read news article which
appeared in The Wichita Eagle
April 23, 2000

Here is a story that contains the drama and pathos that inspired the old cliche, "Truth is stranger than fiction." This story is about fame and the loss of it, separation from family and children, and a dramatic return to the stage.

In 1967, while living in New Jersey and working in accounting at a local firm as well as working part-time in a sporting goods department store, I met a man there who was the manager of a band. His son was the drummer. He had heard me humming and singing to music being played on a radio in the store and asked if I would be interested in auditioning for the band he was managing. The band, Eminent Domain, had been looking for a new lead-singer so I quickly agreed and went with him to visit the band while they were in rehearsal. I auditioned with them the following weekend with the song "Unchained Melody," and they immediately signed me on.

While maintaining both my full-time job and a part-time job, I performed with this band on week-ends. Within a week we started singing professionally and began singing in schools, night clubs, radio guest spots, and Battle-Of-The-Bands, many of which we won.

I was the lead-singer of a successful rock band. The audiences loved my style, especially when I belted out renditions of "This Magic Moment," "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," "Donna," and other songs that had been made popular by other top singers in the 50s and early 60s.

My popularity began to rise and my band was in demand in nightclubs around the United States and Canada, and it was during this time I cut several records. My first attempt did not make the grade. Then in 1965 I did a remake of "This Magic Moment," originally recorded by The Drifters, which became my signature song, and in 1969 "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," a Platters original. My last recording was "She Cried."

While I was with my band at a motel in Las Vegas, Nevada, just before we were to go on stage at the Sahara Hotel, we had been practicing all day for our big event of being showcased that evening when I realized how hungry I was. When mentioning my hunger to the band, one of the band members threw an apple my way and said, "Here, eat!" For a moment or two I sat there holding that apple and, considering its beauty and completeness, realized that something was missing in my life.

In 1971 after some shocking mistreatment by the very agent who discovered us and made the Frankie Valens name, (no relation to Richie Valens, by the way) my career began a downward spiral. I fired the agent and he retaliated by pulling my records from the radio stations and canceling concerts before we could fulfill our obligations. By 1972 the Frankie Valens era had come to an end, and to this day I receive no royalties for any of my past successes. I went back into the accounting field and immersed myself in my work, later in my career finding time to be an extra in the movies "Ice Castles" and "Every Which Way But Loose."

With a broken career and a broken marriage behind me, I moved to Colorado and started attending a local church.

When Phyllis (my present wife) came to direct the church choir, she, like me, was a preacher's kid and had suffered many of the same traumas as myself. It was love at first sight!

She is an accomplished concert pianist and song writer who had written for Standard Publishing's Vacation Bible School courses for over twenty years, including the theme songs for 1979 and 1985. That year, 1985, we were married.

It was only after we were married that I was able to deal with some of the deepest hurts of the past and reveal to Phyllis who I had been, and expressed a desire to return to the stage.

We traveled full-time for seven years before coming "off the road" in 1997 to assist various churches with their music programs. We are now again in full-time concert performing.

We have performed in many situations from churches to coffee houses, from outdoor concerts to "Valens-tine" banquets, and from schools and colleges to large auditorium gatherings. Now retired, we wish to express our heartfelt thanks for the tremendous support you all have shown us.
Blessings,
Frankie & Phyllis

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