Sound Clips   
Track 1 - Never Had It Better
Track 2 - Without You
Track 3 - Just What I Want
Track 4 - Any Way That You Want Me
Track 5 - Morning Sun
Track 6 - Shakedown
Track 7 - Keep On Fighting
Track 8 - Have No Fear
Track 9 - Gina
Track 10 - Every Little Bit Helps

Click one of the above tracks download the mp3 sound clip.




 
 
Franke And The Knockouts Below The Belt
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The Band :
Franke Previte - Lead & Backing Vocals
Leigh Foxx – Bass (Currently in “Blondie” reformation)
Tommy Ayers – Keyboards
Billy Elworthy – Guitars
Blake Levinsohn – Keyboards

Franke Previte came from a musical family, his father was an opera singer and his mother a non-professional singer. They were persuaded to perform a duet together and they eventually went on to start a family.... and so Franke was born. At nine years old he began singing at local benefit shows, at thirteen he had his own band “The Intruders” and by the time he was fifteen he had recorded a couple of singles with his cousin, Joe Alessi. Franke went on to join “The Oxford Watch Band” and then recorded an album with “Bull Angus” (A band that toured with Fleetwood Mac, Rod Stewart and others). At this point he met guitarist Billy Elworthy, with whom he went on to write songs for the debut by Franke & The Knockouts. Within three weeks they were signed to RCA/Millennium and scored US hits with “Sweetheart” (reaching # 10) and “You’re my Girl”. The band recorded a second album, “Below The Belt” on the same label and scored a hit with “Without You”, they were now touring with the likes of Loverboy, Toto, April Wine and The Tubes.

In 1984 the third Knockout’s LP appeared, this time on MCA and since reissued on CD by Escape Music with a bonus track. It was called “Makin’ The Point” and is very much respected in melodic rock circles to this day. The band was also starting to become involved in film soundtracks at this point which led to Franke’s huge involvement in such song writing. He has written songs for such movie soundtracks as “Mystic Pizza”, “Smooth Talk”, “Rude Awakening”, “Heavy Metal 2” and of course the much loved “Dirty Dancing” which starred Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. This was big news, the songs co-written by Franke were “(I’ve had) The time of my life” (performed by Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes) and “Hungry Eyes” (performed by Eric Carmen) earned him a golden globe and an academy award, as well as two Grammy nominations. It was, in his own words, “Beyond a dream”. Franke has since worked with numerous artists, many who have scored top ten hits with his composure’s both in USA and Europe, artists such as Kim Carnes, Earth Wind & Fire and Cyndi Lauper.

Moving back to Franke & The Knockouts, particularly the “Below The Belt” album, there are nine memorable tracks of timeless melodic rock and, at this point, the band actually had two keyboard players in the line-up. “Below The Belt” featured many favourites in addition to the hit “Without You”; songs like “Shakedown” and “Gina” are masterpieces of their time. If you already own the Escape reissue “Makin’ The Point”, then make sure this one is also a priority. There is also a bonus track “Every Little Bit Helps” to make the CD even more attractive and this song is a nineties pop rock gem that just cries out for airplay.