Recording History
Three different versions of the song exist.
The first version was recorded on June 30, 1962 during the shooting of the on-location scenes in Italy, where Francis overdubbed her vocals to a playback which had been pre-recorded under the direction of Geoff Love at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London. This version was used for the opening and closing credits of the film.
The second recording of the "Follow the Boys" theme song was conducted by LeRoy Holmes, a veteran of the classic MGM musicals who by 1963 had left that studio to compose for United Artists films; however he returned to MGM to work with Francis whose 1958 hit "Stupid Cupid" he'd conducted. The recording took place on September 27, 1962. This version was released on the original MGM Records Single.
The third recording was recorded on January 10, 1963. This version used the original September 1962 playback with Francis overdubbing new vocals. This version was released on the album "Follow the Boys" (MGM Records SE-4123), which featured the film's songs on the A-Side and a selection of Italian-flavored songs to fit the movie's setting on the B-Side although they didn't appear in the actual movie.
"Follow the Boys" was stylistically reminiscent of the hit theme song from Where the Boys Are written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield but was in fact written by Benny Davis and Ted Murry (pseudonym for Murray Mencher) the composers of Francis 1962 #1 "Don't Break the Heart That Loves You".
Released in February 1963, "Follow the Boys" reached #17 that April on the Billboard Hot 100 where it would be Francis' final Top 20 entry. The song was markedly more successful as ranked by Cash Box spending two weeks at #11.
The B-side of "Follow the Boys", "Waiting For Billy", written by Davis and Murry with Dramato Palumbo was also from the Follow the Boys film, and refers to the Roger Perry character's name being Billy Pulaski. "Waiting For Billy" received enough airplay to "bubble under" the Billboard Hot 100 at #127.
Francis recorded several foreign-language versions of "Follow the boys":
- German: "Mein Schiff fährt zu dir"
- Italian: "Per sempre con te"
- French: "En suivant mon Coeur"
- Spanish: "Detras del amor"
- Japanese (Latin writing of song title unknown)
For all versions the playback of the September 1962 recording was used.
Unlike the original US release of "Follow the boys", the foreign language versions were not coupled with "Waiting for Billy", but with a foreign language version of "Tonight's my night", another song from the movie's soundtrack:
- German: "Die Nacht ist mein" (in Germany, this was also the A-Side of the single, peaking at # 2 on the charts, with "Mein Schiff fährt zu dir" banned to the B-Side)
- Italian (regular language): "Che bella notte"
- Italian (Neapolitan): "Che bella notte" (US album release only)
- French: "Décidement"
- Spanish: "Esta es mi noche"
- Japanese (Latin writing of song title unknown)
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