Frank Fafara

Frank Fafara started singing in Phoenix in the late fifties when rock’n’roll was just taking off. Frank and his school friend and lead guitarist Richard Meyer started out playing for High School rallies. Their popularity soon came to the attention of Arizona Republic music columnist Jack Curtis who set up their first recording session. Frank’s original recording band included Richard Meyer on lead guitar, Jim Schultz on drums, Frank on rhythm guitar with the legendary Al Casey adding bass overdub to the mix.

Teen star Frank Fafara had a string of successful rock ‘n roll releases in Arizona spanning the years 1959 to 1964. His very first recording “Only in My Dreams” went to #5 on the Phoenix Top Ten radio charts making him an overnight teen sensation. A series of top releases followed including “Miss You Dee” “Lovemaker, Lovebreaker” and another big hit “Golden One”. Frank Fafara recorded at the same legendary studio as Duane Eddy, Waylon Jennings, Sanford Clark and Wayne Newton. Cashbox’s national review noted that “Fafara has something of the late Buddy Holly in his light beat delivery”. Billboard magazine gave him their highest 3 star rating.


Frank Fafara often performed shows across Arizona with other top rockers of his day including the Everly Brothers, Conway Twitty, Brenda Lee and Del Shannon. He was also quite popular for his appearances at Stage 7, the hottest teen club of its day. Frank appeared as a regular on KPHO’s Saturday night TV show Teen Beat, as well as performing on the famous Wallace & Ladmo TV show. On television Frank was usually backed up by lead guitarist Mike Condello & the Stage 7 combo, while other shows normally featured Bob Knisley or Fred Allard on lead guitar.

Fafara’s masters were recently found along with others at Audio Recorders, the studio which made Phoenix a major recording hub during the fifties & sixties. Frank wrote all his own songs and they were put out on MCI Records and Mascot Records. Frank’s hit records were leased to Del-Fi Records, the same label as Richie Valens, but unfortunately were never released nationally. Today however, all the original Phoenix recordings from 1959 - 1964 of Frank Fafara have been completely digitized and are now available for the first time on this long overdue oldies album “Only In My Dreams”.