Mike Francis died a few weeks ago, of what is being reported as “a lingering illness.”  I can’t seem to find out more than that, but I hope he wasn’t in too much pain.

Mike was Italian, born Francesco Pucioni, and was loved on both sides of the Atlantic for his love songs, which were smooth, romantic, and had just a touch of that early 80′s digi-pop sound. 

The most famous of these was “Let Me In,” which is very beautiful and very 80′s–a great combination for a retro girl like me.  He also recorded in his native Italian.  Here’s his 1994 recording of Bellissimi Occhi Chiusi.  In my opinion, his Italian music has an erotic edge that the English songs, smoother and sometimes overmixed, sometimes lack. Other hits included “Survivor” and the classic “Friends”.

Mike released an album just a week before his death, The Very Best of Mike Francis.  This is wonderful; it’s a double album–one disk has the songs in English, and the other has the same songs in Italian. 

Grazie per la musica, Frascesco.  I hope you’re singing loud wherever you are now.

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