Fran Drescher Singing: A Surprising Discovery

16 years ago this week, Fran Drescher released her one and only solo single: "Eye for an Eye." And I am LIVING for it. Happy Sweet 16, "Eye for an Eye," and a big shout-out to Fran Drescher for giving us so many sides of her artistry!

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The Unexpected Talent of Fran Drescher

This past weekend, I was working with one of my singers to solidify a setlist for an upcoming televised concert. When we were almost finished with the program, I told her I thought she needed one more "feel-good" song—something that everybody watching at home would know and sing along to during the broadcast. Almost immediately, she said, "Oh, what about 'What the World Needs Now Is Love (Sweet Love)'?"

"That's perfect," I responded. "Do you have it memorized already, or can I play around with the arrangement?"

She laughed. “Oh please, I’ve done it before—in that big Broadway recording after Pulse. You know."

I stared at her blankly.

"C'mon, everyone was in it.” She started rattling off names she knew I had worked with before: Whoopi. Idina. Sara Bareilles. Kristen Bell. Orfeh—

ORFEH?! Now she had my attention. (Orfeh is my favorite.) What on earth was this performance involving the people I've worked with for the past 15 years that I was completely drawing a blank on?

Watch Broadway for Orlando’s all-star performance of “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” featuring theatre and pop legends—and yes, Fran Drescher singing among them.

She pulled up the video on her phone and — yes, she was absolutely correct — it was wall-to-wall legends. Carole King, Nathan Lane, Audra McDonald, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Orfeh... As it turns out, this was a recording made by a bunch of Broadway all-stars to benefit the LGBTQ+ community after the Pulse massacre in 2016 (class acts, every one of them). (Ah, that's it - I was knee-deep in Kristin Chenoweth-Land. That was the summer I started working exclusively for her, so I was briefly off-the-radar for other projects I'd normally be involved with. Unbelievably, this one eluded me for almost a decade.)

As we watched the video, I was taking mental notes about our new arrangement when —don't blink, or you'll miss it — I clocked a face I instinctively recognized from somewhere, and although I couldn't place her name immediately, I knew she wasn't a typical suspect when it came to this group of people. Who was she, and what was she doing here?

"Wait, who was that?" I asked.

My singer shrugged. "I was listening to myself, sorry."

I scrubbed back, hit PAUSE at the timestamp 3:05, and gasped.

“Wait. Is that… *FRAN DRESCHER*?!”

Fran Drescher singing, front and center, amid a sea of Broadway and popular music icons. Look at how much the camera loves her - she's practically radiating sunshine. How does she do it?

Yes. Yes it was. There before my eyes, looking absolutely radiant amid a sea of Broadway legends—with her hair swiped to the side the way only a seasoned pro wearing headphones instinctively does—was the one and only Fran Drescher singing with some of the world's best singers, for a benefit—

Hold the phone. Fran Drescher... singing? Is this a thing? Am I the only one who was completely unaware that Fran Drescher sings?

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The Surprising Discovery of Fran Drescher's Singing Career

In other circumstances, it's amusing to me when others suddenly discover that one of their favorite actors also sings. Of course they can sing. Actors are trained to use their voices with dialogue, going even more granularly than one might imagine by studying the microscopic rising and falling of the voice through various inflections in any given dialect or accent. Singing is just a step to the right. Singing training is incorporated into most acting programs, and the two performance mediums have intertwined since we first told stories, danced, and chanted around fires thousands of years ago. So, I'm never surprised when I see an actor who is not known for their singing skills actually singing in the wild.

...Except this one. I almost feel betrayed. Fran... I know we've never met, but... how could you do this to me??

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My mind reeled as it skimmed through its rolodex of related knowledge, personal experiences, and the typical follow-up questions I've got tucked away that are begging to be answered by this newfound information...

• Surely, if Fran Drescher was more confident in her singing skills, she would have given us a musical episode of The Nanny... right? (Can you imagine?)

• I remember Fran Drescher being cast in Cinderella on Broadway back in 2013, but I was out on tour and didn't get a chance to see her; this barely registered on my radar at the time, since the production seemed to be engaging an effective marketing strategy called "stunt casting" - Nene Leakes being cast in the same role was a dead giveaway. Stunt casting is fun, but Fran's been around long enough that, if she were known for her vocals, she would have earned a spot singing on Broadway long before this casting decision was made.

• And of course, I'm the first to know any breaking news about The Nanny on Broadway... but Fran has publicly announced that she "...really can't sing" on The View in 2021, so I guess I had taken her word for it.

  
  

Will The Nanny Musical ever make it to Broadway? Read the latest.

And then the vocal-coach reasoning connected the dots: of course Fran Drescher can sing.

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Why Fran Drescher Singing Actually Makes a Lot of Sense

When I’m training singers (especially women navigating their upper registers), one of my fastest routes to healthy, unbelievable high notes is this: try to make the “ugliest” noise you can, but make sure you're not doing it with any tension—we go through the usuals: the squawk, the squeal, the crying baby, the Valley-girl bratty twang, the witchy cackle—until we've got "the one." We know it when we hear it because it shakes the room with pingy overtones and resonance. Once we find their "ugly" noise, we work to sing it on different pitches, then we shape that placement into sickeningly fierce vocals. Out of context, it's a witch's cackle. But at the right time in the 11 o'clock number, it's a show-stopping money note. When it comes down to it, the “ugly” noises we make are just highly efficient acoustics in disguise.

Using Fran Fine's signature vocal placement from The Nanny, Fran Drescher could have easily walked into the Wicked auditions and sung a convincing Elphaba AND Glinda.

Fran Fine's iconically nasal, twangy, nails-on-a-chalkboard voice and laugh are exactly what I'm talking about. That hyper-bright, laser-focused, laugh-through-the-nose tone is a textbook example of where I teach my best singers to build their mix and high register safely. So once you strip away the comedic styling and let the placement sing…boom. It tracks.

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The Search for More of Fran's Music

I needed more information. The moment my singer left the studio that evening, I was all over the internet searching for any and all clips I could dig up of Fran Drescher singing. I knew something had to be out there that featured her voice more than the ensemble singing of the Broadway for Orlando recording that started this whole obsession.

And then I saw it.

Fran Drescher released a single in 2009 called "Eye for an Eye."

Fran Drescher’s 2009 pop single “Eye for an Eye”—the track that reframes the way you hear her voice.  Credit: Single artwork courtesy of rights holder; used for commentary/review.

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Listen to Fran Drescher Singing "Eye for an Eye" Here

Then keep scrolling to read this celebrity vocal coach's perspective on how well she did.

"Eye for an Eye" by Fran Drescher, Copyright 2009 Fran Drescher

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Down the Rabbit Hole: Fran Drescher Singing her 2009 Single “Eye for an Eye”

I pushed "PLAY" on the video that returned on a Google search. First impressions...

The Key: D Major

Less than a second in, I realized we were in D Major. Perfect. Historically, D Major has been the sound of triumph and hard-won joy (think Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’). It frames the song with resilience rather than despair—an inspired choice for lyrics that wrestle with betrayal.

Of course, modern tuning means the emotional weight of a key is more about association than acoustics—but D Major still always feels powerful. It sits in a vocal range that feels dark and resonant for most low female singers in their lower registers, but can feel like a war-cry in the upper registers. Sliving for this.

The Lyrics

Let's look at the lyrics by themselves:

Thought you had my back /Well you can be so selfish /And time will never be golden /When it rains so hard Taking an eye for an eye… If I was a sailor /I would skim the waters /I would rail the riptide /Just to be here by your side …All the hills were burning /All the streets were burning /All the homes, they were burning /The whole town was burning…

Here's my take on interpretation/meaning:

• Betrayal → Vow of reciprocity. The opening couplet (“Thought you had my back…you can be so selfish”) sets a personal breach of trust. The refrain “taking an eye for an eye” isn’t subtle: it’s a mantra of equivalence—if you wound me, I answer in kind. (Some online summaries frame it specifically as revenge after betrayal; fair. But I think Fran Drescher is the type to rise above and find peace in the healing and growth she experiences from it.)

• Romantic absolutism vs. self-protection. The sailor stanza is a classic codependent image: braving riptides “just to be here by your side.” That devotion rubs against the retaliation mantra—love’s pull versus self-preservation.

• Apocalyptic burn-scape. “All the hills/streets/homes… the whole town was burning” escalates the micro-betrayal to macro imagery—the way one betrayal of trust can feel like the entire world is against you, or how cycles of retribution torch communities, not just individuals. Like the title of the song, it's biblical, and also cinematic.

• Repetition as... spell. (Hear me out on this one.) The stacked refrains work like a chant—less narrative, more incantation—cementing resolve. Accepting the past. Healing, knowing it's now a part of your story.

  
  

The Music

We already discussed D Major. Perfect way to frame a song of this nature.

The arrangement and orchestration are simple:

• acoustic guitar

• electric guitar

• very sparse percussion (a sharp hit on the downbeat that sounds like the slam of a door almost, in the final refrains of the repeated song title)

• Fran Drescher's voice on the lead vocals

• ethereal, ghost-like voices providing upper harmonies throughout the chorus (which are not sung by Fran Drescher)

• Written in 12/8 time signature: a delightfully unexpected divergence from the expected, yawn-inducing 4/4. Typically, when someone comes out with a one-off single, it's written in 4/4, but the compound quadruple meter, engaging that delicious triplet over and over, earns some mad respect in my book.

  
  

At 01:29, does anyone else think Fran Drescher's voice sounds like Lady Gaga's, or is it just me?

• Yes, I hear it!
• Sort of.
• It's just you.

A Celebrity Vocal Coach's Quick Analysis of Fran Drescher Singing in "Eye for an Eye"

I don’t do “reactions” very often; in fact, this is my first, and probably the only reaction I’ll ever write. First, my takeaway: for what it is, and for who she is, this is an outstanding, surprising piece of music from a multi-faceted artist. Fran Drescher’s first major exposure to mainstream audiences came with such signature comedic chops that I can’t imagine how difficult it is to try and break away from that. Sure, we all know her as The Nanny, but, like everyone else on the planet, she’s more than one role, more than one laugh, more than one voice.

And that’s what “Eye for an Eye” proves to me. Beneath the nasal zing and iconic laugh is a woman who understands tone, placement, and storytelling—tools any singer needs in spades. This track isn’t some novelty single; it’s a fully-formed piece of pop theatre that sits right at the intersection of drama and music, exactly where Fran thrives.

So no, this isn’t me reacting as a fanboy (though, let’s be honest, I totally am). This is me reacting as a vocal coach who spends his life dissecting voices—and Fran Drescher singing floored me. If you’re a Nanny obsessive, a Broadway benefit junkie, or just someone who lives for hidden gems, put on headphones, crank the volume, and give this single your full attention one more time. You might just hear Fran in a whole new way. Here are some specifics to listen for:

• Fran Drescher's voice is much lower than I was expecting right off the bat. She has rich, warm, chocolatey low notes that sound gorgeous. I bet they're even more luscious now, as women's voices tend to settle lower with age.

• Vocally, my favorite moment in the song is when she sings, "...when it rains so hard" (00:42 in the video). She's not forcing the voice, she's not overthinking her singing... she just lets that part of the lyric come out like it wants to come out naturally and it's gorgeous. She even has some natural, sweet vibrato that shines through this line. Just beautiful.

• Another favorite moment: at 01:29, "Just to be by your side" with the little portamento on the word "your" - it's divine.

• Her breath is nice and connected to her voice throughout. Her vowels are rich, round, and resonant. I can feel her soft palate being raised as she inhales.

• My only criticism, if I HAD to say something constructive, because this is what I do for a living: When she jumps the octave toward the end, she's got a cool rasp in her voice. I love it, but I wish she had done it differently every time she repeats the phrase up there. It almost sounds like they got one take they really liked and they just looped it over and over. She's a fabulous actress that can give a line reading a thousand different ways on cue, so I want to hear more of that diversity in her interpretation up high. She does it everywhere else, why not up there? As a professional, when I hear my singers pull something like this, I immediately sense insecurity - which is fine, she's not out there trying to be a pop star or anything. I just think that if she let go of that fear of judgement and let it rip with those acting chops of hers, we'd be listening to an entirely different, more elevated performance at the end. My two cents.

• No key changes here, which I normally find boring. But it works for this song.

• I totally hear Lana del Rey in this, Lady Gaga, and I also hear Fran Drescher in this.

• Refrain design = resilience. The hook sits in a warm low, the safest real estate for non-virtuoso voices to project meaning without fatigue—smart writing for persona-driven vocals.

• Imagery fuels the tone. The “burning town” stanza invites a darker vowel palette and heavier onset; if you’re a singer covering it, lean into the text and the tone will follow (don’t chase “pretty,” chase true).

  
  

These are wonderful compliments to Fran and her singing abilities. I could totally hear this in the end credits of a documentary about cancer that her nonprofit would produce. It's haunting and sung very well.

Kudos to Fran Drescher for this gem of a single!

If The Nanny Musical is looking for an out-of-town theatre, I can think of a perfect venue... right in the heart of Flushing, Queens! Whaddya say, Queens Theatre?

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The Mystery of "Eye for an Eye"

For a song that’s been living rent-free in my head all week, the logistics behind Fran Drescher’s “Eye for an Eye” are nonexistent. I've searched ASCAP's database, Apple Music, Spotify, you name it... And there are no definitive, official credits for the song's:

• Lyricist

• Composer

• Musical Arrangement

• Recording Studio

• Production Notes

  
  

The most trustworthy information I could find on the song comes from Discogs. Here's a roundup of information:

1. "Eye for an Eye" was a single performed by Fran Drescher that dropped on September 28th, 2009. It is a stand-alone single.

2. Apple Music labels Fran Drescher as “Singer/Songwriter.” That could imply she wrote or co-wrote it, but from my professional experience, I think someone tagged the "Singer/Songwriter" qualifier more as a genre of music, not as a credit. Although I'm sure she had a hand in writing the lyrics, no doubt.

3. Discogs lists the release as “Not On Label,” meaning it was self-released, no big record machine behind it.

   
   

There's nothing beyond that. Most of what exists about Fran’s creative life is about acting and activism, not music.

And trust me, I went looking. No PRO registrations (BMI/ASCAP) popped up, no lyric sites have liner-note info, and even Last.fm just regurgitates the basics. It’s as if Fran recorded the song, pressed upload, and went back to conquering television without a second thought.

Honestly, the lack of information almost makes it more intoxicating. You don’t need all the paperwork to know you’ve found treasure—you just listen.

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Final Take: The Nanny Sings!

Discovering “Eye for an Eye” felt like stumbling into a secret annex of the Drescher-verse: a musical artifact that reminds you what a diversely talented individual she is. It reframes Fran not as a novelty singer, but as a performer who truly understands how the voice is connected to past traumas, which makes it the perfect messenger to express them.

In other words, we’ve just discovered an entirely new side of Fran Drescher living inside the sumptuous sounds of "Eye for an Eye."

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Frequently Asked Questions About Fran Drescher Singing

Did Fran Drescher actually sing in Broadway for Orlando’s benefit single?

Yes! Fran Drescher is visible in the all-star chorus of Broadway for Orlando’s “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” singing alongside legends like Carole King, Idina Menzel, Sara Bareilles, and Orfeh.

Does Fran Drescher really sing outside of The Nanny?

Absolutely. In 2009 she released a pop single called “Eye for an Eye.” Though credits are scarce, it showcases her lower register, rich tone, and a surprising ease with phrasing and vibrato.

What key is Fran Drescher’s song “Eye for an Eye” in?

The track is written in D Major—historically associated with triumph and resolution. It’s a smart choice for lyrics about betrayal, transforming the song from bleak to resilient.

Who wrote Fran Drescher’s “Eye for an Eye”?

Official credits are not publicly available. Apple Music lists her as “Singer/Songwriter,” which may refer to genre more than authorship. Discogs shows the single as self-released, and no verified lyricist, composer, or producer has been identified.

Why does Fran Drescher’s voice work so well for singing?

Her iconic Fran Fine placement—bright, nasal, forward—sits exactly where healthy mix and upper-register resonance thrive. It’s the same “ugly noise to money note” principle vocal coaches use to build effortless high singing.

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