WHO WAS FRANKIE LYMON?; RECORD LABEL BREAKS GROUND WITH FILM ABOUT TEEN-AGE SINGING SENSATION.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Daily News Film Writer

Nearly 20 years ago, writer Tina Andrews heard Diana Ross' remake of the Frankie Lymon hit ``Why Do Fools Fall in Love,'' remembered Lymon's tragic life and thought, ``Hmm ... Frankie's story could be a decent movie.''

Two years later, still thinking about writing a Lymon movie, Andrews came across Michael Jackson moonwalking to the sounds of ``Billie Jean'' on TV. Immediately, she knew she had her Frankie. ``Michael is Frankie,'' she thought. ``Michael could make his story into a great movie!''

Now, Andrews' idea of a Lymon biopic is finally coming to a theater near you. It's called, obviously enough, ``Why Do Fools Fall in Love,'' named after the singer's only Top 10 hit. Jackson, of course, isn't the star; he never managed to squeeze the project into his busy schedule of albums, touring and plastic surgery. And the movie is no longer a strict biography, either. It's part courtroom drama, part nostalgic romp, with a dash history thrown in for good measure.

``A biographical dramedy,'' Andrews says, laughing at her attempts to characterize her own film.

It's also a first for Rhino Films. Anyone who loves music knows Rhino Records, who have been wildly successful with their hip, campy and just plain delightful repackaging of classic rock, soul and r&b music over the past 20 years. Now Rhino is moving into movies, looking to make - what else? - films about musical legends that baby boomers hold near and dear.

``Every actor wants to be a musician, and every musician wants to be an actor,'' says Rhino Films president Stephen Nemeth. ``We're just trying to do a little bit of both.''

The company has several projects in the works that would do just that, including biographies of shadowy blues legend Robert Johnson, punk revolutionary Johnny Rotten and western swing man Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. There are plans, too, for a Monkees movie that would be shot with a tongue-in-cheek, modern sensibility and a, gulp, sequel to ``The Valley of the Dolls.''

The latter project reflects Rhino's desire to tap into pop culture as well as music. Two such attempts this year - Terry Gilliam's adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's gonzo bible ``Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' and the unfortunately titled Tarantino spoof ``Plump Fiction'' - sank without a trace, illustrating the riskiness of mining cult classics for feature-film profit.

Music movies are no clambake, either, as demonstrated by the failure of highly publicized films like ``The Doors,'' ``Great Balls of Fire'' and ``Selena'' to deliver audiences beyond their respective niche appeal.

But that isn't going to keep Rhino or the major studios from trying. Just don't hold your breath waiting for a slew of new releases. Last year, there were two Janis Joplin biographies in the works, one with rock singer Melissa Etheridge and another with indie-film darling Lili Taylor. Both are currently mired in development hell.

Likewise, there are three companies - including Rhino - looking to make a movie about soul singer Otis Redding. Nemeth thinks Rhino has the best angle, taking a look at a week in Redding's life right before he died in a plane crash. Never mind the angle, though. Rhino has something more important - the music rights to Redding's entire catalog.

That was certainly a help to screenwriter Andrews and producer Paul Hall when it came time to finally make ``Why Do Fools Fall in Love.'' Andrews tinkered with her script for 15 years, but it was only when Rhino gained control of the Roulette Records (Lymon's old recording company) that things began to fall into place.

``The song, with Frankie's voice, is so much a part of his story that it would be hard to do a movie without it,'' Hall says. ``You just listen to that song - and it's never really gone away - and you can see why Lymon made the splash that he did.''

Frankie's story

Lymon was only 13 years old when ``Why Do Fools Fall in Love'' hit the Billboard Top Ten in February 1956. The song's infectious enthusiasm was matched by Lymon's energetic stage presence, which included an ear-to-ear smile, winning charisma and a matchless ability (for a male, at least) to execute splits.

Lymon would have made a great cheerleading captain, and he probably would have been better served by spending more time doing such normal, adolescent things. A little more than a year after ``Fools'' hit, Lymon broke with his doo-wop group, the Teenagers, over business differences, and it was all downhill from there. A succession of wives and drug problems followed, and he died in 1968, at the age of 25, of a drug overdose, still looking for that elusive magic he had with his first hit song.

The film centers on the legal battles among Lymon's three wives over royalties from his estate. Each wife was different - one was a glamorous singer with the Platters, another was a felon, the third was a demure Southern school teacher - and each saw a different side of the singer.

``You can't make up a better story than that of Frankie Lymon,'' says producer Hall. ``It's like he lived three different lives in the span of just 25 years.''

And three different lives that nobody really knows about, since Lymon isn't exactly a household name. Larenz Tate, who plays him in the movie, had not heard of Lymon until reading the script. (Same story for the actresses playing his three wives - Halle Berry, Vivica A. Fox and Lela Rochon.) For director Gregory Nava, unfamiliarity isn't a plus or a minus. To paraphrase an old campaign catch-phrase: It's the story, stupid.

``Just because somebody's famous doesn't mean you can make a movie about them,'' says Nava, who says he has been bombarded with music movie offers since he made ``Selena'' last year. ``If that was the case, we would have seen a dozen Elvis movies by now.''

Not necessarily, since it would be somewhat difficult for filmmakers to acquire the rights to Presley's music and aspects of his image, not to mention securing the courage it would take to essay the life of a pop-culture titan. But that doesn't mean the King won't continue to be a presence on film. (Remember the Flying from ``Honeymoon in Vegas''?)

``I've got a dozen scripts on my desk right now that have `Elvis' in the title,'' says Rhino's Nemeth. ``At the moment, I'm reading one about a guy who wins the ultimate Elvis impersonator contest. That's the stuff that gets me - the obsession with Elvis. I'm more fascinated with that than with Elvis himself.''

``In fact,'' Nemeth continues, ``we've been working for the past three years on a documentary about Bob Dylan impersonators. And when one of them is asked why he chose to impersonate Dylan, he says, `Well, I wanted to do Elvis. But the field was too crowded, so I went to my next choice instead.''

Like the man says, you've gotta serve somebody.

Rhino releases Lymon disc

It was an intense 18 months back in 1956-57 when Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers were at the top of the pop world.

By the end of that year, after scoring top 40 hits with ``Why Do Fools Fall in Love,'' ``I Want You to Be My Girl'' and ``Goody Goody,'' the sweet-voiced Lymon was talked into launching a solo career that subsequently flopped.

Lymon's music is compiled in the 20-track disc ``The Best of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers'' (Rhino). A second compilation is due from the reissues label in October.

Lymon and the Teenagers were the model for scores of ``kid'' groups in the last half of the '50s. He was the first Michael Jackson, the first African-American teen-age pop star.

- Fred Shuster

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos, box

PHOTO (1) ``Why Do Fool Fall in Love'' looks at teen-singing sensation Frankie Lymon (Larenz Tate) through the eyes of his three ex-wives.

(2) Vivica A. Fox, left, Lela Rochon and Halle Berry portray Frankie Lymon's three wives in ``Why do Fools Fall in Love?''

(3 -- color -- cover) A fool for love

(4) The real Lymon, front, shown on the back cover of the CD ``The Best of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.''

Box: Rhino releases Lymon disc (see text)