He studied at Juilliard, later at the Manhattan School of Music and privately with Joseph Schillinger.

Later, his son called on him to compose additional music for the score of The Godfather Part II (1974), in which he and his father received an in-movie tribute with the characters Agostino and Carmine Coppola, who appear in a deleted scene from the young Vito Corleone flashback segments.

[6][7] He also composed a three-and-a-half-hour score for US showings of Kevin Brownlow's reconstruction of Abel Gance's 1927 epic Napoléon.

[8][9] Carmine composed the music for The Black Stallion (1979), on which Francis was executive producer, and four other films directed by his son in the 1980s.

In his audio commentary on The Godfather Part III DVD, Francis said that his father missed a cue during the shooting of that film's opening wedding reception—something he never did in his prime.