Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero , known professionally as Connie Francis, was an American singer and actress. One of the top-charting female vocalists of the late 1950s and early 1960s, she amassed over $100 million in record sales, placing her among the best-selling music artists in history. Growing up in a mixed Italian-Jewish neighbourhood, Francis became fluent in Yiddish, which led her later to record songs in Yiddish and Hebrew. During rehearsals for her appearance on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts in December 1950, Francis was advised by Godfrey to change her stage name to Connie Francis for easier pronunciation. Godfrey also told her to drop the accordion—advice she gladly followed, as she had begun to hate the large and heavy instrument. Around the same time, Francis took a job as a singer on demonstration records, to bring unreleased songs to the attention of established singers and/or their management who might choose to record them for a professional commercial record.
In the fall of 1957, Francis enjoyed her first modest success with a duet single she had recorded with Marvin Rainwater: “The Majesty of Love”, with “You, My Darlin’ You” as the B-side, peaked at number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100. Eventually, the single sold over one million copies. After a string of unsuccessful releases, Francis rose to fame in 1958 with her cover of the 1923 song “Who’s Sorry Now?”, which was followed by various other top-10 hits. She became the first woman to reach No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart when “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” topped the chart in 1960. She was also the first woman to achieve three No. 1 hits on the chart, among her 53 career entries. Before the advent of the British Invasion, Francis was the most popular female vocalist in the United States between 1958 and 1964.
After the relative failure of the follow-up singles, “I’m Sorry I Made You Cry”, (which stalled at No. 36), and “Heartaches”, which failed to chart at all, Francis met Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, who sang a number of ballads they had written for her. Greenfield urged Sedaka to sing a song they had written that morning with the Shepherd Sisters in mind. Sedaka protested that Francis would be insulted, but Greenfield said that since she hated all the other songs they had performed, they had nothing to lose. Sedaka then played “Stupid Cupid”. When he finished, Francis announced that he had just played her new hit song. It went on to reach number 14 on the Billboard chart and was her second number 1 in the UK.
Francis continued to record singles aimed at the youth-oriented market. Among her top-ten hits on the Hot 100 were “Breakin’ in a Brand New Broken Heart” (1961, number 7), “When the Girl in Your Arms is the Girl in Your Heart” (1961, number 10), “Second Hand Love” (1962, number 7), and “Where the Boys Are” (1961, number 4). The last one became her signature tune and became the theme song of Francis’s first motion picture. The movie introduced the concept of spring break, as the once sleepy town of Fort Lauderdale became the hotspot for college students on their spring vacation in the wake of the movie’s success. The film is also noted for being a precursor to and influence on the later beach party genre.
Francis recorded music in multiple languages including English, Italian, French, German, Yiddish, and Japanese, making her a best-selling artist in international markets as well as in American immigrant communities. Between 1974 and 1988, a series of traumatic personal experiences, including a rape attack at knife point, led Francis to suffer years of psychological and physical difficulties that sidelined her career. She resumed performing from 1989 until her retirement in 2018. She regained prominence in 2025, shortly before her death, when her 1962 recording “Pretty Little Baby” went viral on social media platforms.
