Connie Francis

Biography

1937–1955: Early life and first appearances

Francis was born on December12, 1937, to an Italian-American family (one of her grandfathers having emigrated from Reggio Calabria in 1905) in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, the first child of George Franconero (1911–1996) and Ida (; 1911–2000). She spent her first years in the Crown Heights, Brooklyn area (Utica Avenue/St Mark's Place), before the family moved to New Jersey. Growing up in a mixed Italian-Jewish neighborhood, Francis became fluent in Yiddish, which led her later to record songs in Yiddish and Hebrew. Francis had a younger brother, George Franconero Jr. (1940–1981).

In her autobiography Who's Sorry Now? published in 1984, Francis recalls that her father encouraged her to appear regularly at talent contests, pageants, and other neighborhood festivities as a child singing and playing the accordion.

During rehearsals for her appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts in December1950, 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.

Francis attended Newark Arts High School in 1951 and 1952 before she and her family moved to Belleville, New Jersey. Francis graduated as salutatorian from Belleville High School in 1955.

Francis continued to perform at neighborhood festivities and talent shows (some of them broadcast on television), appearing alternately as Concetta Franconero and Connie Franconero. Under the latter name, she appeared on NBC's variety show Startime Kids between 1953 and 1955.

1955–1957: Recording contract and commercial failure

In 1955, Startime Kids went off the air. In May that year, George Franconero Sr. and Francis's manager George Scheck raised money for a recording session of four songs which they hoped to sell to a major record company under Francis's own name. Even when MGM Records decided to sign a contract with her, it was because one track she had recorded, "Freddy", happened to be the name of the son of a company executive, Harry A. Meyerson, who thought of the song as a nice birthday gift. Hence, "Freddy" was released as Francis's first single, which turned out to be a commercial failure, just like her next eight solo singles.

Despite these failures, Francis was hired to record the vocals for Tuesday Weld's "singing" scenes in the 1956 movie Rock, Rock, Rock!, and for Freda Holloway in the 1957 Warner Bros. rock and roll movie Jamboree.

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.

1957–1959: Breakthrough

However, her minor chart success came too late for her record label—Francis's recording contract consisted of ten solo singles and one duet single. Though success had finally seemed to come with "The Majesty of Love", Francis was informed by MGM Records that her contract would not be renewed after her last solo single.

Francis considered a career in medicine and was about to accept a four-year scholarship at New York University. At a recording session for MGM on October2, 1957, with Joe Lipman and his orchestra, she recorded a cover version of the 1923 song "Who's Sorry Now?", written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. Francis said that she recorded it at the insistence of her father, who was convinced it stood a chance of becoming a hit because it was a song adults already knew and that teenagers would dance to if it had a contemporary arrangement.

Francis did not like the song and argued about it with her father heatedly, delaying the recording of the other two songs during the session so much that she thought no time was left on the continuously running recording tape. Her father insisted though, and when the recording "Who's Sorry Now?" was finished, only a few seconds remained on the tape.

The single seemed to go unnoticed, like all previous releases, just as Francis had predicted, but on January1, 1958, it debuted on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Francis watched the show and later said:

|I heard Dick Clark mention something about a new girl singer. So, what else is new? Another girl singer. There are ninety-five million females in the country, and I'll bet ninety-five percent of them sing. "There is no doubt about it", predicted Mr. Clark. "She's headed straight for the number one spot". I began feeling sorry for myself and a bit envious, too. Good luck to her, I thought. And then Mr. Clark just happened to play a song called "Who's Sorry Now?" My "Who's Sorry Now?" Well, the feeling was cosmic, just cosmic!

On February15, Francis performed it on the first episode of The Saturday Night Beechnut Show, also hosted by Clark. By mid-year over one million copies had been sold and Francis was suddenly launched into worldwide stardom. In April1958, "Who's Sorry Now?" reached number1 in the UK Singles Chart and number4 in the United States. That year, by a wide margin, Connie was voted "Best Female Vocalist" by American Bandstand viewers. She went on to collect similar Bandstand awards for the next four years.

As Francis explained at each of her concerts, she began searching for a new hit immediately after the success of "Who's Sorry Now?" since MGM Records had renewed her contract. 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. After a few hours, Francis began writing in her diary while the songwriters played the last of their ballads. This, and her refusal to let Sedaka and Greenfield see the diary to mine it for material, inspired the duo to write Sedaka's own breakthrough hit "The Diary". Afterwards Francis told them that she considered their ballads too intellectual and sophisticated for the young generation and requested a more lively song. 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 number14 on the Billboard chart and was her second number1 in the UK.

The success of "Stupid Cupid" restored momentum to Francis's chart career, and she reached the U.S. top40 an additional eight times during the remainder of the 1950s. She managed to churn out more hits by covering several older songs, such as "My Happiness" (number2 on the Hot100) and "Among My Souvenirs" (number7), as well as performing her own original songs. In 1959, she gained two gold records for a double-sided hit: on the A-side, "Lipstick on Your Collar" (number5), and on the B-side, "Frankie" (number9).

1959–1973: International recording star

Following another idea from her father, Francis traveled to London in August1959 to record an Italian album at EMI's famous Abbey Road Studios. Titled Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites, the album was released in November1959. It soon entered the album charts where it remained for 81 weeks, peaking at number 4 and becoming Francis's most successful album. "Mama", the single taken from the album, reached number8 in the United States and number 2 in the United Kingdom.

Following this success, Francis recorded seven more albums of "favorites" between 1960 and 1964, including Jewish, German, and Irish, among others. Francis's 1960 album of Jewish music included songs in Yiddish and Hebrew, such as "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena", "Oifen Pripetchik" and "Hava Nagila". Some Jews, particularly immigrants, saw her album as validating the acceptance of the Jewish community in American society.

Nevertheless, Francis continued to record singles aimed at the youth market. Among her top-ten hits on the Hot 100 were "Breakin' in a Brand New Broken Heart" (1961, number7), "When the Girl in Your Arms is the Girl in Your Heart" (1961, number10), "Second Hand Love" (1962, number7), and "Where the Boys Are" (1961, number4). 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. She appeared in a number of other movies for MGM including Follow the Boys.

The success of "Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites" in late1959 and early1960 led Francis to become one of the first American artists to record regularly in other languages. She was followed by other major British and American recording stars including Wanda Jackson, Cliff Richard, Petula Clark, Brenda Lee, the Supremes, Peggy March, Pat Boone, Lesley Gore, the Beatles and Johnny Cash, among many others. In her autobiography, Francis mentioned that in the early years of her career, the language barrier in some European countries, especially in Germany, made it difficult for her songs to get airplay.

Francis used these reflections as the basis for her April1960 recording, "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" which would go on to become the first single by a female artist to top the Hot 100. Veteran lyricist Ralph Maria Siegel penned a set of German lyrics, named "" ("Love is a Strange Game"), which, after some friction between Francis and her MGM executives, was recorded and released. The song peaked at number1 in West Germany. She had two more number one hits there, "" in September1962 and "" in July1963.

It was not until her number7 on the U.S. charts, "Many Tears Ago", later in 1960 when Francis began to record cover versions of her songs in foreign languages other than German. Over the years she expanded her recording portfolio to 15languages. She also sang in Romanian during a live performance at the 1970 edition of the Golden Stag Festival in Brașov, Romania. Francis was not fluent in all of these languages and she had to learn her foreign language songs phonetically.

In the wake of "", Francis enjoyed her greatest successes outside the United States. During the 1960s, her songs not only topped the charts in numerous countries around the world, but she was also voted the number1 singer in over 10countries. In 1960, she was named the most popular artist in Europe, the first time a non-European received this honor. From mid-1961 to mid-1963, Radio Luxembourg closed each day's broadcasts with "It's Time to Say Goodnight", a song Francis had recorded especially for them and was not officially released until 1996.

Francis's enduring popularity overseas led to television specials in countries around the world such as Great Britain, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Even at the height of the Cold War, Francis's music was well received in Iron Curtain countries, and some of her recordings were made available on state-owned record labels such as Melodiya in the Soviet Union and on Jugoton in Yugoslavia, although it was common knowledge that rock 'n' roll was highly disparaged in Eastern bloc countries.

In the U.S., Connie Francis had a third number-one hit in 1962: "Don't Break the Heart That Loves You" Becoming the first woman to achieve three number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and her success led MGM to allow her complete freedom to choose whichever songs she wanted to record.

Francis's first autobiography, For Every Young Heart, was published in 1963. On July3 that same year, she played a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II at the Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland. During the height of the Vietnam War in 1967, Francis performed for U.S. troops.

Between 1958 and 1964, Francis was the most popular female singer in the United States, with her popularity and chart consistency rivalled only by Brenda Lee. However, due to music trends in the early and mid-1960s, especially the British Invasion, Francis's chart success on Billboard Hot100 began to wane after 1963. Her final top-ten hit, "Vacation", co-written by Francis herself, was released in 1962. A number of Francis's singles reached the top40 on the U.S. Hot100 in the mid-1960s, with her last top-40entry in 1964 being her cover version of "Be Anything (but Be Mine)", a 1952song made famous by singer/bandleader Eddy Howard. Despite her declining success on the Hot100, Francis remained a top concert draw, and her singles—with a more mature style—were charting on the top quarter of Billboard Adult Contemporary Charts and sometimes even reached Billboard Country Charts. Francis enjoyed lasting chart success in the U.S. until her contract with MGM Records expired in 1969.

In 1965, Francis participated in that year's edition of the annual Sanremo Festival, where her team partner was Gigliola Cinquetti and she presented "", which finished number5 in the final rankings.

Francis returned to San Remo in 1967 to present "" with her team partner Bobby Solo. In the U.S., however, "Time Alone Will Tell", Francis's cover version of Sanremo's 1967 winning entry "" which had been presented by Iva Zanicchi and Claudio Villa, peaked at number94 on Billboard's Hot100 and at number14 on Billboard's AC charts.

In 1973, Francis returned to the recording studio, cutting "(Should I) Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree?", b/w "Paint the Rain" on GSF Records. This answer song to "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando & Dawn bubbled under the charts. The recording of a German version, though, remained unfinished.

1974–1988: Rape and retreat into seclusion

After her modest success with "(Should I) Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree?" Francis began performing regularly again. While in town to appear at the Westbury Music Fair in New York, on November 8, 1974, Francis was raped at knifepoint, beaten, and tied to a chair at the Jericho Turnpike Howard Johnson's Lodge in Jericho, New York. Francis, who was found by police naked, bound and gagged, and still tied to an overturned chair, nearly suffocated under the weight of a heavy mattress the assailant had thrown upon her. She later said that the attacker "was obviously drugged" and "kept asking for money," and stated that he "talked about his mother, about God punishing him because he was going to kill me." Although a 19-year-old guest at the hotel was initially arrested as a suspect, the rapist was never found. Francis subsequently sued the motel chain for failing to provide adequate security and reportedly won a $2.5million judgment (), one of the largest such judgments in history, leading to a reform in hotel security. After her attack Norwegian inventor Tor Sørnes was inspired to invent the keycard lock. In the years after the incident, Francis went into depression, taking as many as 50Darvon pills a day and rarely leaving her home in Essex Fells, New Jersey.

In 1978, Francis returned to the recording studio to cut an album titled Who's Happy Now? The lead recording on this album was a disco version of "Where the Boys Are". That and other songs from the Who's Happy Now? sessions were subsequently recorded in Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and German. The Spanish and German recordings became albums of their own as Connie Francis en Español in Spain and as Was ich bin () in Germany. All three albums and the singles culled from them were released on United Artists Records. It would be the last album Francis, who had already withdrawn from touring after the events of 1974, recorded before she underwent nasal surgery and completely lost her voice. She went through three more operations and was unable to sing again until 1981.

In 1981, further tragedy struck Francis when her brother, George Franconero Jr., to whom she was very close, was shot to death outside his New Jersey home by Mafia hitmen. George was an attorney who had testified against mob activity and refused offers of witness protection. His death forced Francis to stop "wallow[ing] in self-pity" and take responsibility for her extended family, noting that the sum of tragedies she had experienced up to then had made her very "angry, and angry is often a good catalyst." Francis returned again to the studio in 1981 to cut "", and "I'm Me Again", the latter becoming the title track of an album which featured the new songs. "I'm Me Again" became Francis's last single to chart on the AC charts. She took up live performing again, even gracing the American Bandstand 30thAnniversary Special and appearing in the town where she had been raped. Francis's new-found success was short-lived, though. She was diagnosed with manic depression, which again brought her career to a halt; Francis would later state it was a misdiagnosis, along with a concurrent misdiagnosis of attention deficit disorder, and that the medications she had been erroneously prescribed had turned her into "a zombie." She was committed to multiple psychiatric hospitals. Francis attempted suicide in 1984 and was in a coma for several days. She and her doctors eventually concluded her mental health issues stemmed from post-traumatic stress disorder, primarily related to the events of 1974.

In 1984, Francis wrote and published her autobiography, Who's Sorry Now? which became a New York Times bestseller.

1989–2018: Later career

In 1989, Francis resumed her recording and performing career once again. For Malaco Records, Francis recorded a double album entitled Where the Hits Are, containing re-recordings of 18 of her biggest hits, as well as six classics of yesteryear Francis had always wanted to record such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and "Torn Between Two Lovers".

In 1992, a medley of remixed versions of her biggest German hits charted in Germany. A single, entitled "Jive, Connie", ended up among the top-ten best-selling singles of the year, which brought Francis the prestigious R.SH-Gold award for the "Best Comeback of the Year" from R.SH (short for "Radio Schleswig-Holstein"), then one of Germany's most important private radio stations. A subsequent compilation album of her biggest German hits in their original versions was also released successfully. In the wake of this, Francis recorded two duets for the German Herzklang label (a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment) with Peter Kraus, with whom she had already worked several times in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

In 1996, Francis released the live album The Return Concert: Live at Trump's Castle. That same year, she also released With Love to Buddy, a tribute album of songs made famous by the late Buddy Holly.

In late December2004, Francis headlined in Las Vegas for the first time since 1989. In March and October2007, Francis performed to sold-out crowds at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. She appeared in concert in Manila, Philippines, on Valentine's Day 2008.

In 2010, Francis appeared at the Las Vegas Hilton with Dionne Warwick, a show billed as "Eric Floyd's Grand Divas of Stage".

In December2017, Francis released her most recent autobiography, Among My Souvenirs.

2018–2025: Retirement, "Pretty Little Baby" resurgence and final years

Francis retired in 2018, and lived in Florida the remainder of her life. Until 2025, she had fallen into relative obscurity as a victim of the oldies format's decline and shift away from early 1960smusic; a 2022survey noted that Francis had more of her songs dropped from radio airplay than anyone other than the Osmond family. In May2025, her 1962 song "Pretty Little Baby" went viral on TikTok and became a sleeper hit; when reached for comment, Francis said she had forgotten about the song but was pleased that her music—and the innocence it sought to represent—was being embraced by a younger audience. It was released on a 7" single by Republic Records.

With the song's sudden rise in popularity, Francis joined TikTok and had plans to appear on Cousin Brucie's radio show, which she was unable to fulfill due to failing health. She stated she was willing to make television appearances but would not be performing or touring again, and that though she missed performing on stage, "that ship has sailed."

In mid-2025, Francis was hospitalized in Florida for extreme pain related to a hip injury and shared health updates on social media before her death later that year.

Connie Francis died on July 16, 2025, at a hospital in Pompano Beach, Florida, at the age of 87.

Work

Musical genres

While her singles were mostly kept in the then-current sounds of the day such as rock 'n' roll, novelty songs, the twist, torch ballads, or the girl group sound created by Brill Building alumni Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, Francis's albums represented her in a variety of styles, ranging from R&B, vocal jazz, and country to Broadway standards, children's music, waltzes, spiritual music, schlager music, traditionals from various ethnic groups represented in the U.S., and select songs from popular songwriters of the day, such as Burt Bacharach and Hal David, or Les Reed.

Discography

Main article: Connie Francis discography

Filmography

Television

Bibliography

Personal life

Relationship with Bobby Darin

Early in her career Francis was introduced to Bobby Darin, then an up-and-coming singer and songwriter. Darin's manager arranged for him to help write several songs for her. Despite some disagreement about material, after several weeks Darin and Francis developed a romantic relationship. Francis's strict Italian-American father, George Franconero, would separate the couple whenever possible. When Franconero learned that Darin had suggested the two elope after one of her shows, he ran Darin out of the building at gunpoint.

Francis saw Darin only twice more: once when the two were scheduled to sing together for a television show and again when she was spotlighted on the TV series This Is Your Life. By the time of the latter's taping, Darin had married actress Sandra Dee. In her autobiography Francis stated she and her father were driving into the Lincoln Tunnel when the radio DJ announced Dee and Darin's marriage. Her father made a negative comment about Darin finally being out of their lives. Angered, Francis later stated, "I wished that somehow God would cause the Hudson River to come gushing in and entrap us in that tunnel." She wrote that not marrying Darin was the biggest mistake of her life.

Later marriages and relationships

Francis was married four times. In 1964 she was briefly married to Dick Kanellis, a press agent and entertainment director for the Aladdin Hotel. In January1971 she married Izzy Marion, a hair-salon owner, divorcing 10months later. In1973, Francis married for the third timeher only marriage to last more than a few months to Joseph Garzilli, a restaurateur and travel-agency owner; they divorced in 1977. She had no biological children. However, during the third marriage Francis adopted a baby boy. Francis married TV producer Bob Parkinson on June27, 1985, divorcing later that year.

Francis was in a long-term relationship with Tony Ferretti from around 2003 until his death in 2022. On February13, 2022, a video uploaded to her official YouTube channel featured Francis and Ferretti performing a duet of the song "You Made Me Love You".

Biopic

Francis and singer Gloria Estefan completed a screenplay for a film based on Francis's life titled Who's Sorry Now? Estefan announced that she would produce and play the lead. She said, "[Connie Francis] isn't even in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and yet she was the first female pop star worldwide, and has recorded in nine languages. She has done a lot of things for victims' rights since her rape in the '70s.... There's a major story there." In December2009 the film project was dropped. According to Francis:

In the same article, Francis said that Dolly Parton had been contacting her for years trying to produce her life story, but owing to her previous commitment to Estefan's organization, she was not able to accept Parton's offer. She said in the article that both she and Parton had considered, independently of each other, actress Valerie Bertinelli to play Francis.

Characterization on Broadway

Francis is currently being portrayed by Sarah Hyland in the Broadway musical Just in Time based on the life of singer Bobby Darin which premiered on April23, 2025 with Gracie Lawrence as Connie Francis. Francis had planned on seeing Lawrence’s performance if her health had recovered.

Politics and activism

In 1963, Francis recorded "In the Summer of His Years", a tribute to the recently assassinated president John F. Kennedy, which became one of the first charity singles. The following year, she appeared at a presidential campaign rally for Lyndon B. Johnson's election bid, singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands".

Francis supported Richard Nixon's 1968bid for the presidency, and she recorded a campaign song for him.

She also performed for the United Service Organizations, and was the spokeswoman for Mental Health America's trauma campaign in 2010.

In a 2011interview, Francis described herself as "a die-hard liberal".

Lawsuits

On November27, 2002, Francis filed suit against Universal Music Group (UMG). She alleged that the label had underreported and underpaid her artist royalties, and had inflicted severe emotional distress and violated her moral rights when, without her permission, it synchronized several of her songs into "sexually themed" movies: the 1994film Postcards from America, the 1996film The Craft, and the 1999film Jawbreaker. This suit was dismissed.

Francis also sued the producers of Jawbreaker for using her song "Lollipop Lips", which is heard during a sex scene.

Illness and death

Francis suffered a hip injury in early2025 and subsequently required a wheelchair; she was undergoing stem cell therapy and had hopes of fully recovering as recently as May. In late June2025, she stated she had been experiencing pelvic pain on her right side and was advised that it was due to a fracture. She said that she would need to rely on her wheelchair longer than anticipated while recovering. She was hospitalized in Florida on July2 due to a recurrence of extreme pain. She underwent a series of tests and examinations while in intensive care and was later transferred to a private room. In a Facebook post, she speculated that her symptoms might be related to the fracture. On July4, she reported feeling much better after a good night. She was later discharged from the hospital but soon began to deteriorate and lost consciousness for the final time on July14.

Francis died in Pompano Beach, Florida, on July16, 2025, at the age of 87. Her longtime friend and publicist Ron Roberts announced her death the following day and later confirmed that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia the day before she died. By the time of her death, Francis had become one of the best-selling music artists in history, exceeding 200million records sold during her career. Her crypt is at The Garden of Boca Raton Cemetery in Boca Raton.

Recognition

In 2001, "Who's Sorry Now?" was named one of the Songs of the Century.

A "Connie Francis Way" street sign is displayed at the corner of Greylock Parkway and Forest Street in Belleville, New Jersey, near the house in which she grew up.

References

References

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