Connie Francis

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Connie Francis playlist

Contributor: Merric Davidson

Throughout 1955 and 1956, MGM Records released a series of discs by Connie Francis, none of which troubled the charts either in the US or here in the UK. With MGM looking to terminate their contract with Connie, even though she’d now had a minor hit duetting with Marvin Rainwater on The Majesty Of Love, fate was about to lend a hand. Who’s Sorry Now, which was written in 1923 and recorded by Connie in 1957, became her biggest selling record and signature song in the late fifties. It also spent six weeks at No.1 in the UK. Connie would remain with MGM until 1969.

Her two follow up records had fared reasonably well but the one after that, Stupid Cupid, written by Brill Building stalwarts, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, and released in the summer of 1958, rocketed Connie up the charts to No.1 both in the US and in the UK where it was a double A-side with a 20s oldie, Carolina Moon. Sedaka and Greenfield were also responsible for the follow up, Fallin’.

Although one of her greatest records – and my personal favourite – Lipstick On Your Collar was not written by Sedaka/Greenfield. This 1959 superhit still emerged from the Brill Building and the songwriting team of Edna Lewis and George Goehring.

However, Sedaka/Greenfield were still involved with Connie penning the B-side, Frankie.

Over the period 1960-1962, not content with a string of hit singles, MGM and their top-selling female artist released over twenty albums, incredible as that may seem today, with music as diverse as Connie Francis Sings Spanish And Latin American Favorites, Connie Francis Sings Jewish Favorites, Connie Francis Sings Folk Song Favorites, Connie Francis Sings Fun Songs For Children, Connie Francis Sings Award Winning Motion Picture Hits etc. She truly must have been the hardest working woman in show business at that time!

I’m picking out one album track. Do You Love Me Like You Kiss Me, which can be found on 1959’s Connie Francis Sings Italian Favourites, is a rewrite of the Italian classic, Scapricciatiello. Connie also sings her massive hit Mama on this album, twenty years after the song’s original release in 1940. Mama reached No.2 in the UK charts and was her twelfth hit over here and guaranteed for regular plays on Two-Way Family Favourites. Ten more UK hits would follow up to the summer of 1962 and Vacation.

These included two country-tinged songs, Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool and My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own, both co-written by Howard Greenfield with Jack Keller. Two huge hits, both songs making the No.1 spot in America and the top five in the UK.

Two more top ten hits from August and November 1960 bring this selection to a close. Many Tears Ago and Where The Boys Are (Sedaka/Greenfield again), both reached the UK top ten in 1961. Where The Boys Are is the theme song of the movie of the same name which co-starred Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, Paula Prentiss, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux.

Yes, everything in Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero’s world was looking rosy until that one dreadful day in 1974 when she was raped at knifepoint in her hotel room in Long Island. This was the beginning of a series of terrible tragedies starting with, unsurprisingly, a nervous breakdown and the loss of her voice after surgery. Wikipedia documents the chain of events here as did Connie in her candid 2017 autobiography “Among My Souvenirs”.

Let it be said, though, that Connie Francis was a huge star from the mid-fifties to the mid-sixties, not just in America but across the world selling hundreds of millions of records. If you enjoy listening to early American pop music from that golden age, as I still do, these are ten classic records from that extraordinary era.

Connie Francis wikipedia

Connie Francis discography

Official Connie Francis Facebook

Connie Francis biography (AllMusic)

Merric Davidson is a retired publisher who started this site in 2013. He posts toppermost on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram.

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