Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero (/ˌfræŋkoʊˈnɪəroʊ/ FRANG-koh-NEER-oh;[3] born December 12, 1937), known as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

[4] In 1960, Francis was recognized as the most successful female artist in Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Australia, and in every other country where records were purchased.

[6] Francis was born to an Italian-American family (one of her grandfathers having immigrated from Reggio Calabria in 1905)[7] in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, the first child of George Franconero (1911–1996) and Ida (née Ferrari-di Vito; 1911–2000), spending her first years in the Crown Heights, Brooklyn area (Utica Avenue/St.

published in 1984, Francis recalls that she was encouraged by her father to appear regularly at talent contests, pageants, and other neighborhood festivities from the age of four as a singer and accordion player.

[13] 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.

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 has 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.

36) and "Heartaches", failing to chart at all, Francis met Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, who sang a number of ballads they had written for her.

[17] The success of "Stupid Cupid" restored momentum to Francis' chart career, and she reached the U.S. top 40 an additional eight times during the remainder of the 1950s.

Following another idea from her father, Francis traveled to London in August 1959[12] to record an Italian album at EMI's famous Abbey Road Studios.

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.

[19] Veteran lyricist Ralph Maria Siegel penned a set of German lyrics, named "Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel", which, after some friction between Francis and her MGM executives, was recorded and released.

It was not until her number 7 on the US charts, "Many Tears Ago", later in 1960 when Francis began to record cover versions of her songs in foreign languages other than German.

In the wake of "Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel", Francis enjoyed her greatest successes outside the United States.

[21] Francis's enduring popularity overseas led to television specials in countries around the world such as Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy.

In the US, Connie Francis had a third number-one hit in 1962: "Don't Break the Heart That Loves You", and her success led MGM to allow her complete freedom to choose whichever songs she wanted to record.

On July 3 that same year, she played a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II at the Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland.

Due to music trends in the early and mid-1960s, especially the British Invasion, Francis's chart success on Billboard's Hot 100 began to wane after 1963.

A number of Francis's singles reached the top 40 in the US Hot 100 in the mid-1960s, with her last top-40 entry in 1964 being her cover version of "Be Anything (but Be Mine)", a 1952 song made famous by singer/bandleader Eddy Howard.

[18] In 1965, Connie Francis participated in that year's edition of the annual San Remo Festival, where her team partner Gigliola Cinquetti and she presented "Ho bisogno di vederti", which finished on number 5 of the final ranking.

This answer song to "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando & Dawn bubbled under the charts.

[28] In the years after the incident, Francis went into depression, taking as many as 50 Darvon pills a day and rarely leaving her home in Essex Fells, New Jersey.

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.

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

[42] 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' 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 US, and select songs from popular songwriters of the day, such as Burt Bacharach and Hal David, or Les Reed.

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.

"[53] On February 13, a video uploaded to her official YouTube channel featured Francis and Ferretti performing a duet of the song "You Made Me Love You.

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.

[57] Francis brought a suit alleging that Universal Music Group (UMG) took advantage of her condition and stopped paying royalties.