On New Year's Day 1958, Connie Francis turned on her television to watch American Bandstand. "Dick Clark said, “There's a new girl singer, and she's headed straight to number 1,'” Connie recalls to Closer. “Then he played 'Who's Sorry Now?'. I knew in that five seconds that my life would never be the same."
Connie was right. After several singles that didn't chart, “Who's Sorry Now?” would sell a million-and-a-half records and make her a star. Follow-up hits like "Stupid Cupid” and “Lipstick on Your Collar" would also prove that she was not a one-hit wonder. In all, Connie has sold more than 80 million records in her long career. But her charmed existence came to a screeching end after a violent assault, the murder of her younger brother, and the loss of her greatest love. “I have some regrets,” Connie, 84, admits. "But I hope that I did OK.”
Music was always a huge part of Connie's life. One of her earliest memories is of her father, George Franconero, playing a concertina, an accordion-like instrument. “His father brought it with him from Italy to Ellis Island," recalls the performer, born in Newark, N.J. "Every night he would play songs for me, and I became infatuated with music at a very early age. One of my first words was radio. I wanted to hear music all the time."
This story is from the March 28, 2022 edition of Closer US.
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This story is from the March 28, 2022 edition of Closer US.
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