Dr. Connie Francis, M.D.

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Connie Francis was born as Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero as daughter of an Italian family and she grew up in an Italian-Jewish neighborhood. Encouraged by her father, she had been appearing regularly  as a singer and accordion player, at talent contests, pageants, and other neighborhood festivities, some of which were broadcast on television), appearing alternately as Concetta Franconero and Connie Franconero. Under the latter name, she also appeared on NBC's variety show Startime Kids between 1953 and 1955.

At age 11 she appeared on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts (1948) as a singer and accordionist. During the rehearsals for her appearance, she was advised by Godfrey to change her stage name to Connie Francis for the sake of 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, she took a job as a singer on demonstration records, which were brought to the attention of established singers and/or their management who would subsequently choose or decline to record the song for a professional commercial record.

In May 1955 George Franconero Sr. and Francis' manager George Scheck raised money for a recording session of four songs which they hoped to sell to a major record company under Francis' own name. The story goes that every record label they tried turned her down.

Finally, even when MGM Records decided to sign a contract with her, it was basically because one track she had recorded, "Freddy", happened to be the name of the son of a company co-executive, Harry A. Myerson, who thought of this song as a nice birthday gift. Hence, "Freddy" was released as Francis' first single, which turned out to be a commercial failure, just as her following eight solo singles were.

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 Brothers rock and roll movie Jamboree.

In the fall of 1957, Francis enjoyed her first chart success with a duet single she had recorded with Marvin Rainwater: "The Majesty of Love", peaked at number 93 on Billboard's Hot 100. Eventually, the single sold over one million copies.

 

 

However, her minor chart success came too late – Francis' recording contract consisted of ten solo singles and one duet single. Though success had 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.

At what was to have been her final recording session for MGM on October 2, 1957, at the insistence of her father she recorded a cover version of the 1923 song "Who's Sorry Now?", written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, with a contemporary arrangement

 

 

Francis did not like the song and had been arguing about it with her father heatedly, so she scheduled 'Who's Sorry Now' in at the end of the session and delayed the recording of three previous songs so there should be no way to do the fourth one on that date.

In her own words: "There was 16 minutes left. So over the intercom I said, 'That's it, fellas, thanks a lot, we haven't got time.' My father said 'wait a second, you got 16 minutes left, cut the damn song.' So it was like pulling teeth. I looked at the arranger and said, 'okay, let's go through this turkey. My father likes this song.' He said 'alright, let's do it.' So we did it. And I did half a take, and the tempo was wrong. I did one other take and that was it. That's all there was time to do. That's how the record came out."

When the recording "Who's Sorry Now?" was finished, only a few seconds were left on the tape.

 

 

 

 

 

Francis considered a career in medicine and was about to give up singing accepting a four-year scholarship offered at New York University, so those few seconds made the difference in her future career!

On January 1, 1958, the song debuted on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. By mid-year, over a million copies had been sold, and Connie Francis was suddenly launched into worldwide stardom. In April 1958, "Who's Sorry Now" reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and number 4 in the US. For the next four years, Francis was voted the "Best Female Vocalist" by American Bandstand viewers.

Since MGM Records had renewed her contract, she began searching for a new hit immediately after the success of "Who's Sorry Now?". After the relative failure of the follow-up singles "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry" (which stalled at No. 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. After a few hours, Francis began writing in her diary while the songwriters played the last of their ballads. 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 number 14 on the Billboard chart and was her second number 1 in the UK.

 

 

 

 

 

Neils Sedaka’s indiscretion in this session asking Connie Francis to show him her diary also served for Sedaka and Greenfield to get the inspiration for Sedakas's first top hit as singer, "The Diary"

The success of "Stupid Cupid" restored momentum to Connie Francis' career and she reached Top 40 an additional seven times during the remainder of the '50s. She became the top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1969.

Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Connie Francis remaind a top concert draw. Despite several interruptions in her career, she is STILL active as a recording and performing artist.

So, for just some seconds of difference, the world lost a doctor in medicine and gained a great artist...