41 Facts About Connie Francis

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.

Connie Francis was the first woman in history to reach No 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, just one of her other 53 career hits.

Connie Francis was born to an Italian-American family in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, the first child of George and Ida Franconero, spending her first years in the Crown Heights, Brooklyn area before the family moved to New Jersey.

Connie Francis attended Newark Arts High School in 1951 and 1952.

Connie Francis considered a career in medicine and was about to accept a four-year scholarship offered at New York University.

Connie 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.

Connie Francis, who did not like the song and had been arguing about it with her father heatedly, delayed the recording of the two other songs during the session so much that, in her opinion, no time was left on the continuously running recording tape.

Sedaka protested that Connie Francis would be insulted, but Greenfield said that since she hated all the other songs they had performed, they had nothing to lose.

Connie Francis managed to churn out more hits by covering several older songs, such as "My Happiness" and "Among My Souvenirs", as well as performing her own original songs.

Nevertheless, Connie Francis continued to record singles aimed at the youth-oriented market.

Connie Francis used these reflections as the basis for her April 1960 recording, "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" which would go on to become the first single by a female artist to top the Hot 100.

Connie Francis had two more number one hits there, "Paradiso" in September 1962 and "Barcarole in der Nacht" in July 1963.

Connie Francis sang in Romanian during a live performance at the 1970 edition of the Cerbul de Aur in Brasov, Romania.

Connie Francis was not fluent in all of these languages and she had to learn her foreign language songs phonetically.

Connie Francis explained in a 1961 television interview that she was fluent in Spanish and Italian, but always had a translator nearby to make sure her translated lyrics and especially her pronunciation were as correct as possible.

From mid-1961 to mid-1963, Radio Luxembourg closed each day's broadcasts with "It's Time to Say Goodnight", a song Connie Francis had recorded especially for this purpose and which was never officially released until 1996.

Connie Francis's enduring popularity overseas led to her having television specials in numerous countries around the world, such as Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy.

Connie Francis recalls this story frequently during the introduction to "God Bless America" at her live concerts.

Connie Francis had her final top-ten hit, "Vacation", in 1962.

Therefore, Connie Francis enjoyed lasting chart success in the US until her contract with MGM Records ran out in 1969.

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.

Connie Francis returned to San Remo in 1967 to present "Canta Ragazzina" with her team partner Bobby Solo.

Connie Francis subsequently sued the motel chain for failing to provide adequate security and reportedly won a $2.5 million judgment, at the time one of the largest such judgments in history, leading to a reform in hotel security.

In 1977, Connie Francis underwent nasal surgery and completely lost her voice.

Connie Francis went through three more operations to regain her singing voice and was unable to sing for four years.

Connie Francis recorded the song in Japanese, Italian, and Spanish, as she had done before with her original 1960 version.

Connie Francis returned to the recording studio in 1981 to cut "Comme ci, comme ca", and "I'm Me Again", the latter of which became the title track of an album which featured the aforementioned new songs.

In 1989, Connie Francis resumed her recording and performing career again.

In 1996, Connie Francis released the live album The Return Concert: Live at Trump's Castle.

In late December 2004, Connie Francis headlined in Las Vegas for the first time since 1989.

Connie Francis appeared in concert in Manila, Philippines, on Valentine's Day 2008.

In December 2017, Connie Francis released her most recent autobiography, Among My Souvenirs.

Connie Francis married TV producer Bob Parkinson in 1985, divorcing later that year.

Early in her career, Connie Francis was introduced to Bobby Darin, then an up-and-coming singer and songwriter.

Connie Francis saw Darin only two more times: 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.

Connie Francis's father made a negative comment about Darin finally being out of their lives.

Angered, Connie Francis wrote she hoped the Hudson River would fill the Lincoln Tunnel, killing both her and her father; she later wrote that not marrying Darin was the biggest mistake of her life.

Connie Francis noted in the article that both she and Parton had considered, independently of each other, actress Valerie Bertinelli to play Francis.

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

Connie Francis has been the spokeswoman for Mental Health America's trauma campaign, as well as an involved worker for the USO and UNICEF.

Connie Francis brought a suit alleging that Universal Music Group took advantage of her condition and stopped paying royalties.