Connie Francis

Connie Francis married four times; but none of them lasted long. Her first husband was Dick Kannellis, a press agent and entertainment director for the Aladdin Hotel. They got married sometime in 1964; but divorced four months later.

Her second marriage was to Izzy Marrion, a hair-salon owner. They got married in 1971 and divorced ten months later in 1972.

Her third marriage was comparatively long lasting. In 1973, she married Joseph Garzilli, restaurateur and travel-agency owner and remained married to him for five years, the union ending in a divorce in 1978. The couple had a son named Joseph Garzilli Jr.

Connie Francis was born as Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero on December 12, 1938 in Ironbound Newark, New Jersey. Her father, George Franconero, Sr. was a dockworker and a roof-contractor while her mother, Ida Franconero née Ferrari-di Vito, was a homemaker. She had a younger brother named George Franconero, Jr.

George Franconero, Sr. was a natural entertainer, having certain musical ambition, which remained unfulfilled. Therefore, when little Concetta began to show her musical talent, he happily passed his ambition on to her.

As soon as Concetta turned three, her father enrolled her into a music school for accordion lessons. He envisaged that when she grew up she would open an accordion school. But soon he realized that his daughter, with her strong and tuneful voice, had even greater potentials.

Prompted by her father, Concetta began to appear at different talent contests, pageants, lodge celebrations, church socials and other neighborhood festivities from the age of four, singing and playing accordion. Living in an Italian-Jewish neighborhood, she also began to pick up Yiddish, soon becoming fluent in it.

In 1950, 12-year-old Concetta secured the first place on Arthur Godfrey's ‘Startime Talent Scout’ as a singer and an accordion player. It was during this period that she changed her stage name to Connie Francis on the advice of Godfrey, who found it difficult to pronounce Franconero.

In 1955, ‘Startime’ went off the air. By then, Connie’s father, George Franconero, and her manager, George Scheck, realized that her days as a child artist were numbered. They now secured forged identity card for Connie, with which she began to sing at different clubs and lounges.

They also raised money for recording a four-song demo tape, which they hoped to sell to some well-known recording company. However, the demo tape was rejected by most companies, mainly because Connie was yet to develop a style of her own; she was simply good in copying other stars. .

Finally Connie signed a contract with MGM Records for ten singles and one duet. It came mainly because one of the tracks was entitled ‘Freddy’, which was also the name of the company co-executive, Harry A. Myerson’s son and he thought that the song would be a good birthday present.

'Freddy’ was released in June 1955 as Connie’s debut single; but it failed to make any mark and was a commercial failure and so were her next eight singles.

In 1956, she recorded two songs, ‘I Never Had A Sweetheart' and 'Little Blue Wren', for Tuesday Weld in the film ‘Rock, Rock, Rock’.

Released in November 1957, ‘Who's Sorry Now?’ was initially ignored. But when on January 1, 1958, Dick Clark, best remembered for hosting ‘American Bandstand’, played the song on his program; its popularity began to rise. On February 15, 1958, she sang it on Clark’s ‘Saturday Night Beechnut Show’.

By the spring of 1958, ‘Who’s Sorry Now’ rose to number 4 on Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on UK Singles Chart. Moreover, she was voted the "Best Female Vocalist" by American Bandstand viewers.

Also in 1958, MGM Records renewed her contract and in April released her first album, ‘Who’s Sorry Now?’ However, the period of her struggle was not yet over.

Her next song, ‘I’m Sorry I Made You Cry’, was a relative failure, peaking at number 36 on the chart and ‘Heartache’, on the B side, was worse, failing to chart at all. Desperate, she now began to look for her next hit and found it in ‘Stupid Cupid, written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield.

On 18 June 1958, Francis recorded ‘Stupid Cupid’ on at Metropolitan Studio. On the B side was ‘Carolina Moon’, which she had recorded on 9 June at the same studio. Together, they made a double sided hit with ‘Stupid Cupid’ peaking at number 14 on Billboard Hot 100.