Born 12 December 1937
Real name: Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero
Francis was born in Newark in New Jersey. Her family had Italian roots. As a youngster she would perform at talent contests and other festivities, singing and playing accordion. While rehearsing for a television talent show called Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, she was advised to change her surname to Francis (for easier pronunciation) and to ditch the accordion. In 1955 she landed a record deal with MGM Records, the story going that one of her demo’s was called ‘Freddy’ which was the name of the record exec’s son and he thought it would make a nice birthday present for the lad. The song, however, flopped as did her next 8 releases. Then in 1957 she saw a minor hit duetting with Marvin Rainwater. The song, ‘The Majesty Of Love’ scraped a peak of 93 in the US but this was not enough for the record label and they informed her that they would not be renewing her contract after her next single. Connie’s father insisted that she record a version of the song ‘Who’s Sorry Now’ but she disagreed and the two argued, wasting previous tape time in the studio. Connie recorded two other songs, but the earlier argument meant they had very little tape time left so she eventually conceded and recorded the ‘Who’s Sorry Now’ with just second of recording space left on the tape. Initially the song flopped, as Connie had predicted, but then on 1 January 1958 it was aired on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and by the March of that year it sat at number 4 (it’s peak) on the US Hot 100 chart and on 22 May it hit the number 1 spot in the UK, staying there for 6 weeks. This kick started a chart career that would see 57 US hits, including 3 number 1’s and 24 UK chart hits where she hit the top spot once more with ‘Stupid Cupid/Carolina Moon’. She would have a relationship with singer Bobby Darin, but her father didn’t like him and chased him away apparently at gunpoint.
| Date of entry | Song | Peak (weeks at 1) | Weeks |
| 04-Jun-1965 | Forget Domani | 1 (1) | 8 |
| 06-Jan-1967 | All The Love In The World | 14 | 8 |
| 10-Feb-1967 | Games That Lovers Play | 17 | 3 |
| Total hits | 3 | ||
| Total weeks | 19 |
| Biggest climber awards | 0 |
| Star rater climbs | 2 |
| Biggest fallers | 2 |
| Weeks with oldest in the charts | 8 |
| Longest run in the charts (weeks) | 8 |
| Weeks with more than 1 in the charts | 3 |
| Biggest gap between hits (weeks) | 74 |
| Top 30 points ranking | 519 |
| Top 20 points ranking | =591 |
| Top 30 points | 336 |
| Top 20 points | 146 |
‘Forget Domani’ was the second song to top the SA charts. Rick Nelson’s ‘I Need You’ was the first.
SA Singles Charts 