Connie Francis: Fame & Heartbreak Finding Happiness

UNTHINKABLE TRAGEDY HELPED THE "WHO'S SORRY NOW?" SINGER FIND HER INNER STRENGTH

- LOUISE A. BARILE

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."