Description
Connie Francis has twice signed and inscribed this 3.5 x 5.5 black and white MGM Records promo postcard, once on each side, in red ink. FROM THE EDWARD RYAN COLLECTION. Slight creasing and yellow tape residue which does not affect either signature. Connie Francis (born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero; December 12, 1938) is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw. Despite several severe interruptions in her career, Francis is still active as a recording and performing artist (as of November 2011).
Francis’ early recording contract consisted of ten solo singles and one duet single. Even though success finally had seemed to come with “The Majesty of Love”, Francis was informed by MGM Records that her contract would be discontinued after her last solo single.Francis considered a career in medicine and was about to accept a four-year scholarship offered at New York University. At what was to have been her final recording session for MGM on October 2, 1957, she recorded a cover version of the 1923 song “Who’s Sorry Now?”, written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. Francis has said that she recorded it at the persistence 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.
Francis, who did not like the song at all and had been arguing about it with her father heatedly, delayed the recording of the three other songs during the session so much, that in her opinion there was no time left on the continuously running recording tape. But her father insisted, and when the recording “Who’s Sorry Now?” was finished, there were only a few seconds left on the tape.
The single seemed to go unnoticed like all previous releases – just as Francis had predicted. But on January 1, 1958, the song debuted on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. By mid-year, over a million copies had been sold, and Francis was suddenly launched into worldwide stardom. In April 1958, “Who’s Sorry Now” reached # 1 on the UK Singles Chart and # 4 in the US. For the next four years, Francis was voted the “Best Female Vocalist” by American Bandstand viewers.[1]
As Connie Francis explains at each of her concerts, she began searching for a new hit immediately after the success of “Who’s Sorry Now?”, since MGM Records had renewed her contract. 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 with 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 withThe 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 played “Stupid Cupid”. When he finished, Francis announced that he had just played her new hit record. The song reached # 14 on the Billboard chart and was her second # 1 in the UK.
The success of “Stupid Cupid” restored momentum to Francis’ chart career, and she reached the U.S. top 40 an additional seven times during the remainder of the 1950s. She managed to churn out more hits by covering several older songs, such as “My Happiness” (# 2 on the Hot 100) and “Among My Souvenirs” (# 7), as well as performing her own original songs. In 1959, she gained two gold records for a double-sided hit: on the A-side, “Lipstick on Your Collar” (# 5); on the B-side, “Frankie” (# 9).