Born in Newark, New Jersey, Concetta Rosemarie Franconero showed signs of her talent at age 10 when she made her first appearance on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scoutprogram. Godfrey had a problem pronouncing her last name and suggested a nice easy Irish name like Francis.

After nine recordings for the MGM label that bombed, she recorded “Who’s Sorry Now”, at her fathers insistence.

On January 1, 1958, Connie, like so many other American teenagers sat in front of her 13 inch B&W T.V. set to watch Dick Clarks “American Band Stand”. The firstthing she heard was Dick saying to the audience“ There’s no doubt about it, this girl who ever she is, is going right to the top”The next thing she heard was “Who’s sorry Now”. Dick Clark played that song everyday till one million copies were sold. (To this day, Connie considers Dick Clark her mentor.)

 She crossed the generation gap as every bodies daughter and then every bodies sweetheart.

In 1959 while in Germany, she sang the German version of her U.S.A. hit “Everybody is somebody’s Fool”and captured a whole European market.
She did so well that she recorded her future singles in six languages.

Connie’s motion picture debut in “Where The Boys Are” was a box office triumph. The film became one of the top 10 teen films of all time, and put Fort Lauderdale on the map as the spring-break mecca of the world. The million-selling title song topped the charts in 15 countries and 6 languages simultaneously.
 
As Connie reflects on the spectacular success of her career, as well as the devastating tragedies of her personal life, she states: “I would like to be known not for the heights I have reached, but for the depths from which I have risen.”