Remembering Connie Francis: The Interview
- edgarstreetbooks
- Dec 12, 2025
- 7 min read
Updated: Dec 20, 2025
The Pop Songstress was born Dec. 12, 1937
Frank Mastropolo
We interviewed Ms. Francis in 2024 about her catalog of hits and the effect of the British Invasion on American pop music.
If you were anywhere near a radio in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the music of Connie Francis became the soundtrack of your life. Francis’ string of Top 10 hits began in 1957 include “Who’s Sorry Now,” soon followed by “My Happiness,” “Lipstick on Your Collar,” “Among My Souvenirs” and “Many Tears Ago.” Francis was the first woman to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart with 1962’s “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own.”
The teen idol sang the title song and starred in the film Where the Boys Are, credited with making Fort Lauderdale, Florida a popular spring break destination. Francis was one of the first American artists to record foreign language versions of her hits internationally. They were popular in the US too; “Mama,” with Italian lyrics, was a Top 10 hit in 1958.
Although she maintained a busy international concert schedule for decades, 1963’s British Invasion, led by the Beatles, brought her hits to a halt. “It didn’t matter what I recorded,” says Francis. “The industry was held hostage by the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five and all of those groups.”
What was the music industry like in the early 1960s?
Everything changed with the advent of Elvis in ’57. Before that the world of music belonged to the adults. And after that the world of music belonged to the kids.
There was a drug store, Hanson’s Drug Store, at the bottom of the Brill Building, and it was a hangout for all aspiring young writers and singers. I used to hang out there with Bobby Darin and all of Bobby’s friends. And we would talk about making it big one day. We had to have a hit record because without that hit record, you’d be working in dives forever.
There were publishers like Donnie Kirshner, who was having Carole King write songs, and Neil Sedaka and Howie Greenfield write songs. It was a very exciting time. It was Tin Pan Alley. And that’s where all music originated.
Did you believe that hit was going to come?
I had 18 sides, 9 bomb records before “Who’s Sorry Now.” So I didn’t think it was going to come. “Who’s Sorry Now” was going to be my last record for MGM. Of course, when Dick Clark played it, it became a hit.
Anything Dick Clark played was a hit. When you went on American Bandstand, you had a hit record. He had a tremendous amount of power.
It was an interesting period of time because in December of 1957, I was typing and taking shorthand and doing filing in my Aunt Louisa’s insurance firm and in 1960 I was voted the world’s Number One Female Vocalist.
When “Who’s Sorry Now” hit I had never met Dick Clark. One day in October, MGM’s Philadelphia distributor brought the record to Dick Clark’s office and he never played it. And on January 1, 1958, he just happened to be passing his desk and he played “Who’s Sorry Now” and he liked it. And he played it every day until it became a million-seller.
We come to 1962 and ’63. Tell me about your career in those years.
I played the Copacabana, foreign tours. I put a lot of effort into my German recordings, my Japanese recordings. I was selling more records worldwide than I was selling in the United States.
You were a pioneer in that.
Yes, I was. I introduced American music to Europe. It was “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” in 1960.
The German record company said they didn’t understand what I was talking about and so they released the record by about five different German artists and it went nowhere. And then finally I said to MGM, is it in my contract that they have to release it?
And they said yes, they have to release it. So, they released it and it became the number one song in Europe for the year. All over Europe.
Radio Luxembourg was a 50,000-watt clear channel station. Which went behind the Iron Curtain into Morocco, Tunisia and all of Europe. I won the Golden Lion award from Radio Luxembourg for the top artist and song of the year. It was the first time that an American artist, anyone who was non-European, won the Golden Lion award.
It was a very hectic, exciting time. I did Alan Freed’s show at the Brooklyn Paramount. And my father said you should do an Italian album. And I said an Italian album? This is America, Daddy. I’ll be known as an ethnic singer.
He said if you don’t do this album, Sister, you’ll be singing with Alan Freed at the Brooklyn Paramount forever. And if you want to play Vegas and the Copacabana, you’d better do this Italian album.
So I did, I recorded it. “Mama” was introduced on the Perry Como show. It was a Wednesday night and I was scheduled to appear at Carnegie Hall on Sunday. And we had sold only 600 tickets, we were thinking of cancelling out. And then because of the Perry Como show where I introduced “Mama,” they were scalping tickets by Sunday.
How did your father come by that wisdom?
He was a roofer. But he had a tremendous instinct for what was right for me. In the three years I was with MGM with no hit, I was never presented with a single hit by the A&R department. They never gave me a single hit. Even after I made it. It was mainly my father, Dick Clark, and Howie Greenfield and Neil Sedaka.
I gave Neil his start with “Stupid Cupid.” Donnie Kirshner brought these two young songwriters to my house. Neil was a Juilliard student and he played me all of this beautiful music that they had written and I was falling asleep. I said, don’t you guys have something a little more lively? And Howie whispered in Neil’s ear, play her “Stupid Cupid.”
And Neil said no, she’s a classy singer, she’ll be insulted. But Howie insisted that Neil play “Stupid Cupid.” And I heard four lines of that song and I said you guys got my next record.
They stayed a little while longer and then Howie said, I have to go home, I have to get up for work tomorrow. And I said, you’ll never have to go to work again, Howie, after this record comes out. And it happened that way.
How has the music industry changed?
It changed when they started layering music, when they started having vocalists come in, or having the rhythm section come in, and having the strings and the voices come in on another session.
We did everything all at once. The London Philharmonic Orchestra on my London recordings, which was my Jewish album, my Spanish album, my Italian album, all of my London recordings, we had 82 pieces and all had to be perfect by the time we left the studio because we didn’t have two tracks.
Everything had to be on one track, it had to be perfect when you left that studio. And nowadays an orangutan could sound good.
“Who’s Sorry Now,” “Stupid Cupid,” Where the Boys Are,” how long did those songs take to record?
“Who’s Sorry Now” took 15 minutes. The last song on the session. I hated it so much that I saved it for the end thinking we wouldn’t get to it.
My father said, if I have to nail you to that microphone, you’re going to do that song. You’ve got 15 minutes, cut the song. So, I did one-and-a-half takes on “Who’s Sorry Now.” I was known as One Take Connie. Many of my songs are recorded in one take.
In Nashville, you didn’t need any arrangements because the musicians were just so phenomenal. They didn’t read music, they had a number system. I recorded three albums and four singles in six days in Nashville. The Never on Sunday album, my folk album, my sing-along album and four singles.
But “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” was a number one record and I did 42 takes on it. I was just not happy with the sound. First, we tried it with double-voice, then we tried it with single-voice, then we tried it with saxes, so we did 42 takes on that song.
Moving on to 1964, the Beatles arrive in America. What was the first you heard of the British Invasion?
I had very dear friends of mine who came to every opening of my show in Las Vegas. And I opened Las Vegas and they weren’t there. I sent them a telegram, where were you? My friend called me the next day and he said, the Beatles have invaded! I said, well, call an exterminator.
But when John Lennon was interviewed, when he came to the United States, they said, do you know who Connie Francis is? He said does the Pope wear a funny hat? But I’d never want to marry her. They asked Why not? He said she’d be too busy for me.
What did you think of the British bands?
I disliked the music at first. I only became a Beatles fan years later when they started writing some great songs like “The Long and Winding Road” and “Yesterday” and stuff like that. I became a Beatles advocate. But originally, I didn’t like the sound.
It was the end of all hit records for me after that. And for every other American artist. We had no more hit records.
At the time that I was having my hit records I would receive 5,000 fan letters a week. I had four girls just answering fan mail. After the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and the Dave Clark Five and all the British groups, my fan mail dwindled down and so did my hit records. But I was very successful in Las Vegas and at the Copa and Miami Beach and all the places I wanted to work.
Any time I was going to be doing a Las Vegas engagement or a Copacabana engagement I’d appear on the Ed Sullivan show and I broke all records at the Copa and in Las Vegas.
But it didn’t matter what I recorded. The industry was held hostage by the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five and all of those groups.
This interview appeared in 100 Greatest 60s Pop Songs, part of the Greatest Performances series. For more on our latest projects, visit Edgar Street Books.
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