Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero (born December 12, 1938), known professionally as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer best known for several international hit songs including "Who's Sorry Now?," "Lipstick on Your Collar," "Where the Boys Are", and "Stupid Cupid." She topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on three occasions with "Everybody's Somebody's Fool," "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own" and "Don't Break the Heart That Loves You." She was the top-charting female artist of the 1950s and 1960s.

Biography

Early life

Francis was born in the Italian Down Neck, or Ironbound, neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey. She attended Newark Arts High School in 1951 and 1952 there. She and her family moved to Belleville, NJ where she graduated "Salutatorian" from the Belleville High School Class of 1955"OLD SCHOOL TIES", The Miami Herald, January 10, 1985. Accessed August 18, 2008. "Singer Connie Francis, fresh from her Miami appearance in the Orange Bowl Parade, returned to her old high school in Newark, N.J., this week for the first time in three decades to talk to students and old teachers, saying, Nostalgia always feels good. Francis, at forty-six, said that the bathrooms were the only things that had changed at Arts High School, which she attended in 1951 and 1952."A Brief History, Newark Arts High School. Accessed August 10, 2008. After an appearance on Ford Startime, Francis was advised to change her name from Franconero to something more easily pronounceable — and to quit the accordion that was part of her act.