Connie Francis was born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero on December 12th, 1938, in Newark, New Jersey. She began her musical career at the age of three, learning to play an accordion bought for her by her roofing contractor father, George. Her father's dream was not for his daughter to become a star, but for her to become independent of men as an adult with her own accordion school of music.

At age ten, she was accepted on Startime, a New York City television show that featured talented child singers and performers. Its host, the legendary TV talent scout, Arthur Godfrey, had difficulty pronouncing her name and suggested something "easy and Irish," which turned into Francis. After three weeks on Startime , the show's producer and Francis' would-be manager advised her to forget the accordion and concentrate on singing. Francis performed weekly on Startime for four years.

After being turned down by almost every record label she approached, 16-year-old Connie signed a recording contract with MGM, only because one of the songs on her demo, "Freddy," also happened to be the name of the president's son. "Freddy" was released in June 1955 as the singer's first single and went nowhere. After a series of flop singles, including "little blue wren" and "my sailor boy", she undertook what was to be her last session for MGM on October 2nd, 1957. Francis had recently accepted a pre-med scholarship to New York University and was contemplating the end of her career as a singer. Having recorded two songs, she thanked the technicians and musicians, hoping not to have to have to record the third song her father had in mind, an old tune from 1923. After a false start, she sang it in one take. That song was "Who's Sorry Now" and when MGM executives heard it, they issued it as a single release. The song caught on quickly and when Dick Clark played it on American Bandstand, he told its eight million viewers that Connie Francis was "a new girl singer that is heading straight for the number one spot."

"Who's Sorry Now" went to number 4 on the US pop chart and number 1 in the UK and was the first in a long string of hit records between 1957 and 1962. These included reworkings of more oldies, such as "My Happiness", "Among My Souvenirs" and "Together". Among her more upbeat songs were "Stupid Cupid" (another UK number 1) and "Where The Boys Are" by the new songwriting team of Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. Her other US Top 10 entries included "Lipstick On Your Collar", "Frankie", "Mama", "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" (her first US number 1), "My Mind Has A Heart Of Its Own" (another US number 1), "Many Tears Ago", "Breakin' In A Brand New Broken Heart", "When The Boy In Your Arms Is The Boy In Your Heart", "Don't Break The Heart That Loves You" (US number 1), "Second Hand Love" and "Vacation".