Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero, known professionally as Connie Francis, was an American singer and actress. One of the top-charting female vocalists of the late 1950s and early 1960s, she amassed over 200 million records sold, placing her among the best-selling music artists in history.
labels: MGM Records, Polydor Records, United Artists Records, Malaco Records, Legacy Recordings
genres: traditional pop, rock and roll, country pop, jazz, country music, folk music, pop music, vocal jazz
awards: Awit Awards, Italian Walk of Fame
plays: accordion, voice, piano accordion
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
Francis was born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero on December 12, 1937, to an Italian-American family (one of her grandfathers having emigrated from Reggio Calabria in 1905) in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, the first child of George Franconero (1911–1996) and Ida (née Ferrari-di Vito; 1911–2000). She spent her first years in the Crown Heights, Brooklyn area (Utica Avenue/St Mark's Place), before the family moved to New Jersey. Growing up in a mixed Italian-Jewish neighborhood, Francis became fluent in Yiddish, which led her later to record songs in Yiddish and Hebrew. She had a younger brother, George Franconero Jr.
In 1989, Francis resumed her recording and performing career once again. For Malaco Records, Francis recorded a double album titled Where the Hits Are, containing re-recordings of 18 of her biggest hits, as well as six classics of yesteryear Francis had always wanted to record such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and "Torn Between Two Lovers".
"Fallin'" is a song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, that was recorded by Connie Francis on 2 September 1958 at Metropolitan Studio (NYC) in a session produced by Morton "Morty" Kraft who also conducted.
The same team had been responsible for Francis' precedent single "Stupid Cupid" which had returned Francis to the Top 20 after the disappointing #36 peak of "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry" the follow-up to her breakout hit "Who's Sorry Now?".
"Fallin'" can be heard in the 1996 film The Craft in which the Helen Shaver character uses the insurance windfall she receives after her abusive husband is dispatched by her daughter's witchcraft to purchase a jukebox stocked with Connie Francis singles. In 1999 Francis sued Universal Music Group – who by then held the MGM catalog – over "Fallin'"'s appearance in The Craft as well as the appearance of her songs in two other films (Postcards From America and Jawbreaker). The suit was dismissed.