Connie Francis (born December 12, 1938) 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".

Connie Francis was born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero in the Italian Down Neck, or Ironbound, neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey. She attended Newark Arts High School in 1951 and 1952 there . 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.

Francis' first single, "Freddy", (1955) met with little success. Her next nine singles were also failures. During this time she was introduced to Bobby Darin, who was then an up-and-coming singer/songwriter. Darin's manager arranged for him to help write several songs for Connie. Initially the two could not agree on the selection of material, but after several weeks Bobby and Connie developed a romantic interest. Unfortunately, Connie had a very strict Italian father who would separate the couple whenever possible. When Connie's father learned that Bobby had suggested the two lovers elope after one of Connie's shows, he ran Darin out of the building while waving a gun, telling Bobby to never see his daughter again. Bobby saw Connie only two more times after this, once when the two were scheduled to sing together for a television show and again later when Connie was spotlighted on the TV series This Is Your Life. By the time of the taping Bobby Darin had just married actress Sandra Dee, for which the show's host congratulated Darin. Francis would later write that not marrying Darin was the biggest mistake of her life. She also appeared on the NBC interview program Here's Hollywood.