Part 5 of The Incomparable Connie Francis Interview

July 1999

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This page is a little different. Hope you like it!

DISCoveries: Okay, let's begin this singles review session with your first charted hit,
"The Majesty of Love", a late 1957 duet with Marvin Rainwater. You two were an unusual pairing, him being pretty well-known for his earlier hit, "Gonna Find Me A Bluebird", but you were an unknown-even though you had a string of MGM releases that didn't click.
Connie: MGM had tremendous faith in me. I don't think any other record company would have carried an artist after nine records that bombed, or even that long. But they really wanted to see me make it. So they asked Marvin to do a duet with me because they thought it was a good way to bring public attention to me because of his success. Artists don't get that kind of break today. You do one or two songs, and if they don't make it, forget about it, you're through. So I was very lucky.
DISC: Did you like The Majesty of Love?
Connie: Yes, it was a good country song. By then I loved country. I still do. I just think the country artists know how to say things better than anyone else. I think it's great.
DISC: According to your comments in our previous interview, Who's Sorry Now was sort of thrown in at the end of a session, and you really didn't want to do the song.
Connie: Let me tell you how I did it. We threw it in at the end of the session knowing that there was no way I was going to do four songs on that date. But there was 16 minutes left. So over the intercom I said "that's it fellas, thanks a lot, we haven't got time." My father said "wait a second, you got 16 minutes left, cut the damn song." So it was like pulling teeth. I looked at the arranger and said "okay, let's go through this turkey. My father likes this song." He said "alright, let's do it." So we did it. And I did half a take, and the tempo was wrong. I did one other take and that was it. That's all there was time to do. That's how the record came out.
DISC: What did you think of the playback?
Connie: I hated it. I'll tell you why it was different for me. I had done so many demonstration records since the age of 14 when I first saw the inside of a recording studio. And in those days artists didn't write songs themselves, they had to depend on the publishers and songwriters. So I would go to the demo date and do a song geared for
Patti Page. Another song was intended for Kay Starr or Teresa Brewer, or whomever they wanted. Do during those years I was imitating everyone else. I didn't have a style of my own yet. On Who's Sorry Now it was the first time I didn't even care who I sounded like, I just sang it like me.
DISC: Since you had no confidence in the song, were you surprised when it became a hit?
Connie: Well it was a shock because the record had been out since October or November of 1957, and it seemed just like all the other records-like it was going right down the toilet. However, on January 1, 1958, like 8 million other American teenagers my brother and I rushed to the TV set and turned on American Bandstand. We were watching when Dick Clark said "there's no doubt about it, here's a new girl singer who's headed straight for the number one spot." And I said to myself "good luck to her," sort of with sour grapes. Then he played "Who's Sorry Now?" and it was a big shock because it had been out three months.
DISC: What happened?
Connie: What happened was that my distributor brought it to Dick in the fall of '57, but he never listened to it. A few days before that New Year's show, he saw the record on his desk and played it. And he continued playing it until it sold a million. Without Dick Clark I wouldn't have stayed in show business. I was ready to go back to school to study medicine.
DISC: How did you feel about such a similar song, I'm Sorry I Made You Cry, being chosen for the follow up?

Connie: It was a stupid choice. It was too much like Who's Sorry Now. In an attempt to repeat the success of the first song, I chose the song along with my father--we both blame ourselves for this. We should have done something entirely different.
DISC: It's sales seem to agree. It was Top 40, but not as big as the one before or the next one.
Connie: Right. I should have had another Top 10 hit after Who's Sorry Now, but I didn't because the song was wrong.
DISC: Have you ever heard the recording that's been floating around for years of Elvis and his girlfriend, Anita Wood, singing Who's Sorry Now and a line of I'm Sorry I Mad You Cry at the home of a friend in Waco, Texas?
Connie: No! That must be very interesting. I'd love to hear that.
DISC: I'll send you a cassette of it. (Which I did and she loved.)

Well, that's about it for now, Guys! E-mail me, and get notified when the next chapter of

An Interview with Connie Francis! is published.

NEXT TIME
Connie mentions her Fan Club!


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