THE SINGLES COLLECTION

Within two years of Who's Sorry Now? catapulting Connie Francis to international acclaim, the New Jersey-born songstress was established as the world's biggest-selling female record star. Three decades later, despite fierce competition from a new generation of singers and disc buyers, it is a position that appears destined to remain unbeaten.

Who's Sorry Now?, which topped the UK charts for 6 weeks, began a string of British hits assembled together for the first time in this celebratory 35th Anniversary collection. Issued at a time when the choice of format for a single meant either 7" 45rpm or 10" 78rpm, its success was achieved without the modern day aid of video, media hype or availability in vinyl, CD and cassette form, and was followed to the number one slot by the two-sided hit Stupid Cupid and Carolina Moon. Their combined 12 chart-topping weeks made her the most successful recording act in Britain in 1958, and remain a female singer best.

Selection of material played an important role in carving Connie' s slice of recording history, and there can be no doubt that this singles collection embraces a greater diversity of styles than any of her peers. While the gigantic success of Who's Sorry Now? dictated other standards being presented in similar fashion (I'm Sorry I Made You Cry, I'll Get By, YouAlways Hurt The One You Love); and that of Stupid Cupid - the first rock track by a white female to top the charts - prompted the other Neil Sedaka/Howard Greenfield hand-clappers Fallin' and Baby Boo, she further lent her vocal magic to movie themes, pioneered the pop-country sound of the Sixties and placed titles of unashamed sentimentality into the best-sellers.

The latter includes the million-selling Mama, recorded in London, which was originally culled from the album Connie Francis Sings Italian Favourites. Sung in both English and Italian the track helped steer that LP to similar gold status and led to further ethnic collections devoted to Spanish, Jewish, Irish and German material. The merging of pop and country presented Connie with the US chart- toppers Everybody's Somebody's Fool and My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own; Top 5 entries in Britain and responsible for making her the highest-selling American act in 1960. Both million sellers, Everybody's Somebody's Fool was the first of her hits to be translated into other languages, helping to establish it as Europe's biggest seller that year.

One of Connie's biggest hits is the title song to her own motion picture, Where The Boys Are. On its first release, it simultaneously topped the charts in 19 countries, albeit aided by versions sung in Italian, French, German, Spanish and Japanese! Today, the theme from the now cult movie of four New York girls vacationing in Florida has been adopted as that State's unofficial anthem. Connie's affinity with movie songs began when she ''ghosted'' the singing voice for Freda Holloway in ''Jamboree'' (Warner Brothers, 1957) and performed similar duties for Tuesday Weld's film debut in another rock'n'roll filln, ''Rock, Rock, Rock'' (DCA, 1957). Neither ''performance'' can be regarded as eyebrow-raising or incredulous as providing the vocals for busty sex goddess Jayne Mansfield in the spoof Western ''The Sheriff Of Fractured Jaw'' (20th Century-Fox, 1958), from which In The Valley Of Love makes a long-overdue reappearance. Also making a welcome return is Senza Fine (Love Theme from ''Flight Of The Phoenix"), Connie's sound-track version of which provided the only female relief in the otherwise all-male actioner.

No singles collection could be considered complete without the rock'n'roll classic Lipstick On Your Collar, other million sellers like Among My Souvenirs, My Happiness, Frankie, Breakin' In A Brand New Broken Heart, Don't Break The Heart That Loves You and Many Tears Ago or the self-penned Plenty Good Lovin' and V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N. To these have been added the seasonal Baby's First Christmas and other UK hits Valentino, Robot Man and I'm Gonna Be Warm This Winter.

Fittingly, perhaps, another of Connie's exclusive British chart successes, My Child, provides the closing selection. With lyrics and a performance that display her transition from teen idol to adult performer, it further emphasises the generation-bridging appeal that ensures the title of World's Top Selling Female Recording Artist remains hers.

RON ROBERTS 1993