Editing Connie Francis (section)

===1957–1959: last chance and breakthrough===
[[File:Connie Francis - Billboard ad 1958.jpg|thumb|''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' notice, December 15, 1958]] 
However, her minor chart success came too late for her record label—Francis's recording contract consisted of ten solo singles and one duet single. Though success had finally seemed to come with "The Majesty of Love", Francis was informed by MGM Records that her contract would not be renewed after her last solo single.

Francis considered a career in medicine and was about to accept a four-year scholarship offered at [[New York University]]. At what was to have been her final recording session for MGM on October 2, 1957, with [[Joe Lipman]] and his orchestra,<ref name=Roberts/> she recorded a [[cover version]] of the 1923 song "[[Who's Sorry Now? (song)|Who's Sorry Now?]]" written by [[Bert Kalmar]] and [[Harry Ruby]]. Francis has said that she recorded it at the insistence of her father, who was convinced it stood a chance of becoming a hit because it was a song adults already knew and that teenagers would dance to if it had a contemporary [[arrangement]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=O-kuAAAAIBAJ&pg=3189,1141022&dq=perry+como&hl=en|title=The Story Behind Those Golden Records|author=Dachs, David|date=10 May 1959|publisher=Rome News-Tribune|access-date=19 November 2010}}</ref>

Francis did not like the song and argued about it with her father heatedly, delaying the recording of the two other songs during the session so much that she thought no time was left on the continuously running recording tape.<ref name="Freeman"/> Her father insisted, though, and when the recording "Who's Sorry Now?" was finished, only a few seconds remained on the tape.<ref name=Autobiography/>

The single seemed to go unnoticed like all previous releases, just as Francis had predicted, but on January 1, 1958, it debuted on [[Dick Clark]]'s ''[[American Bandstand]]''. Francis watched the show and wrote in her diary:

''I heard Dick Clark mention something about a new girl singer. So, what else is new? Another girl singer. There are ninety-five million females in the country, and I'll bet ninety-five percent of them sing. "There's no doubt about it", predicted Mr. Clark. "She's is headed straight for the number one spot". I began feeling sorry for myself and a bit envious, too. Good luck to her, I thought. And then Mr. Clark just happened to play a song called "Who's sorry now" - MY "Who's Sorry Now"!  Well, the feeling was cosmic - just cosmic! Right there in my living-room, it became Mardi Gras-time and New Year's Eve at the turn of the century!''
[[File:Connie Francis - Cash Box 1959.png|thumb|left|Francis on the January 31, 1959 cover of ''[[Cashbox (magazine)|Cashbox]]'' magazine]]
And on February 15 of that same year, Francis performed it on the first episode of ''[[The Dick Clark Show|The Saturday Night Beechnut Show]]'', also hosted by Clark. By mid-year, over a million copies had been sold, and Francis was suddenly launched into worldwide stardom. In April 1958, "Who's Sorry Now?" reached number 1 on the [[UK Singles Chart]] and number 4 in the US.<ref name="MusicVF"/> That year, by a wide margin, Connie was voted "Best Female Vocalist" by ''American Bandstand'' viewers. She went on to collect similar "Bandstand" awards for the next four years.<ref name=Autobiography/>

As Connie Francis explains at each of her concerts, she began searching for a new hit immediately after the success of "Who's Sorry Now?" since MGM Records had renewed her contract. After the relative failure of the follow-up singles "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry," which stalled at No.&nbsp;36) and [[Heartaches (song)|"Heartaches"]], failing to chart at all, Francis met [[Neil Sedaka]] and [[Howard Greenfield]], who sang a number of ballads they had written for her. After a few hours, Francis began writing in her diary while the songwriters played the last of their ballads. This, and her refusal to let Sedaka and Greenfield see the diary to mine it for material, inspired the duo to write Sedaka's own breakthrough hit "[[The Diary (song)|The Diary]].") Afterwards, Francis told them that she considered their ballads too intellectual and sophisticated for the young generation and requested a more lively song. Greenfield urged Sedaka to sing a song they had written that morning with [[the Shepherd Sisters]] in mind. Sedaka protested that Francis would be insulted, but Greenfield said that since she hated all the other songs they had performed, they had nothing to lose. Sedaka then played "[[Stupid Cupid]]." When he finished, Francis announced that he had just played her new hit song. It went on to reach number 14 on the ''Billboard'' chart and was her second number 1 in the UK.<ref name="MusicVF"/>

The success of "Stupid Cupid" restored momentum to Francis' chart career, and she reached the U.S. top 40 an additional eight times during the remainder of the 1950s.<ref name="MusicVF"/> She managed to churn out more hits by covering several older songs, such as [[My Happiness (popular song)|"My Happiness"]] (number 2 on the Hot 100) and "[[Among My Souvenirs]]" (number 7), as well as performing her own original songs. In 1959, she gained two gold records for a double-sided hit: on the A-side, "[[Lipstick on Your Collar (song)|Lipstick on Your Collar]]" (number 5), and on the B-side, "[[Frankie (Connie Francis song)|Frankie]]" (number 9).