Singer, composer, actress, entertainer and publisher, educated at Arts High School and a music student of her father. At age eleven she appeared on the Arthur Godfrey Show as a singer and accordionist. She has toured the USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Europe, owned publishing companies, and has made many records. For a time she had her own television show, and has performed in night clubs and in concert. Joining ASCAP in 1959, her popular-song compositions include "Senza Mama" and "Italian Lullaby".



Dubbed Jayne Mansfield's singing in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958). As a child she was asked by her father if she would rather have piano or accordion lessons. Since her father was an accordion player and often played to her, she chose the accordion, a decision she said she has come to regret. She originally did not want to sing her first smash hit, "Who's Sorry Now", since it was originally written in the 1930s. Her father convinced her otherwise. When she first appeared on the scene she was written up in several magazines as being the new Judy Garland. She did not learn to drive until she was in her 20s. She has appeared on "Toast of the Town" (1948) (aka "The Ed Sullivan Show") a total of 26 times. When her first hit, "Who's Sorry Now", first aired on "Bandstand" (1952), host Dick Clark stated, "There's no doubt about it. This girl's headed straight for the #1 spot.". The news of President John F. Kennedy's assassination reached her on the set of her third MGM film, Looking for Love (1964). She recorded the single "In The Summer of His Years" in honor of the fallen president and packaged it in a conservative gold sleeve with no photos. All proceeds from the song were donated to the family of Dallas police officer J.D. Tippitt, who had been shot and killed by alleged Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. She was not allowed to attend her high school prom by her parents but was permitted to attend her school's weekly chaperoned "Beehive" dances. 1958" She earned her first million dollars, topped polls for Favorite Female Singer and received 5,000 fan letters a week. Suffers from Bipolar disorder and has to cycle off her lithium whenever she makes a personal appearence. Received a scholarship to study nursing after high school. She was originally supposed to be born in Brooklyn, where her family lived at the time. However, her mother was visiting relatives in Newark, NJ, and attended an all-night dance when she went into labor. Stated that the two highlights of her career, thus far, were her performance of the song "Never on Sunday" at the 1961 Academy Awards Ceremony, and her performance for troops in Vietnam in 1968 in which she ended with the song "God Bless America" and the entire army of soldiers present stood and sang along, most of whom were in tears. One of the guests shown on the episode of "This Is Your Life" (1952) spotlighting Connie was her fourth-grade teacher. Connie said that she always appreciated her support over the years, as the teacher she had the year previous told her that she'd never make it.