Rapture Records

Song: Who’s Sorry Now / You Were Only Fooling

Artist: Connie Francis with Joe Lipman and his Orchestra

Record Label: MGM Records 975 (57-S-624)

Recorded: October 2, 1957

Released: November 1957

Location: Dee Vee’s Coffee Shop

At the drop off in the “Signal from Beyond” mission, Agent Carter lands with his squad in the hastily abandoned town of Pima, New Mexico. Wrecked cars litter the streets in front of Dee Vee’s Coffee Shop as this song plays while Carter and his men search for evidence of Agent DaSilva’s whereabouts.

Meanwhile in S2E10 of Gotham, Nygma has this as his ringtone while trying to ward off Lee’s questions about the missing Ms. Kringle.

This song was actually published in 1923 with recordings by Marion Harris and Irving Kaufman. It was revived in 1946 in the Marx Brothers film, A Night in Casablanca.

Johnnie Ray recorded his swinging version of “Who’s Sorry Now” in 1956, omitting the opening verse. Connie Francis’ version was recorded the next year and reached No. 4 in Billboard  in 1958 in the US. It rose to No. 1 in the UK as evidenced by this UK pressing of the record.

Born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero in New Jersey, she often performed in her neighborhood in talent shows as a singer and accordion player.

After an appearance on NBC’s Startime Kids, she perfomed on Arthur Godrey’s Talent Scouts, where she was advised by Godrey to change her name to Connie Francis for easier pronunciation and to drop the accordion act.

She found work as a demonstration singer to record demo records to promote songs. Though the work entailed that she imitate other singers, she had not developed her own singing style and was turned down by record labels.

Eventually MGM Records took a chance and signed here with “Freddy”. The song turned to be a commercial failure with eight following singles. In 1957, she achieved some success in a duet with Marvin Rainwater in “The Majesty of Love”, peaking at No. 93.

With her less than stellar success, MGM was opting to not renew her contract as she considered a new career in medicine at New York University.

Her final recording session for MGM was due to be on October 2, 1957. Her father had pleaded with her to record a song from 1923 “Who’s Sorry Now”. He was convinced that it would be a hit with a new arrangement amongst both teenagers and adults.

Francis initially had rejected it for over a year. Eventually she gave in to her father near the end of the session, whispering to the conductor, Joe Lipman, “If I don’t cut this loser, Joe, then you’ll have to go home with the man today!”.

The recording finished with a few seconds left on the tape.

The record seemed to be a flop like all the other singles. However the song debuted on January 1, 1958 with Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. He plugged it until it sold close to a million records, propelling Connie Francis from obscurity to nationwide fame.

Listen to the flip side “You Were Only Fooling” here.