Connie Francis – Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool

Connie Francis is the prototype for the female pop singer of today. At the height of her chart popularity in the late ’50s and early ’60s, Connie Francis was unique as a female recording artist, amassing record sales equal to and surpassing those of many of her post-rock era male contemporaries. Ultimately, she branched into other styles of music — big band, country, ethnic, and more. She still challenges Madonna as the biggest-selling female recording artist of all time. Like Madonna, Concetta Rosemarie Franconero comes from an Italian American background. Francis started her music career at three, playing an accordion bought for her by her contractor father George. Her father’s dream was not for his daughter to become a star, but for Francis to become independent of men as an adult with her own accordion school of music. At age ten, she was accepted on Startime, a New York City television show that featured talented child singers and performers. The show had no one else who played an accordion. Its host, legendary TV talent scout Arthur Godfrey, had difficulty pronouncing her name and suggested something “easy and Irish,” which turned into Francis. After three weeks on Startime , the show’s producer and Francis’ would-be manager advised her to dump the accordion and concentrate on singing. Francis performed weekly on Startime for four years. After being turned down by almost every record label she approached, 16-year-old Francis signed a record contract with MGM, only …
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Rihanna (pronounced /riˈænə/; born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian R&B recording artist and model.[1] Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers. She subsequently signed a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for then-label head Jay-Z.[2] In 2005, Rihanna released her debut studio album, Music of the Sun, which peaked in the top ten of the Billboard 200 chart and features the Billboard Hot 100 hit single “Pon de Replay”. Less than a year later, she released her second studio album, A Girl Like Me (2006), which peaked within the top five of the Billboard albums chart, and produced her first US number one hit single, “SOS”, as well as Billboard Hot 100 top ten entries “Unfaithful” and “Break It Off”. Rihanna’s third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), peaking at number two on the Billboard 200, featured five top ten hits including three US number one hit singles—”Umbrella”, “Take a Bow” and “Disturbia”—and the worldwide hit “Don’t Stop the Music”. The album was nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Umbrella,” which features Jay-Z.[3][4] Her fourth studio album, Rated R, was released in November 2009. As of February 2010, Rihanna has released three singles from the album, “Russian Roulette”, “Hard” and “Rude Boy”, the first two both peaking within the top ten on the US …
Video Rating: 4 / 5