Connie Francis, who has died aged 87, had a string of hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Stupid Cupid", "Lipstick on Your Collar", "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" and "Mama".

From 1958 to 1963, she was the third- highest-selling artist in the US, behind only Elvis Presley and The Beatles. She pioneered the fanzine and pop merchandise, from branded T-shirts to the Connie Francis doll. But her career tailed off in the mid-1960s, said The Daily Telegraph , and her life "was blighted by a catalogue of personal tragedies including four divorces, two miscarriages, rape" and "mental breakdown".

Musical prodigy

Born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero in 1937 in Newark, New Jersey to an Italian-American family, Francis displayed prodigious musical talent from an early age, learning t

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