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Creativity Quote by Connie Francis

"I was never encouraged to do it and I played the accordion, which I hated. I wish I had taken piano because I definitely would have written more songs of my own, but I didn't"

About this Quote

There is a quiet sting in how Connie Francis frames her musical origin story: not as destiny, but as a series of small misdirections. “I was never encouraged” lands like an indictment of the invisible gatekeepers around a young girl with talent - parents, teachers, an industry that loved a polished voice but didn’t always bother cultivating a woman’s authorship. The accordion, that stubbornly physical, old-world instrument, becomes a symbol of being steered toward what’s practical or proper rather than what’s liberating. She doesn’t just say she disliked it; she “hated” it, a blunt word that cuts through nostalgia and refuses to romanticize the grind.

The real emotional payload is the counterfactual: “I wish I had taken piano.” Piano isn’t just another instrument here; it’s shorthand for access. It’s the songwriting tool sitting in nearly every demo room, the instrument that turns a singer into a maker. Francis is pointing at the structural difference between interpreting hits and generating them - between being the voice and owning the voice’s source code. “I definitely would have written more songs of my own” reads as both self-belief and grievance: she trusts her creative capacity, and she’s still tallying what didn’t get nurtured.

Context matters: Francis came up in an era when pop women were often rewarded for delivery, not for control of repertoire. Her regret isn’t sentimental; it’s a late-life audit of agency. The quote works because it turns a mundane childhood lesson into a critique of how talent gets managed, and by whom.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Francis, Connie. (2026, January 16). I was never encouraged to do it and I played the accordion, which I hated. I wish I had taken piano because I definitely would have written more songs of my own, but I didn't. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-was-never-encouraged-to-do-it-and-i-played-the-124326/

Chicago Style
Francis, Connie. "I was never encouraged to do it and I played the accordion, which I hated. I wish I had taken piano because I definitely would have written more songs of my own, but I didn't." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-was-never-encouraged-to-do-it-and-i-played-the-124326/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I was never encouraged to do it and I played the accordion, which I hated. I wish I had taken piano because I definitely would have written more songs of my own, but I didn't." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-was-never-encouraged-to-do-it-and-i-played-the-124326/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Connie Francis (born December 12, 1938) is a Musician from USA.

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