Born in Lansdale, Pennsylvania to an Italian-American family, March was discovered at age 13 singing at her cousin's wedding she was only 13, the
record she did with them was "Little Me", and her birthday was in March. On April 24, 1963, her single "
I Will Follow Him" soared to
number one on the United States
chart. As with many American artists, March's career in her native country was derailed in part by the
British Invasion, which at the time was pushing many American acts out of popularity, and she had no hits at home once the Invasion began in 1964. Recording for
RCA Victor, March made 18
singles from 1964 to 1971. She also cut several albums, none of which sold well in the United States. co-written by March. Although not a hit in the UK or in the US, it went to number one in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In 1998, the song entered the German Top 10 again when covered by rapper Pappa Bear. The
cult film Hairspray featured "I Wish I Were a Princess" in 1988, and a retro fad in Germany brought her some continuing success starting in the mid-1990s with the album
Die Freiheit Frau zu sein (1995). Her song "I Will Follow Him" was featured in the 1992 movie
Sister Act. March currently works largely in Germany and in the
Las Vegas music scene and has also performed at
Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater in
Branson, Missouri. In 2004 she was the headliner in
Riff Markowitz's
Fabulous Palm Springs Follies at the
Plaza Theater in
Palm Springs, California. In 2005, she released an album of standards,
Get Happy, followed by the album
Meine Liebe ist stark genug (2008). In March 2010, March went into the recording studio to record her first album of new, original material in English in over 30 years. A collaboration with Scandinavian songwriter and producer Soren Jensen, the album
Always and Forever was released on October 13, 2010. It was followed by a special edition for the German-speaking countries in April 2012, including two duets with the Dutch singer
José Hoebee, one of them being a
cover version of "I Will Follow Him"; which had also been a number one single in the Netherlands and Belgium for Hoebee in 1982 (March further recorded a subsequent recording in 2012 for a 2013 release to commemorate the song's 50th anniversary). March also recorded another version of "When the Rain Begins to Fall", as a duet with the German singer Andreas Zaron. == Personal life ==