Brian Francis Connolly (5 October 1945 – 9 February 1997) was a Scottish singer-songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead singer of glam rock band The Sweet between 1968 and 1979 and renowned for his charismatic stage presence and distinctive voice.
Connolly was born in 1945 in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire. His mother was a teenage waitress, Frances Connolly, who left him in a Glasgow hospital as an infant whilst he was possibly suffering from meningitis.[citation needed] The identity of his biological father was never made public. Connolly was fostered at the age of two by Jim and Helen McManus of Blantyre, South Lanarkshire and took their family name. After inadvertently discovering his lineage, he eventually reverted to the name Connolly. The McManuses were the family of Mark McManus, of Taggart fame. Both men perceived a resemblance between them, and supposed McManus's father to have also been Connolly's.
In a radio interview, Connolly reported that singing was a large part of growing up since there was no television, and that he was regularly called upon to sing for family and friends. Connolly has credited the Everly Brothers as being his earliest musical influence.[citation needed]

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