Connie Francis, the long-lasting American pop singer and actress who grew to become one of many best-selling feminine artists of the late Fifties and early 60s, has handed away.
Throughout a exceptional profession spanning nearly seven a long time, Francis went on to promote greater than 200 million information worldwide. In 1960, on the peak of her reputation, she grew to become the primary lady in historical past to achieve No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 when her signature hit “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” topped the chart. She loved two additional U.S. No. 1 singles with “My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own” and “Don’t Break The Heart That Loves You,” and finally chalked up a staggering 53 profession hits in whole.
Born Concetta Rose Maria Franconero in Newark, New Jersey in 1937, Francis displayed precocious expertise as a singer as a baby and he or she was already a veteran of native expertise exhibits by the point she adopted her stage title in 1950. Her appearances on NBC’s selection present Startime Children from 1953 on led to her signing with MGM in 1955.
Francis’ preliminary sequence of 45s largely went beneath the radar, although she made her Billboard Sizzling 100 debut within the fall of 1957 with “The Majesty Of Love,” a duet with nation/rockabilly star Marvin Rainwater that went on to promote over one million copies. Francis made a extra lasting breakthrough with “Who’s Sorry Now?” which – following publicity on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand in January 1958 – shot to No. 4 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 in addition to topping the U.Ok. Singles Chart.
After the success of “Who’s Sorry Now?” Francis remained a near-constant presence on the Billboard Sizzling 100 till the mid-60s. Along with her three No.1s, she scored additional High 10 placings with basic pop hits reminiscent of “My Happiness,” “Lipstick On Your Collar,” “Among My Souvenirs” and “Second Hand Love.” Her multi-lingual abilities additionally led her to develop into one of many first American artists to document repeatedly in different languages. 1959’s Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites, peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 81 weeks, turning into her most profitable album.
Along with her mainstream pop profession, Francis acted in a number of teen-oriented motion pictures, notably The place the Boys Are (1960), with the title tune offering her with one other U.S. High 5 hit. By the mid-Nineteen Sixties, nonetheless, because of altering musical developments – not least the British Invasion led by The Beatles – Francis’s success on Billboard’s Sizzling 100 step by step waned and he or she scored her remaining U.S. High 40 hit with “Be Anything (But Mine)” in 1964. Nonetheless, Francis remained a a lot sought-after stay performer and her enduring reputation abroad led to tv specials in international locations around the globe such because the U.Ok., Germany, Spain and Italy. She additionally maintained a loyal fanbase within the Japanese European nations, then located behind the Iron Curtain. Previous to the autumn of Russian communism early within the Nineteen Nineties, a lot of her recordings had been made out there on state-owned document labels reminiscent of Melodiya within the former Soviet Union and on Jugoton in former Yugoslavia, though most western pop music was frowned on by the authorities in these nations on the time.
Regardless of battling a sequence of non-public issues (and quickly shedding her voice because of nasal surgical procedure in the course of the late 70s) Francis continued to document and carry out stay throughout her later years. Her autobiography Who’s Sorry Now? was a New York Instances best-seller in 1984 and in 1989, she recorded a double album The place the Hits Are, containing re-recordings of 18 of her greatest hits, in addition to six basic pop songs she had all the time needed to document reminiscent of “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” and “Torn Between Two Lovers.” In 2004, in the meantime, she delighted audiences throughout a headlining run in Las Vegas and he or she later returned to the desert metropolis to carry out with Dionne Warwick in 2010.
In 2018, Francis introduced her retirement, but in the summertime of 2025 she returned to the limelight when her tune “Pretty Little Baby” (initially recorded for 1962’s Connie Francis Sings “Second Hand Love”) went viral on TikTok, showing in movies by celebrities together with Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner and on hundreds of thousands of different accounts. The tune has since racked up over 25 billion views on TikTok, introducing Connie Francis to an entire new era of followers within the course of.
Responding to this exceptional latter day rise in reputation in an interview with Folks, Francis stated “To think that a song I recorded 63 years ago is touching the hearts of millions of people is truly awesome. It is an amazing feeling. It’s an honor.”
Learn extra about Connie Francis’ finest songs.
