On March 29, 1959, two icons of mid-Twentieth century leisure crossed paths when Connie Francis carried out on The Ed Sullivan Present. Sixty-six years later, that second is getting a renewed highlight: Francis’ efficiency of “Come Rain Or Come Shine” from that evening is the newest addition to the present’s standard YouTube channel. Francis’ model of the music, a jazz customary from the Broadway musical St. Louis Lady, was the opening observe on her 1959 album The Thrilling Connie Francis.
The Sullivan efficiency captures Francis on the rise, together with her largest hits nonetheless to return. In 1960, she turned the primary lady to beat the Billboard Sizzling 100 when her music “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” reached No. 1—the primary in a string of chart-toppers additionally together with “My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own” and “Don’t Break The Heart That Loves You.” AllMusic Information calls her “the prototype for the female pop singer of today.”
Earlier than her demise final month at age 83, the long-retired Francis skilled a shock profession resurgence this yr when her 1962 deep minimize “Pretty Little Baby” went viral on TikTok, attracting her to the video platform to affix within the enjoyable and inflicting the music to chart in a number of nations 63 years after its launch. Since her passing, the Francis renaissance has continued with the reissue of her vacation album Christmas In My Coronary heart and the looks of greater than 100 of her songs on streaming companies for the primary time.
The Ed Sullivan Present has been having fun with a second of renewed consideration these days as nicely. Airing on CBS from from 1948 to 1971, the collection was a fixture of American popular culture, ushering rising superstars just like the Beatles and Elvis Presley into the general public consciousness. Sullivan additionally performed an vital function in introducing US audiences to Black expertise throughout the peak of segregation—a legacy explored in the latest Netflix documentary Sunday Greatest: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan.
Store for Connie Francis’s music on vinyl or CD now.
