American singer Connie Francis, whose hits embrace Fairly Little Child, useless at 87

[ad_1] Connie Francis, the healthful pop star of the Nineteen Fifties and '60s whose hits embrace Fairly Little Child, has died at 87.

Her demise was introduced Thursday by her pal and publicist Ron Roberts, who didn't instantly present further particulars.

Francis was a high performer of the pre-Beatles period, hardly ever off the charts from 1957 to 1964. In a position to attraction to each younger individuals and adults, she had greater than a dozen top-20 hits, beginning with Who's Sorry Now? and together with the No. 1 songs Do not Break the Coronary heart That Loves You and The Coronary heart Has a Thoughts of Its Personal. Like different teen favourites of her time, she additionally starred in a number of movies, together with The place the Boys Are and Comply with the Boys.

Francis recorded the tune Fairly Little Child greater than 60 years in the past.

Whereas not deemed a hit on the time, it took off in Might 2025 as a trending sound featured in tens of millions of TikTok posts, with numerous influencers and celebrities posting movies of them lip-synching the lyrics.

This additionally contributed to the tune touchdown within the high songs on Spotify's Viral 50 world and U.S. lists.

Main star of pre-Beatles period Concetta Rosemarie Franconero was born on Dec. 12, 1937, in Newark, N.J. She was simply three when her father introduced her with a child-size accordion. The subsequent yr, she started singing and enjoying the instrument at numerous public occasions.

At age 9, she started showing on tv applications, together with Arthur Godfrey's Expertise Scouts and The Perry Como Present. It was Godfrey who advised she shorten her final title.

The dark-haired singer was simply 17 when she signed a contract with MGM Information following appearances on a number of TV selection exhibits. Her earliest recordings attracted little consideration, however then she launched her model of Who's Sorry Now?, an outdated ballad by Ted Snyder, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A black and white photo of a woman holding her short black hair while looking into the camera." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7587325.1752761557!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/3303878-connie-francis.jpg?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7587325.1752761557!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/3303878-connie-francis.jpg?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7587325.1752761557!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/3303878-connie-francis.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7587325.1752761557!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/3303878-connie-francis.jpg?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7587325.1752761557!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/3303878-connie-francis.jpg?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7587325.1752761557!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/3303878-connie-francis.jpg?im=" style="aspect-ratio:1.2593383137673426" data-cy="image-img"/> American pop singer Connie Francis fixes her hair throughout a press reception held for her on the Dorchester Lodge in London in August 1959. (Keystone by way of Getty Photos) It had little success initially till Dick Clark performed it on his American Bandstand present in 1958. Francis adopted with such teen hits as Silly Cupid, All people's Any individual's Idiot and Lipstick on Your Collar. Her information turned hits worldwide as she re-recorded variations of her unique songs in Italian and Spanish, amongst different languages.

Clark featured her repeatedly on American Bandstand, and she or he stated in later years that with out his assist, she would have deserted her music profession.

Her concert events across the nation rapidly bought out.

'My private life is a remorse' In the meantime, a romance bloomed with fellow teen idol Bobby Darin, who had volunteered to jot down songs for her. However when her father heard rumours that the pair have been planning a marriage, he stormed right into a rehearsal and pulled a gun on Darin, ending their relationship, and seeming to set on Francis on a traumatic path.

She chronicled a few of it in her autobiography Who's Sorry Now?

"My private life is a remorse from A to Z," she informed The Related Press in 1984, the yr the guide got here out. "I spotted I had allowed my father to exert an excessive amount of affect over me."

Her father, George Franconero, was a roofing contractor from New Jersey. When she was 4, he started reserving singing dates for her, happening to develop into her supervisor.

Though her performing profession had light by the mid-'60s, Francis was nonetheless in style on the live performance circuit when she appeared on the Westbury Music Middle in Westbury, N.Y., in 1974. She had returned to her lodge room and was asleep when a person broke in and raped her at knifepoint. He was by no means captured.

Francis sued the lodge, alleging its safety was defective, and a jury awarded her $2.5 million US in 1976. The 2 sides then settled out of court docket for $1,475,000 as an attraction was pending. She stated the assault destroyed her marriage and put her by years of emotional turmoil.

She suffered one other tragedy in 1981 when her brother George was shot to demise as he was leaving his New Jersey dwelling. Later within the decade, her father had her dedicated to a psychiatric hospital, the place she was identified as manic-depressive. At one level, she tried suicide by swallowing dozens of sleeping tablets. After three days in a coma, she recovered.

She was married 4 instances and would say that solely her third husband, Joseph Garzilli, was definitely worth the hassle. The opposite marriages every lasted lower than a yr.