American singer Connie Francis, whose hits embody Fairly Little Child, lifeless at 87

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

Her loss of life was introduced Thursday by her pal and publicist Ron Roberts, who didn't instantly present extra particulars.

Francis was a prime performer of the pre-Beatles period, hardly ever off the charts from 1957 to 1964. Capable of enchantment to each younger folks 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 track 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 hundreds of thousands of TikTok posts, with varied influencers and celebrities posting movies of them lip-synching the lyrics.

This additionally contributed to the track touchdown within the prime 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 offered her with a child-size accordion. The subsequent 12 months, she started singing and enjoying the instrument at varied public occasions.

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

The dark-haired singer was simply 17 when she signed a contract with MGM Data following appearances on a number of TV selection reveals. Her earliest recordings attracted little consideration, however then she launched her model of Who's Sorry Now?, an outdated ballad by Ted Snyder, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.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 Resort in London in August 1959. (Keystone by way of Getty Photographs) 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 authentic songs in Italian and Spanish, amongst different languages.

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

Her live shows across the nation rapidly offered out.

'My private life is a remorse' In the meantime, a romance bloomed with fellow teen idol Bobby Darin, who had volunteered to put in writing songs for her. However when her father heard rumours that the pair had 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 advised The Related Press in 1984, the 12 months the e book 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, occurring to turn out to be her supervisor.

Though her appearing profession had pale by the mid-'60s, Francis was nonetheless standard on the live performance circuit when she appeared on the Westbury Music Heart 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 enchantment 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 loss of life as he was leaving his New Jersey house. Later within the decade, her father had her dedicated to a psychiatric hospital, the place she was recognized 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 bother. The opposite marriages every lasted lower than a 12 months.