Connie Francis, Singer of 1960s Pop Hits, Dies at 87

Connie Francis, the pop singer identified for hit singles like “Fairly Little Child” and “All people’s Any individual’s Idiot,” died on Wednesday, July 16. Francis’ publicist, Ron Roberts, introduced the musician’s loss of life on Facebook, sharing that she died in a hospital in Pompano Seashore, Florida. A explanation for loss of life was not supplied. Francis was 87 years previous.

Francis was born Concetta Rosemarie Franconero in Newark, New Jersey, in 1937. Inspired by her father, George Franconero, she started enjoying music as a toddler, and, as a toddler, she appeared on tv applications like Arthur Godfrey’s Expertise Scouts.

Francis signed a cope with MGM Data in 1955, but it surely took just a few years earlier than she gained reputation. Her cowl of “Who’s Sorry Now?” proved to be her first hit track, because it reached No. 4 on the Billboard High 100 within the spring of 1958. From there, the hits stored coming, with songs like “Silly Cupid,” “My Happiness,” “If I Didn’t Care,” “Lipstick on Your Collar,” and “Frankie” all performing properly on the charts.

In June 1960, Francis made historical past as the first female artist to summit the Billboard Scorching 100, due to “All people’s Any individual’s Idiot.” Francis went on to attain two extra No. 1 songs, “My Coronary heart Has a Thoughts of Its Personal” and “Don’t Break the Coronary heart That Loves You.” Constructing on her success in music, Francis ventured into the world of cinema, starring in films like 1960’s The place the Boys Are and 1963’s Observe the Boys.

Francis’ model of pop music grew much less widespread because the Nineteen Sixties went on and youngsters flocked to British invasion bands just like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. And, as her recording profession suffered, Francis skilled private tragedy in 1974 when she was raped at knifepoint in her lodge room after performing on the Westbury Music Truthful. She was finally awarded $2.5 million in damages, however went into seclusion.

Francis returned to the general public eye within the late Eighties, and he or she carried out dwell with some regularity. She revealed a memoir, Amongst My Souvenirs, in 2017, and, earlier this yr, “Fairly Little Child” turned newly widespread amongst a brand new era of youngsters after going viral on TikTok. “My due to TikTok and its members for the fantastic, and oh so sudden, reception given to my 1961 recording ‘Fairly Little Child,’” Francis shared on-line. “The primary I realized of it was when Ron known as to advise me that I had ‘a viral hit’. Clearly out of contact with current day music statistics terminology, my preliminary response was to ask: ‘What’s that?’ Thanks everybody!”