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 demise on Fb, sharing that she died in a hospital in Pompano Seaside, Florida. A explanation for demise was not supplied. Francis was 87 years outdated.
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 baby, she appeared on tv applications like Arthur Godfrey’s Expertise Scouts.
Francis signed a cope with MGM Data in 1955, however it took a number of years earlier than she gained reputation. Her cowl of “Who’s Sorry Now?” proved to be her first hit tune, 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 nicely on the charts.
In June 1960, Francis made historical past as the primary feminine artist to summit the Billboard Sizzling 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 Comply with the Boys.
Francis’ model of pop music grew much less common 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 Honest. She was ultimately 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 stay with some regularity. She revealed a memoir, Amongst My Souvenirs, in 2017, and, earlier this 12 months, “Fairly Little Child” turned newly common amongst a brand new era of youngsters after going viral on TikTok. “My due to TikTok and its members for the great, and oh so surprising, reception given to my 1961 recording ‘Fairly Little Child,’” Francis shared on-line. “The primary I discovered of it was when Ron referred to 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!”
