Connie Francis fixes her hair throughout a 1959 press reception on the Dorchester Resort in London
Keystone/ Getty Photographs
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Keystone/ Getty Photographs
Connie Francis fixes her hair throughout a 1959 press reception on the Dorchester Resort in London
Keystone/ Getty Photographs
Pop singer Connie Francis has died at 87. The primary feminine singer to achieve primary on the Billboard Sizzling 100, she was identified for her hit single “Who’s Sorry Now?” and for singing the theme track and showing within the 1961 movie, The place the Boys Are.
Her publicist, Ron Roberts, introduced her loss of life in a Fb submit.
Born Concetta Franconero in Newark, New Jersey, she modified her identify at age 13 when tv host Arthur Godfrey advised that “Connie Francis” can be simpler to pronounce. Her massive breakthrough got here in 1957, when she coated an previous 1923 tune known as “Who’s Sorry Now?”
Francis hated the track, nevertheless it was a giant hit — ultimately reaching quantity 4 on the Billboard Sizzling 100. It stayed on the charts for months. “Who’s Sorry Now?” would turn into one among her signature songs, and the eventual title of her autobiography.
Connie Francis bought over 40 million information earlier than she was 25. Sixteen of them went gold. Her primary hit, “All people’s Any individual’s Idiot,” got here out in 1960. Her performing profession was transient — she appeared in a brief string of undistinguished romantic comedies, and inside a number of years, her life turned touched extra by tragedy than success.
In 1967, one among her closest mates was strangled to loss of life in her residence. That very same 12 months, Francis underwent a beauty process meant to slender her nostril. But it surely broken her potential to sing.
“I could not sing in air conditioned rooms,” she advised NPR in 1982. “Which offered nice issues in Las Vegas. They needed to shut the air con off, and the individuals would wilt. And I might, and the band would.”
In 1974, Francis was raped at knifepoint and crushed at a Howard Johnson motel after singing at a music competition in Westbury, New York. She efficiently sued the corporate for failing to offer sufficient safety. At $2.5 million, it was then one of many largest awards ever in a rape case. Enduring the 1976 trial was not straightforward. However she was quoted within the courtroom by the New York Instances saying, “If what we did right here might save one woman, it was price it.”
The botched nasal surgical procedure made it troublesome for Francis to work.
“There was a health care provider in New York who stated that he might right this,” she advised NPR. “So I went for surgical procedure, and two weeks earlier than I went in for that surgical procedure, I used to be recording an Italian album, and two weeks after the surgical procedure, I went again to complete the overdub of the album, and that was one of the vital terrifying moments of my life, as a result of my voice was gone. So, it wasn’t the rape that affected my voice. It was positively the surgical procedure. And I had a variety of about seven notes. There was not one track I might sing from starting to finish. Oh, by the way, two months after I would misplaced my voice, my husband obtained up and left, and he simply left. And that was the top of that.”
It took three extra surgical procedures earlier than Francis might sing once more. She was hospitalized for bipolar dysfunction on a number of events. Her brother, a lawyer who had just lately testified as a part of an investigation into Mafia dealings, was shot to loss of life by a pair of gunmen in his driveway in 1981.
Shortly after his homicide, she advised NPR, she turned on the radio and heard an previous commonplace.
“And I very quietly, I began to sing it,” she stated. “After which once I was completed, I spotted that I had sung the entire track. I did not have that type of vary earlier than then. I went out into the road to go to an appointment, and I began singing songs. Each track I might consider, I ended in the course of the road and I yelled, I can sing. I imply, like, you already know, it was like a scene from a film. I went to the primary telephone sales space and I known as my supervisor, who was my supervisor because the age of 12. And I stated, George, e-book me at Westbury proper again at Westbury simply as quickly as you possibly can. And he was in a state of shock. You already know, he after seven years, he he stated, Connie, are you all proper? And I stated, I am nice. Look me at Westbury as quickly as you possibly can. “
Francis went again to performing. She fashioned her personal document firm and labored for years. Even after retiring to Boca Raton, she nonetheless made occasional appearances into her 80s. Just lately, Francis gained social media fame earlier this 12 months due to the resurgence of her track “Fairly Little Child,” which went viral on TikTok.
