Connie Francis fixes her hair throughout a 1959 press reception on the Dorchester Lodge 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 Lodge in London
Keystone/ Getty Photographs
Pop singer Connie Francis has died at 87. The primary feminine singer to succeed in primary on the Billboard Scorching 100, she was recognized for her hit single “Who’s Sorry Now?” and for singing the theme music and showing within the 1961 movie, The place the Boys Are.
Her publicist, Ron Roberts, introduced her loss of life in a Fb put up.
Born Concetta Franconero in Newark, New Jersey, she modified her identify at age 13 when tv host Arthur Godfrey instructed that “Connie Francis” can be simpler to pronounce. Her large breakthrough got here in 1957, when she lined an outdated 1923 tune referred to as “Who’s Sorry Now?”
Francis hated the music, however it was a giant hit — ultimately reaching quantity 4 on the Billboard Scorching 100. It stayed on the charts for months. “Who’s Sorry Now?” would develop into one among her signature songs, and the eventual title of her autobiography.
Connie Francis offered over 40 million data earlier than she was 25. Sixteen of them went gold. Her primary hit, “Everyone’s Any person’s Idiot,” got here out in 1960. Her appearing profession was transient — she appeared in a brief string of undistinguished romantic comedies, and inside a couple 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 house. 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 folks 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 supply enough safety. At $2.5 million, it was then one of many largest awards ever in a rape case. Enduring the 1976 trial was not simple. However she was quoted within the courtroom by the New York Occasions saying, “If what we did right here might save one lady, it was value it.”
The botched nasal surgical procedure made it tough for Francis to work.
“There was a physician in New York who mentioned that he might appropriate 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 some of the 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 spread of about seven notes. There was not one music I might sing from starting to finish. Oh, by the way, two months after I might misplaced my voice, my husband acquired 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 not too long ago 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 outdated commonplace.
“And I very quietly, I began to sing it,” she mentioned. “After which once I was completed, I spotted that I had sung the entire music. I did not have that form of vary earlier than then. I went out into the road to go to an appointment, and I began singing songs. Each music I might consider, I finished in the course of the road and I yelled, I can sing. I imply, like, you recognize, it was like a scene from a film. I went to the primary telephone sales space and I referred to as my supervisor, who was my supervisor for the reason that age of 12. And I mentioned, George, ebook me at Westbury proper again at Westbury simply as quickly as you’ll be able to. And he was in a state of shock. You recognize, he after seven years, he he mentioned, Connie, are you all proper? And I mentioned, I am positive. Look me at Westbury as quickly as you’ll be able to. “
Francis went again to performing. She shaped her personal document firm and labored for years. Even after retiring to Boca Raton, she nonetheless made occasional appearances into her 80s. Not too long ago, Francis gained social media fame earlier this 12 months due to the resurgence of her music “Fairly Little Child,” which went viral on TikTok.
