Connie Francis

Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell; December 12, 1937 – July 16, 2025), known professionally as Connie Francis, was an American singer, musician, author, and actress. One of the top-charting female vocalists of the late 1950s and early 1960s, she amassed over 100 million records sold, placing her among the best-selling music artists in history.

After a string of unsuccessful releases, Francis rose to fame in 1958 with her cover of the 1923Template:Nbspsong "Who's Sorry Now?", which was followed by various other top-10 hits. She became the first woman to reach No.Template:Nbsp1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart when "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" topped the chart in 1960. She was also the first woman to achieve three No. 1 hits on the chart, among her 53 career entries. Before the advent of the British Invasion, Francis was the most popular female vocalist in the United States between 1958 and 1964.

Francis recorded music in multiple languages, including English, Italian, French, German, Yiddish, and Japanese, making her a best-selling artist in international markets as well as in American immigrant communities.

Between 1974 and 1988, a series of traumatic personal experiences, including a rape attack at knifepoint, led Francis to suffer years of psychological and physical difficulties that sidelined her career. She resumed performing from 1989 until her retirement in 2018. She regained prominence in 2025, shortly before her death, when her 1962 recording "Pretty Little Baby" went viral on social media platforms.

Biography

1937–1955: Early life and first appearances

Francis was born on DecemberTemplate:Nbsp12, 1937, to an Italian-American family (one of her grandfathers having immigrated from Reggio Calabria in 1905)<ref name="Bio">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, the first child of George Franconero (1911–1996) and Ida (Template:Nee; 1911–2000). She spent her first years in the Crown Heights, Brooklyn area (Utica Avenue/St Mark's Place), before the family moved to New Jersey.<ref name="Autobiography">Connie Francis: Who's Sorry Now? (Autobiography), St. Martin's Press, 1984, Template:ISBN</ref> Growing up in a mixed Italian-Jewish neighborhood, Francis became fluent in Yiddish, which led her later to record songs in Yiddish and Hebrew.<ref name="Autobiography" /><ref>Liner notes of the original 1960 album Connie Francis Sings Jewish Favorites.</ref> Francis had a younger brother, George Franconero Jr. (1940–1981).

In her autobiography Who's Sorry Now? published in 1984, Francis recalls that her father encouraged her to appear regularly at talent contests, pageants, and other neighborhood festivities as a child singing and playing the accordion.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

During rehearsals for her appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts in DecemberTemplate:Nbsp1950, Francis was advised by Godfrey to change her stage name to Connie Francis for easier pronunciation. Godfrey also told her to drop the accordion—advice she gladly followed, as she had begun to hate the large and heavy instrument.<ref name="Autobiography" /> Around the same time, Francis took a job as a singer on demonstration records, to bring unreleased songs to the attention of established singers and/or their management who might choose to record them for a professional commercial record.<ref name="Sox">William Ruhlmann: Connie Francis 1955–1959, companion book to 5 CD Boxed Set White Sox, Pink Lipstick... and Stupid Cupid, Bear Family Records BCD 16 616 EI, Hambergen (Germany) 1993</ref>

Francis attended Newark Arts High School in 1951 and 1952 before she and her family moved to Belleville, New Jersey. Francis graduated as salutatorian from Belleville High School in 1955.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Francis continued to perform at neighborhood festivities and talent shows (some of them broadcast on television), appearing alternately as Concetta Franconero and Connie Franconero. Under the latter name, she appeared on NBC's variety show Startime Kids between 1953 and 1955.<ref name="Autobiography" />

1955–1957: Recording contract and commercial failure

In 1955, Startime Kids went off the air. In May that year,<ref name="Roberts">Ron Roberts: Connie Francis Discography 1955–1973 Template:Clarify</ref> George Franconero Sr. and Francis's manager George Scheck raised money for a recording session of four songs which they hoped to sell to a major record company under Francis's own name. Even when MGM Records decided to sign a contract with her, it was because one track she had recorded, "Freddy", happened to be the name of the son of a company executive, Harry A. Meyerson, who thought of the song as a nice birthday gift. Hence, "Freddy" was released as Francis's first single, which turned out to be a commercial failure, just like her next eight solo singles.<ref name="Autobiography" />

Despite these failures, Francis was hired to record the vocals for Tuesday Weld's "singing" scenes in the 1956 movie Rock, Rock, Rock!, and for Freda Holloway in the 1957 Warner Bros. rock and roll movie Jamboree.<ref name="BB12167" />

In the fall of 1957, Francis enjoyed her first modest success with a duet single she had recorded with Marvin Rainwater: "The Majesty of Love", with "You, My Darlin' You" as the B-side, peaked at number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100.<ref>Warner, Jay (2008). Notable Moments of Women in Music. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 79. Retrieved July 12, 2020.</ref> Eventually, the single sold over one million copies.<ref name="Sox" />

1957–1959: Breakthrough

File:Connie Francis - Billboard ad 1958.jpg

Billboard notice, December 15, 1958

However, her minor chart success came too late for her record label—Francis's recording contract consisted of ten solo singles and one duet single. Though success had finally seemed to come with "The Majesty of Love", Francis was informed by MGM Records that her contract would not be renewed after her last solo single.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Francis considered a career in medicine and was about to accept a four-year scholarship at New York University. At a recording session for MGM on OctoberTemplate:Nbsp2, 1957, with Joe Lipman and his orchestra,<ref name="Roberts" /> she recorded a cover version of the 1923 song "Who's Sorry Now?", written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. Francis said that she recorded it at the insistence of her father, who was convinced it stood a chance of becoming a hit because it was a song adults already knew and that teenagers would dance to if it had a contemporary arrangement.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Francis did not like the song and argued about it with her father heatedly, delaying the recording of the other two songs during the session so much that she thought no time was left on the continuously running recording tape.<ref name="Freeman">Freeman, Paul. "Connie Francis: She will survive!", The Mercury News. October 13, 2010. Retrieved July 9, 2020.</ref> Her father insisted though, and when the recording "Who's Sorry Now?" was finished, only a few seconds remained on the tape.<ref name="Autobiography" />

The single seemed to go unnoticed, like all previous releases, just as Francis had predicted, but on JanuaryTemplate:Nbsp1, 1958, it debuted on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Francis watched the show and later said:

File:Connie Francis - Cash Box 1959.png

Francis on the January 31, 1959, cover of Cashbox magazine

On FebruaryTemplate:Nbsp15, Francis performed it on the first episode of The Saturday Night Beechnut Show, also hosted by Clark. By mid-year over one million copies had been sold and Francis was suddenly launched into worldwide stardom. In AprilTemplate:Nbsp1958, "Who's Sorry Now?" reached numberTemplate:Nbsp1 in the UK Singles Chart and numberTemplate:Nbsp4 in the United States.<ref name="MusicVF">Connie Francis Top Songs, MusicVF.com. Retrieved March 10, 2021.</ref> That year, by a wide margin, Connie was voted "Best Female Vocalist" by American Bandstand viewers. She went on to collect similar Bandstand awards for the next four years.<ref name="Autobiography" />

As Francis explained at each of her concerts, she began searching for a new hit immediately after the success of "Who's Sorry Now?" since MGM Records had renewed her contract. After the relative failure of the follow-up singles, "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry", (which stalled at No. 36), and "Heartaches", which failed to chart at all, Francis met Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, who sang a number of ballads they had written for her. After a few hours, Francis began writing in her diary while the songwriters played the last of their ballads. This, and her refusal to let Sedaka and Greenfield see the diary to mine it for material, inspired the duo to write Sedaka's own breakthrough hit "The Diary". Afterwards Francis told them that she considered their ballads too intellectual and sophisticated for the young generation and requested a more lively song. Greenfield urged Sedaka to sing a song they had written that morning with the Shepherd Sisters in mind. Sedaka protested that Francis would be insulted, but Greenfield said that since she hated all the other songs they had performed, they had nothing to lose. Sedaka then played "Stupid Cupid". When he finished, Francis announced that he had just played her new hit song. It went on to reach numberTemplate:Nbsp14 on the Billboard chart and was her second numberTemplate:Nbsp1 in the UK.<ref name="MusicVF" />

The success of "Stupid Cupid" restored momentum to Francis's chart career, and she reached the U.S. topTemplate:Nbsp40 an additional eight times during the remainder of the 1950s.<ref name="MusicVF" /> She managed to churn out more hits by covering several older songs, such as "My Happiness" (numberTemplate:Nbsp2 on the HotTemplate:Nbsp100) and "Among My Souvenirs" (numberTemplate:Nbsp7), as well as performing her own original songs. In 1959, she gained two gold records for a double-sided hit: on the A-side, "Lipstick on Your Collar" (numberTemplate:Nbsp5), and on the B-side, "Frankie" (numberTemplate:Nbsp9).

1959–1973: International recording star

Following another idea from her father, Francis traveled to London in AugustTemplate:Nbsp1959<ref name="Roberts" /> to record an Italian album at EMI's famous Abbey Road Studios.<ref name="Sox" /> Titled Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites, the album was released in NovemberTemplate:Nbsp1959. It soon entered the album charts where it remained for 81 weeks, peaking at number 4 and becoming Francis's most successful album. "Mama", the single taken from the album, reached numberTemplate:Nbsp8 in the United States and number 2 in the United Kingdom.<ref name="Souvenirs">Souvenirs, Companion Booklet to 4 CD Boxed Set "Souvenirs", Polydor (New York) 1995, Cat.-No. 314 533 382-2</ref>

Following this success, Francis recorded seven more albums of "favorites" between 1960 and 1964, including Jewish, German, and Irish, among others.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Francis's 1960 album of Jewish music included songs in Yiddish and Hebrew, such as "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena", "Oifen Pripetchik" and "Hava Nagila".<ref name="w267">Template:Cite web</ref> Some Jews, particularly immigrants, saw her album as validating the acceptance of the Jewish community in American society.<ref name="w267" />

File:Connie Francis - The Times (1961).jpg

Newspaper clipping, January 12, 1961

Nevertheless, Francis continued to record singles aimed at the youth market. Among her top-ten hits on the Hot 100 were "Breakin' in a Brand New Broken Heart" (1961, numberTemplate:Nbsp7), "When the Girl in Your Arms is the Girl in Your Heart" (1961, numberTemplate:Nbsp10), "Second Hand Love" (1962, numberTemplate:Nbsp7), and "Where the Boys Are" (1961, numberTemplate:Nbsp4).<ref name="MusicVF" /> The last one became her signature tune and became the theme song of Francis's first motion picture. The movie introduced the concept of spring break, as the once sleepy town of Fort Lauderdale became the hotspot for college students on their spring vacation in the wake of the movie's success.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The film is also noted for being a precursor to and influence on the later beach party genre.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She appeared in a number of other movies for MGM including Follow the Boys.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

The success of "Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites" in lateTemplate:Nbsp1959 and earlyTemplate:Nbsp1960 led Francis to become one of the first American artists to record regularly in other languages.<ref name="stillalivemag">Template:Cite news</ref> She was followed by other major British and American recording stars including Wanda Jackson, Cliff Richard, Petula Clark, Brenda Lee, the Supremes, Peggy March, Pat Boone, Lesley Gore, the Beatles and Johnny Cash, among many others. In her autobiography, Francis mentioned that in the early years of her career, the language barrier in some European countries, especially in Germany, made it difficult for her songs to get airplay.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Francis used these reflections as the basis for her AprilTemplate:Nbsp1960 recording, "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" which would go on to become the first single by a female artist to top the Hot 100.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Veteran lyricist Ralph Maria Siegel penned a set of German lyrics, named "Template:Langr" ("Love is a Strange Game"), which, after some friction between Francis and her MGM executives, was recorded and released.<ref name="Autobiography" /> The song peaked at numberTemplate:Nbsp1 in West Germany.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She had two more number one hits there, "Template:Langr" in SeptemberTemplate:Nbsp1962 and "Template:Langr" in JulyTemplate:Nbsp1963.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

It was not until her numberTemplate:Nbsp7 on the U.S. charts, "Many Tears Ago", later in 1960 when Francis began to record cover versions of her songs in foreign languages other than German. Over the years she expanded her recording portfolio to 15Template:Nbsplanguages. She also sang in Romanian during a live performance at the 1970 edition of the Golden Stag Festival in Brașov, Romania. Francis was not fluent in all of these languages and she had to learn her foreign language songs phonetically.<ref name="stillalivemag" />

File:Vacation - The Biggest Sin of All - Billboard ad 1962.jpg

Billboard ad for Francis's final top-ten hit, "Vacation", July 14, 1962

In the wake of "Template:Langr", Francis enjoyed her greatest successes outside the United States. During the 1960s, her songs not only topped the charts in numerous countries around the world, but she was also voted the numberTemplate:Nbsp1 singer in over 10Template:Nbspcountries. In 1960, she was named the most popular artist in Europe, the first time a non-European received this honor. From mid-1961 to mid-1963, Radio Luxembourg closed each day's broadcasts with "It's Time to Say Goodnight", a song Francis had recorded especially for them and was not officially released until 1996.<ref name="Twistin">Ron Roberts: Connie Francis 1960–1962, companion book to 5 CD Boxed Set "Kissin', Twistin', Goin' Where the Boys Are", Bear Family Records BCD 16 826 EI, Hambergen (Germany) 1996</ref>

Francis's enduring popularity overseas led to television specials in countries around the world such as Great Britain, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Even at the height of the Cold War, Francis's music was well received in Iron Curtain countries, and some of her recordings were made available on state-owned record labels such as Melodiya in the Soviet Union and on Jugoton in Yugoslavia,<ref name="Twistin" /> although it was common knowledge that rock 'n' roll was highly disparaged in Eastern bloc countries.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In the U.S., Connie Francis had a third number-one hit in 1962: "Don't Break the Heart That Loves You" Becoming the first woman to achieve three number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and her success led MGM to allow her complete freedom to choose whichever songs she wanted to record.<ref name="Sox" />

Francis's first autobiography, For Every Young Heart, was published in 1963. On JulyTemplate:Nbsp3 that same year, she played a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II at the Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland. During the height of the Vietnam War in 1967, Francis performed for U.S. troops.<ref name="NotSorry">"Not Sorry Now", Las Vegas Sun. December 23, 2004. Retrieved July 9, 2020.</ref><ref>Voger, Mark. "Where the boys were: Connie Francis recalls Vietnam trip", NJ.com. November 7, 2013. Retrieved July 9, 2020.</ref>

Between 1958 and 1964, Francis was the most popular female singer in the United States, with her popularity and chart consistency rivalled only by Brenda Lee.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, due to music trends in the early and mid-1960s, especially the British Invasion, Francis's chart success on BillboardTemplate:'s HotTemplate:Nbsp100 began to wane after 1963. Her final top-ten hit, "Vacation", co-written by Francis herself, was released in 1962. A number of Francis's singles reached the topTemplate:Nbsp40 on the U.S. HotTemplate:Nbsp100 in the mid-1960s, with her last top-40Template:Nbspentry in 1964 being her cover version of "Be Anything (but Be Mine)", a 1952Template:Nbspsong made famous by singer/bandleader Eddy Howard. Despite her declining success on the HotTemplate:Nbsp100, Francis remained a top concert draw, and her singles—with a more mature style—were charting on the top quarter of BillboardTemplate:'s Adult Contemporary Charts and sometimes even reached BillboardTemplate:'s Country Charts. Francis enjoyed lasting chart success in the U.S. until her contract with MGM Records expired in 1969.<ref name="Souvenirs" />

In 1965, Francis participated in that year's edition of the annual Sanremo Festival, where her team partner was Gigliola Cinquetti and she presented "Template:Langr", which finished numberTemplate:Nbsp5 in the final rankings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Connie Francis.jpg

Francis, Template:C.

Francis returned to San Remo in 1967 to present "Template:Langr" with her team partner Bobby Solo.<ref>"Key Tradesters Invade As Opening Bell Sounds at Festival", Billboard. January 28, 1967. p. 64. Retrieved July 7, 2020.</ref> In the U.S., however, "Time Alone Will Tell", Francis's cover version of Sanremo's 1967 winning entry "Template:Langr" which had been presented by Iva Zanicchi and Claudio Villa, peaked at numberTemplate:Nbsp94 on Billboard's HotTemplate:Nbsp100 and at numberTemplate:Nbsp14 on Billboard's AC charts.<ref name="Souvenirs" />

In 1973, Francis returned to the recording studio, cutting "(Should I) Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree?", b/w "Paint the Rain" on GSF Records. This answer song to "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando & Dawn bubbled under the charts. The recording of a German version, though, remained unfinished.<ref name="Roberts" /><ref>Richard Weize: Connie Francis, companion book to 8 LP Boxed Set "Connie Francis in Deutschland", Bear Family Records BFX 15 305, Hambergen/Vollersode (Germany) 1988</ref><ref>Jan Feddersen: Connie Francis, companion book to 5 CD Boxed Set "Lass mir die bunten Träume", Bear Family Records BCD 15 786 AH, Hambergen (Germany) 1994</ref>

1974–1988: Rape and retreat into seclusion

After her modest success with "(Should I) Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree?" Francis began performing regularly again. While in town to appear at the Westbury Music Fair in New York, on November 8, 1974, Francis was raped at knifepoint, beaten, and tied to a chair at the Jericho Turnpike Howard Johnson's Lodge in Jericho, New York. Francis, who was found naked, bound and gagged, and still tied to an overturned chair by police, nearly suffocated under the weight of a heavy mattress the assailant had thrown upon her.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She later said that the attacker "was obviously drugged" and "kept asking for money," and stated that he "talked about his mother, about God punishing him because he was going to kill me."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Although a 19-year-old guest at the hotel was initially arrested as a suspect,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Autobiography" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the rapist was never found.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Francis subsequently sued the motel chain for failing to provide adequate security and reportedly won a $2.5Template:Nbspmillion judgment (Template:Inflation),<ref>Clayton W. Barrows – Tom Powers, Introduction to Management in the Hospitality Industry (9th edition), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, 2009, pg. 319</ref> one of the largest such judgments in history, leading to a reform in hotel security.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After her attack Norwegian inventor Tor Sørnes was inspired to invent the keycard lock.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the years after the incident, Francis went into depression, taking as many as 50Template:NbspDarvon pills a day and rarely leaving her home in Essex Fells, New Jersey.<ref>Robertson, Nan. "CONNIE FRANCIS: COMEBACK TRAIL AFTER 7 LOST YEARS", The New York Times, November 9, 1981. Accessed December 26, 2016. "The rape snapped all connection with the outside world. She plummeted into depression, lying in bed for months at a time, watching television, venturing outside her house in Essex Fells, N.J., only to visit her secretary, Anne Fusari, nearby and watch more television."</ref>

In 1978, Francis returned to the recording studio to cut an album titled Who's Happy Now?<ref>"UA Head Warns of Increased S-O-R & Wide Discounting", Billboard. September 23, 1978. p. 83. Retrieved March 10, 2021.</ref> The lead recording on this album was a disco version of "Where the Boys Are". That and other songs from the Who's Happy Now? sessions were subsequently recorded in Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and German. The Spanish and German recordings became albums of their own as Template:Lang in Spain and as Template:Lang (Template:Xlat) in Germany. All three albums and the singles culled from them were released on United Artists Records. It would be the last album Francis, who had already withdrawn from touring after the events of 1974, recorded before she underwent nasal surgery and completely lost her voice. She went through three more operations and was unable to sing again until 1981.<ref name="Freeman" /><ref name="NotSorry" />

In 1981, further tragedy struck Francis when her brother, George Franconero Jr., to whom she was very close, was shot to death outside his New Jersey home by Mafia hitmen. George was an attorney who had testified against mob activity and refused offers of witness protection.<ref name="Autobiography" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His death forced Francis to stop "wallow[ing] in self-pity" and take responsibility for her extended family, noting that the sum of tragedies she had experienced up to then had made her very "angry, and angry is often a good catalyst."<ref name="Freeman" /> Francis returned again to the studio in 1981 to cut "Template:Langr", and "I'm Me Again", the latter becoming the title track of an album which featured the new songs.<ref>"I'm Me Again--Silver Anniversary Album - Connie Francis", AllMusic. Retrieved March 10, 2021.</ref> "I'm Me Again" became Francis's last single to chart on the AC charts.<ref name="MusicVF" /> She took up live performing again, even gracing the American Bandstand 30thTemplate:NbspAnniversary Special and appearing in the town where she had been raped. Francis's new-found success was short-lived, though. She was diagnosed with manic depression, which again brought her career to a halt; Francis would later state it was a misdiagnosis, along with a concurrent misdiagnosis of attention deficit disorder, and that the medications she had been erroneously prescribed had turned her into "a zombie."<ref name="village" /> She was committed to multiple psychiatric hospitals.<ref>"Connie Francis Put in Mental Hospital at Request of Police", United Press International. January 2, 1986. Retrieved July 7, 2020.</ref><ref>Oppelaar, Justin. "Francis sues Universal Music", Variety. March 11, 2002. Retrieved July 7, 2020.</ref><ref name="BBC31202">"Singer Francis sues over rape scenes", BBC News. March 12, 2002. Retrieved July 7, 2020.</ref> Francis attempted suicide in 1984 and was in a coma for several days.<ref name="BBC31202" /> She and her doctors eventually concluded her mental health issues stemmed from post-traumatic stress disorder, primarily related to the events of 1974.<ref name="village" />

In 1984, Francis wrote and published her autobiography, Who's Sorry Now? which became a New York Times bestseller.

1989–2018: Later career

In 1989, Francis resumed her recording and performing career once again. For Malaco Records, Francis recorded a double album entitled Where the Hits Are, containing re-recordings of 18 of her biggest hits, as well as six classics of yesteryear Francis had always wanted to record such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and "Torn Between Two Lovers".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1992, a medley of remixed versions of her biggest German hits charted in Germany.<ref>Sinclair, David. "Global Music Pulse", Billboard. July 4, 1992. p. 42. Retrieved July 14, 2020.</ref> A single, entitled "Jive, Connie", ended up among the top-ten best-selling singles of the year, which brought Francis the prestigious R.SH-Gold award for the "Best Comeback of the Year" from R.SH (short for "Radio Schleswig-Holstein"), then one of Germany's most important private radio stations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A subsequent compilation album of her biggest German hits in their original versions was also released successfully. In the wake of this, Francis recorded two duets for the German Herzklang label (a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment) with Peter Kraus, with whom she had already worked several times in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

In 1996, Francis released the live album The Return Concert: Live at Trump's Castle.<ref>"The Return Concert: Live at Trump's Castle - Connie Francis", AllMusic. Retrieved March 10, 2021.</ref> That same year, she also released With Love to Buddy, a tribute album of songs made famous by the late Buddy Holly.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In late DecemberTemplate:Nbsp2004, Francis headlined in Las Vegas for the first time since 1989.<ref name="NotSorry" /> In March and OctoberTemplate:Nbsp2007, Francis performed to sold-out crowds at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco.<ref>Chonin, Neva. "The crowd loves Connie Francis", San Francisco Chronicle. March 6, 2007. Retrieved July 14, 2020.</ref> She appeared in concert in Manila, Philippines, on Valentine's Day 2008.<ref>Dimaculangan, Jocelyn. "Connie Francis performs at Araneta Coliseum on Valentine's Day", Philippine Entertainment Portal. February 13, 2008. Retrieved July 14, 2020.</ref>

In 2010, Francis appeared at the Las Vegas Hilton with Dionne Warwick, a show billed as "Eric Floyd's Grand Divas of Stage".<ref>"Connie Francis & Dionne Warwick Shows Draw Record Crowds to Las Vegas Hilton Template:Webarchive", Vegas News. June 10, 2010. Retrieved July 14, 2020.</ref>

File:ConnieFrancis portrait.jpg

Francis in 2011

In DecemberTemplate:Nbsp2017, Francis released her most recent autobiography, Among My Souvenirs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

2018–2025: Retirement, "Pretty Little Baby" resurgence and final years

Francis retired in 2018, and lived in Florida the remainder of her life.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Until 2025, she had fallen into relative obscurity as a victim of the oldies format's decline and shift away from early 1960sTemplate:Nbspmusic; a 2022Template:Nbspsurvey noted that Francis had more of her songs dropped from radio airplay than anyone other than the Osmond family.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In MayTemplate:Nbsp2025, her 1962 song "Pretty Little Baby" went viral on TikTok and became a sleeper hit; when reached for comment, Francis said she had forgotten about the song but was pleased that her music—and the innocence it sought to represent—was being embraced by a younger audience.<ref name="TikTok">Template:Cite web</ref>

With the song's sudden rise in popularity, Francis joined TikTok<ref name="The New York Times 1">Template:Cite web</ref> and had plans to appear on Cousin Brucie's radio show, which she was unable to fulfill due to failing health.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She stated she was willing to make television appearances but would not be performing or touring again, and that though she missed performing on stage, "that ship has sailed."<ref name="Billboard 1">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Work

Musical genres

While her singles were mostly kept in the then-current sounds of the day such as rock 'n' roll, novelty songs, the twist, torch ballads, or the girl group sound created by Brill Building alumni Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, Francis's albums represented her in a variety of styles, ranging from R&B, vocal jazz, and country to Broadway standards, children's music, waltzes, spiritual music, schlager music, traditionals from various ethnic groups represented in the U.S., and select songs from popular songwriters of the day, such as Burt Bacharach and Hal David, or Les Reed.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Filmography

Film title	Year	Role	Co-actors	Director	Producer	Notes	Template:Abbr
Rock, Rock, Rock!	1956	Dori Graham (Singing voice only)	Tuesday Weld, Valerie Harper, Chuck Berry, Lavern Baker	Will Price	Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky	Connie Francis provided the singing voice for Tuesday Weld as "Dori Graham"	<ref name="BB12167">"Connie Francis: Something for Everybody", Billboard. January 21, 1967. p. MGM-24. Retrieved July 11, 2020.</ref>
Jamboree	1957	Honey Winn (Singing voice only)	Freda Holloway, Paul Carr, Dick Clark	Roy Lockwood	Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky	Connie Francis provided the singing voice for Freda Holloway as Honey Winn	<ref name="BB12167" /><ref>Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. Retrieved July 11, 2020.</ref>
The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw	1958	Miss Kate (Singing voice only)	Jayne Mansfield, Kenneth More, Bruce Cabot, Sid James	Raoul Walsh	David M. Angel	Connie Francis provided the singing voice for Jayne Mansfield as Miss Kate	<ref>Troyan, Michael; Thompson, Jeffrey Paul; Sylvester, Stephen X. (2017). Twentieth Century Fox: A Century of Entertainment. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 124. Retrieved July 11, 2020.</ref>
Where the Boys Are	1960	Angie	Paula Prentiss, Yvette Mimieux, Dolores Hart, George Hamilton, Jim Hutton	Henry Levin	Joe Pasternak		<ref name="NotSorry" />
Follow the Boys	1963	Bonnie Pulaski	Paula Prentiss, Janis Paige, Russ Tamblyn	Richard Thorpe	Lawrence P. Bachmann	-	<ref name="NotSorry" />
Looking for Love	1964	Libby Caruso	Jim Hutton, Joby Baker, Susan Oliver	Don Weis	Joe Pasternak	<ref name="jim">Template:Cite magazine</ref>	<ref name="NotSorry" />
When the Boys Meet the Girls	1965	Ginger Gray	Harve Presnell, Louis Armstrong, Herman's Hermits, Liberace	Alvin Ganzer	Sam Katzman	-	<ref name="NotSorry" />

Television

Film title	Year	Role	Co-actors	Director	Producer	Template:Abbr
"The Sister and the Savage" (episode of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre)	1966	Sister Mary Clare	James Farentino, Steve Carlson	Gerald Mayer	unknown	<ref>Neibaur, James L. (2004). The Bob Hope Films. McFarland & Company. p. 181. Retrieved July 10, 2020.</ref>

Bibliography

Book title	Publishing year	Publisher	ISBN
For Every Young Heart	1963	Prentice Hall	None
Who's Sorry Now?	1984	St. Martin's Press	Template:ISBNT
Among My Souvenirs	2017	Concetta Literary Corporation / Baker & Taylor Publisher Services	Template:Ubl

Personal life

Relationship with Bobby Darin

Early in her career Francis was introduced to Bobby Darin, then an up-and-coming singer and songwriter. Darin's manager arranged for him to help write several songs for her. Despite some disagreement about material, after several weeks Darin and Francis developed a romantic relationship. Francis's strict Italian-American father, George Franconero, would separate the couple whenever possible. When Franconero learned that Darin had suggested the two elope after one of her shows, he ran Darin out of the building at gunpoint.<ref>Nolasco, Stephanie. "Connie Francis reflects on her romance with Bobby Darin before his untimely death", Fox News. February 9, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2021.</ref><ref>Eby, Margaret (2012). Rock and Roll Baby Names: Over 2,000 Music-Inspired Names, from Alison to Ziggy. Penguin Books. Retrieved March 10, 2021.</ref>

Francis saw Darin only twice more: once when the two were scheduled to sing together for a television show and again when she was spotlighted on the TV series This Is Your Life. By the time of the latter's taping, Darin had married actress Sandra Dee. In her autobiography Francis stated she and her father were driving into the Lincoln Tunnel when the radio DJ announced Dee and Darin's marriage. Her father made a negative comment about Darin finally being out of their lives. Angered, Francis later stated, "I wished that somehow God would cause the Hudson River to come gushing in and entrap us in that tunnel." She wrote that not marrying Darin was the biggest mistake of her life.<ref name="Autobiography" />

Later marriages and relationships

Francis was married four times. In 1964 she was briefly married to Dick Kanellis, a press agent and entertainment director for the Aladdin Hotel.<ref>"Inside Track", Billboard. June 23, 1973. p. 86. Retrieved July 8, 2020.</ref> In JanuaryTemplate:Nbsp1971 she married Izzy Marion, a hair-salon owner, divorcing 10Template:Nbspmonths later.<ref>"Connie Francis Is Bride", Associated Press. January 17, 1971. Retrieved July 8, 2020.</ref><ref>Eder, Shirley. "'Marigolds' Sends Patient for a Change", Detroit Free Press. October 31, 1971. p. 33.</ref> InTemplate:Nbsp1973, Francis married for the third timeTemplate:Sndher only marriage to last more than a few monthsTemplate:Snd to Joseph Garzilli, a restaurateur and travel-agency owner; they divorced in 1977.<ref name="Nuptials">"Diana Ross Preparing Nuptials", New York Daily News. October 25, 1985. Retrieved July 8, 2020.</ref> She had no biological children. However, during the third marriage Francis adopted a baby boy.<ref>The Washington Post Connie Francis' Crusade</ref> Francis married TV producer Bob Parkinson on JuneTemplate:Nbsp27, 1985, divorcing later that year.<ref name="Nuptials" />

Francis was in a long-term relationship with Tony Ferretti from around 2003 until his death in 2022.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On FebruaryTemplate:Nbsp13, 2022, a video uploaded to her official YouTube channel featured Francis and Ferretti performing a duet of the song "You Made Me Love You".<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

Biopic

Francis and singer Gloria Estefan completed a screenplay for a film based on Francis's life titled Who's Sorry Now? Estefan announced that she would produce and play the lead. She said, "[Connie Francis] isn't even in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and yet she was the first female pop star worldwide, and has recorded in nine languages. She has done a lot of things for victims' rights since her rape in the '70s.... There's a major story there." In DecemberTemplate:Nbsp2009 the film project was dropped. According to Francis:

In the same article, Francis said that Dolly Parton had been contacting her for years trying to produce her life story, but owing to her previous commitment to Estefan's organization, she was not able to accept Parton's offer. She said in the article that both she and Parton had considered, independently of each other, actress Valerie Bertinelli to play Francis.<ref name="Daeida" />

Characterization on Broadway

Francis is currently being portrayed by singer Gracie Lawrence in the Broadway musical Just in Time based on the life of singer Bobby Darin which premiered on AprilTemplate:Nbsp23, 2025.<ref>Just in Time Cast. "Just in Time Cast Listing". Retrieved April 25, 2025.</ref> Francis had planned on seeing Lawrence's performance if her health had recovered.<ref name="TikTok" />

Politics and activism

In 1963, Francis recorded "In the Summer of His Years", a tribute to the recently assassinated president John F. Kennedy, which became one of the first charity singles.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The following year, she appeared at a presidential campaign rally for Lyndon B. Johnson's election bid, singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Francis supported Richard Nixon's [[Richard Nixon 1968 presidential campaign|1968Template:Nbspbid]] for the presidency, and she recorded a campaign song for him.<ref>Tsioulcas, Anastasia. "The Long, Strange History of Campaign Endorsement Songs", KQED-FM. September 27, 2016. Retrieved July 11, 2020.</ref>

She also performed for the United Service Organizations,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and was the spokeswoman for Mental Health America's trauma campaign in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In a 2011Template:Nbspinterview, Francis described herself as "a die-hard liberal".<ref name="village">Template:Cite web</ref>

Lawsuits

On NovemberTemplate:Nbsp27, 2002, Francis filed suit against Universal Music Group (UMG). She alleged that the label had underreported and underpaid her artist royalties, and had inflicted severe emotional distress and violated her moral rights when, without her permission, it synchronized several of her songs into "sexually themed" movies: the 1994Template:Nbspfilm Postcards from America, the 1996Template:Nbspfilm The Craft, and the 1999Template:Nbspfilm Jawbreaker.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This suit was dismissed.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Francis also sued the producers of Jawbreaker for using her song "Lollipop Lips", which is heard during a sex scene.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Illness and death

Francis suffered a hip injury in earlyTemplate:Nbsp2025 and subsequently required a wheelchair; she was undergoing stem cell therapy and had hopes of fully recovering as recently as May.<ref name="TikTok" /> In late JuneTemplate:Nbsp2025, she stated she had been experiencing pelvic pain on her right side and was advised that it was due to a fracture. She said that she would need to rely on her wheelchair longer than anticipated while recovering. She was hospitalized in Florida on JulyTemplate:Nbsp2 due to a recurrence of extreme pain. She underwent a series of tests and examinations while in intensive care and was later transferred to a private room. In a Facebook post, she speculated that her symptoms might be related to the fracture.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On JulyTemplate:Nbsp4, she reported feeling much better after a good night. She was later discharged from the hospital but soon began to deteriorate and lost consciousness for the final time on JulyTemplate:Nbsp14.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Francis died in Pompano Beach, Florida, on JulyTemplate:Nbsp16, 2025, at the age of 87.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Her longtime friend and publicist Ron Roberts announced her death the following day and later confirmed that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia the day before she died.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> By the time of her death, Francis had become one of the best-selling music artists in history, exceeding 200Template:Nbspmillion records sold during her career.<ref name="j923">Template:Cite news</ref> Her crypt is at The Garden of Boca Raton Cemetery in Boca Raton.

Recognition

In 2001, "Who's Sorry Now?" was named one of the Songs of the Century.<ref>Mosiello, Laura; Reynolds, Susan (2009). The Portable Italian Mamma: Guilt, Pasta, and When Are You Giving Me Grandchildren?. Simon and Schuster. Retrieved July 7, 2020.</ref>

A "Connie Francis Way" street sign is displayed at the corner of Greylock Parkway and Forest Street in Belleville, New Jersey, near the house in which she grew up.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Year	Award giving body	Category	Nominated work	Results
1969	Awit Awards	Female Recording Artist of the Year (Foreign Division)	Template:N/A	Template:Won
2009	Italian Walk of Fame	Celebrity Inductee	Template:N/A	Template:Won

External links

• Template:Official website
• Template:AllMusic
• Template:Discogs artist
• Template:IMDb name
• Template:Usurped, a pictorial discography showing albums and singles, along with studio photos and complete liner notes which document Francis's work in the 1960s with this arranger/conductor