Connie Francis, Iconic Singer And Actress, Has Passed Away
Francis became the first woman ever to top the Billboard Hot 100 with 1960’s ‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool.’
Connie Francis, the iconic American pop singer and actress who became one of the best-selling female artists of the late 1950s and early 60s, has passed away.
During a remarkable career spanning almost seven decades, Francis went on to sell more than 200 million records worldwide. In 1960, at the height of her popularity, she became the first woman in history to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 when her signature hit “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” topped the chart. She enjoyed two further U.S. No. 1 singles with “My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own” and “Don’t Break The Heart That Loves You,” and eventually chalked up a staggering 53 career hits in total.
Born Concetta Rose Maria Franconero in Newark, New Jersey in 1937, Francis displayed precocious talent as a singer as a child and she was already a veteran of local talent shows by the time she adopted her stage name in 1950. Her appearances on NBC’s variety show Startime Kids from 1953 on led to her signing with MGM in 1955.
Francis’ initial series of 45s largely went under the radar, though she made her Billboard Hot 100 debut in the fall of 1957 with “The Majesty Of Love,” a duet with country/rockabilly star Marvin Rainwater that went on to sell over a million copies. Francis made a more lasting breakthrough with “Who’s Sorry Now?” which – following exposure on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand in January 1958 – shot to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as topping the U.K. Singles Chart.
After the success of “Who’s Sorry Now?” Francis remained a near-constant presence on the Billboard Hot 100 until the mid-60s. In addition to her three No.1s, she scored further Top 10 placings with classic pop hits such as “My Happiness,” “Lipstick On Your Collar,” “Among My Souvenirs” and “Second Hand Love.” Her multi-lingual skills also led her to become one of the first American artists to record regularly in other languages. 1959’s Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites, peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 81 weeks, becoming her most successful album.
In addition to her mainstream pop career, Francis acted in several teen-oriented movies, notably Where the Boys Are (1960), with the title song providing her with another U.S. Top 5 hit. By the mid-1960s, however, due to changing musical trends – not least the British Invasion led by The Beatles – Francis’s success on Billboard’s Hot 100 gradually waned and she scored her final U.S. Top 40 hit with “Be Anything (But Mine)” in 1964. Nonetheless, Francis remained a much sought-after live performer and her enduring popularity overseas led to television specials in countries around the world such as the U.K., Germany, Spain and Italy. She also maintained a loyal fanbase in the Eastern European nations, then situated behind the Iron Curtain. Prior to the fall of Russian communism early in the 1990s, many of her recordings were made available on state-owned record labels such as Melodiya in the former Soviet Union and on Jugoton in former Yugoslavia, even though most western pop music was frowned on by the authorities in these nations at the time.
Despite battling a series of personal problems (and temporarily losing her voice due to nasal surgery during the late 70s) Francis continued to record and perform live during her later years. Her autobiography Who’s Sorry Now? was a New York Times best-seller in 1984 and in 1989, she recorded a double album Where the Hits Are, containing re-recordings of 18 of her biggest hits, as well as six classic pop songs she had always wanted to record such as “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” and “Torn Between Two Lovers.” In 2004, meanwhile, she delighted audiences during a headlining run in Las Vegas and she later returned to the desert city to perform with Dionne Warwick in 2010.
In 2018, Francis announced her retirement, yet in the summer of 2025 she returned to the limelight when her song “Pretty Little Baby” (originally recorded for 1962’s Connie Francis Sings “Second Hand Love”) went viral on TikTok, appearing in videos by celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner and on millions of other accounts. The song has since racked up over 25 billion views on TikTok, introducing Connie Francis to a whole new generation of fans in the process.
Responding to this remarkable latter day rise in popularity in an interview with People, Francis said “To think that a song I recorded 63 years ago is touching the hearts of millions of people is truly awesome. It is an amazing feeling. It’s an honor.”
