When you’ve been on TikTok or Instagram in the previous couple of months, you may’ve heard the track ‘Fairly Little Child’ as a trending audio. Tragically, the singer behind the viral ’60s tune, Connie Francis, handed away this week. Connie, who claimed pop star fame within the Fifties, died at 87.
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Connie Francis’ good friend and publicist, Ron Roberts, introduced her loss of life on Thursday, July 17. Based on the Related Press, he didn’t instantly present extra particulars. Earlier this month, Francis posted that she had been hospitalized with “excessive ache.”
Earlier than Her Demise, Connie Reacted To ‘Fairly Little Child’ Going Viral
As talked about, the singer had gained renewed consideration in current months after ‘Fairly Little Child’ grew to become a sensation on TikTok. Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner had been among the many many celebrities citing it in movies. Francis had joined the platform in response to the track’s surprising recognition. She opened up about seeing her track pop after 63 years in her first TikTok video.
“I’m flabbergasted and excited in regards to the big buzz my 1962 recording of ‘Fairly Little Child’ is making all around the world,” she stated. “To suppose {that a} track I recorded 63 years in the past is charming new generations of audiences is really overwhelming for me.”
@connie_francis_official My because of you all for the large reception you’ve given to “Fairly Little Child”. I’m delighted to affix the TikTok Neighborhood and share this second with you.
Earlier than passing away, she uploaded three different movies to her TikTok account, together with her lip-syncing to ‘Fairly Little Child.’ The third submit was a close-up of a 1968 photograph, taken as a part of her album ‘Connie and Clyde.’ The ultimate submit she shared on June 26 was one other thanks to the celebrities who had posted content material utilizing her track.
@connie_francis_official Hello Everybody – I’m nonetheless astounded by the recognition of “Fairly Little Child”. My because of Kylie Jenner, Timothée Chalamet, Kim Kardashian, North West Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Agnetha Fältskog, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Gracie Lawrence, Shaq O’Neal & Jimmy Fallon and others for his or her inclusions within the movies that contributed to the 17 billion-plus performs that includes the track!
Connie Francis Was As soon as THAT GIRL In The Leisure Trade!
When you didn’t know, Connie Francis was a high performer of the pre-Beatles period. After appearances on a number of TV selection exhibits, Francis was simply 17 when she signed a contract with MGM Information. Her earliest recordings attracted little consideration, however then she launched her model of ‘Who’s Sorry Now?’, an outdated ballad by Ted Snyder, Bert Kalmar, and Harry Ruby. It, too, had little success initially till Dick Clark performed it on his ‘American Bandstand’ present in 1958. Clark featured her repeatedly on ‘American Bandstand.’ Connie stated in later years that with out his help, she would have deserted her music profession.
Francis adopted with such teen hits as ‘Silly Cupid,’ ‘Everyone’s Someone’s Idiot’ and ‘Lipstick on Your Collar.’ Her data grew to become hits worldwide as she re-recorded variations of her authentic songs in Italian and Spanish, amongst different languages. Her live shows across the nation rapidly bought out.
Between 1957 and 1964, Francis was hardly ever out of the charts. Her music had appealed to each younger folks and adults. She had greater than a dozen High 20 hits, beginning with ‘Who’s Sorry Now?’ and together with the No. 1 songs ‘Don’t Break the Coronary heart That Loves You’ and ‘The Coronary heart Has a Thoughts of Its Personal.’ Like different teen favorites of her time, she additionally starred in a number of movies. Her initiatives embrace ‘The place the Boys Are’ and ‘Observe the Boys.’
Singer Lived A Traumatic Life
Regardless of snatching hearts together with her tunes, Connie Francis’ private life was a rollercoaster journey crammed with tragedy. In her early days, she and fellow teen idol Bobby Darin labored collectively on songs. After falling in love, her father and supervisor, George Franconero, caught wind of the romance and a attainable marriage ceremony. Franconero reacted by storming a rehearsal and pulled a gun on Darin, which ended their teen romance.
“My private life is a remorse from A to Z,” she advised The Related Press in 1984, the 12 months her autobiography got here out. “I spotted I had allowed my father to exert an excessive amount of affect over me.”
Francis was nonetheless widespread on the live performance circuit when she appeared on the Westbury Music Middle in Westbury, New York, in 1974. She had returned to her lodge room and was asleep when a person broke in and raped her at knifepoint. The police by no means captured him. Francis sued the lodge, alleging its safety was defective, and a jury awarded her $2.5 million in 1976. The 2 sides then settled out of court docket for $1,475,000 as an attraction was pending. She stated the assault destroyed her marriage and put her by means of years of emotional turmoil.
Moreover, she suffered tragedy in 1981 when her brother George was shot to loss of life as he was leaving his New Jersey dwelling. Later that decade, her father had her dedicated to a psychiatric hospital, the place she was recognized as manic-depressive. At one level, she tried to kill herself by swallowing dozens of sleeping tablets. After three days in a coma, she recovered.
Round that point, she wrote to President Ronald Reagan and volunteered to assist others, calling herself “America’s most well-known crime sufferer.” Reagan appointed her to a activity power on violent crime.
“I don’t need folks to really feel sorry for me,” she advised The New York Instances in 1981. “I’ve my voice, a present from God I took with no consideration earlier than. He gave it again to me.”
Earlier than her loss of life, Connie Francis was married 4 instances. She typically stated that solely her third husband, Joseph Garzilli, was definitely worth the bother. The opposite marriages every lasted lower than a 12 months.
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Related Press former contributor Bob Thomas and Nationwide Author Hillel Italie contributed to this report by way of AP Newsroom.
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