Chart-topping singer Connie Francis, best known for her hit song ‘Pretty Little Baby,’ has died at the age of 87.
Francis’ death was confirmed by her friend Ron Roberts, who also serves as the president of Concetta Records, which the singer belonged to, on Facebook
He shared with his followers on July 17th: “It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness that I inform you of the passing of my dear friend Connie Francis last night.”
Roberts’ message, which was later shared on Francis’ official Facebook page, concluded, “I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news. More details will follow later.”
Earlier this month, it was confirmed that Francis had been hospitalised. However, on July 4th, she took to Facebook to share a positive update, stating she was “feeling much better after a good night” after previously “undergoing tests and checks to determine the cause(s) of the extreme pain I have been experiencing”.
No cause of death has been confirmed.
Francis first rose to prominence in the late 1950s. In 1960, she made chart history by becoming the first female solo artist to have a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool’. She later topped the same chart with ‘My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own’ and ‘Don’t Break The Heart That Loves You’.
Tragically, in 1974, Francis was raped in Long Island, which caused immense trauma to the singer. However, she later became an advocate for rape victims and also played a role in Ronald Reagan’s presidential administration task force tackling violent crime. Her career again stalled in 1981 when her brother, George, was killed by the mafia.
Francis was open about her personal struggles, which she wrote about at length in her 1984 memoirs, Who’s Sorry Now?
“To make a short story long, in the ’80s, I was involuntarily committed to mental institutions 17 times in nine years in five different states,” she explained to the Village Voice in 2011. She continued: “I was misdiagnosed as bipolar, ADD, ADHD, and a few other letters the scientific community had never heard of. A few years later, I was discovered to have had post-traumatic stress disorder following a horrendous string of events in my life.”
While Francis did return to music, she eventually retired in 2018. Earlier this year, she unexpectedly returned to public consciousness when ‘Pretty Little Baby’, a B-side from 1962, went viral on TikTok and has now been streamed more than 80 million times on Spotify alone.
According to Francis, she had forgotten entirely about the song’s existence until she heard it again, telling Billboard in May: “I remembered after I heard it. It’s just a blessing to know that kindergarten kids know me and my music now. It’s really thrilling.”