Connie Francis, whose hit songs included ‘Who’s Sorry Now?’ and ‘Pretty Little Baby,’ dies at 87

FILE - Singer Connie Francis performs during the dress rehearsal of the German TV show Summer Party of Folk Music in Magdeburg eastern Germany June AP Photo Eckehard Schulz file AP ECKEHARD SCHULZ FILE - Singer Connie Francis performs during the dress rehearsal of the German TV show Summer Party of Folk Music in Magdeburg eastern Germany June AP Photo Eckehard Schulz file AP ECKEHARD SCHULZ LOS ANGELES AP Connie Francis the wholesome pop star of the s and s whose hits included Pretty Little Baby and Who s Sorry Now the latter would serve as an ironic title for a personal life filled with heartbreak and tragedy has died at age Her death was reported Thursday by her friend and publicist Ron Roberts who did not this instant provide additional details Earlier this month Francis posted that she had been hospitalized with extreme pain Francis had gained renewed attention in newest months after Pretty Little Baby became a sensation on TikTok with Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner among the various celebrities citing it I m flabbergasted and excited about the huge buzz my recording of Pretty Little Baby is making all over the world she noted in a video on TikTok which she had joined in response to the song s unexpected revival To think that a song I recorded years ago is captivating new generations of audiences is truly overwhelming for me Francis was a top performer of the pre-Beatles era rarely out of the charts from - Able to appeal to both young people and adults she had more than a dozen Top hits starting with Who s Sorry Now and including the No songs Don t Break the Heart That Loves You and The Heart Has a Mind of Its Own Like other teen favorites of her time she also starred in several films including Where the Boys Are and Follow the Boys The dark-haired singer was just when she signed a contract with MGM Records following appearances on several TV variety shows Her earliest recordings attracted little attention but then she issued her version of Who s Sorry Now an old ballad by Ted Snyder Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby It too had little success initially until Dick Clark played it on his American Bandstand show in Clark featured her repeatedly on American Bandstand and she explained in later years that without his advocacy she would have abandoned her music career Francis followed with such teen hits as Stupid Cupid Everybody s Somebody s Fool and Lipstick on Your Collar Her records became hits worldwide as she re-recorded versions of her original songs in Italian and Spanish among other languages Her concerts around the country hastily sold out Meanwhile a romance bloomed with fellow teen idol Bobby Darin who had volunteered to write songs for her But when her father heard rumors that the pair was planning a wedding he stormed into a rehearsal and pulled a gun on Darin ending their relationship and seeming to set Francis on a pained and traumatic path She chronicled specific of it in her autobiography Who s Sorry Now My personal life is a regret from A to Z she recounted The Associated Press in the year the book came out I realized I had allowed my father to exert too much influence over me Her father George Franconero was a roofing contractor from New Jersey who played the accordion She was just when her father presented her with a child-size accordion as soon as she began to show an aptitude for music When she was he began booking humming dates for her going on to become her manager Although her acting career had faded by the mid- s Francis was still popular on the concert circuit when she appeared at the Westbury Music Center in Westbury New York in She had returned to her hotel room and was asleep when a man broke in and raped her at knifepoint He was never captured Francis sued the hotel alleging its shield was faulty and a jury awarded her million in The two sides then settled out of court for as an appeal was pending She disclosed the attack destroyed her marriage and put her through years of emotional turmoil She suffered tragedy in when her brother George was shot to death as he was leaving his New Jersey home Later that decade her father had her committed to a psychiatric hospital where she was diagnosed as manic-depressive At one point she tried to kill herself by swallowing dozens of sleeping tablets After three days in a coma she recovered Around that time she wrote to President Ronald Reagan and volunteered to help others calling herself America s majority famous crime victim Reagan appointed her to a task force on violent crime I don t want people to feel sorry for me she notified The New York Times in I have my voice a gift from God I took for granted before He gave it back to me She was married four times and would say that only her third husband Joseph Garzilli was worth the trouble The other marriages each lasted less than a year Concetta Rosemarie Franconero was born on Dec in Newark New Jersey At age she began appearing on television programs including Arthur Godfrey s Talent Scouts and The Perry Como Show It was Godfrey who suggested she shorten her last name National Writer Hillel Italie contributed reporting from New York Bob Thomas a longtime Hollywood reporter for The Associated Press was the principal writer of this obituary and died in Source