Sixty-four years ago, Connie Francis recorded “Pretty Little Baby” as one of dozens of songs in a marathon recording session that yielded three albums within two weeks. It did not, at the time, feel like a song that had the makings of a hit, so it landed on the B-side of the 1962 single “I’m Gonna Be Warm This Winter” that was released in Britain. Since then, it was more or less overlooked.
Then came TikTok and its canny ability to resurrect decades-old songs for a new generation.
Over the last few weeks, “Pretty Little Baby” has been trending on the social media app — it has been featured as the sound in more than 600,000 TikTok posts and soared to top spots in Spotify’s Viral 50 global and U.S. lists — bolstered by celebrities and influencers, like Nara Smith, Kylie Jenner, and Kim Kardashian and her daughter North, who have posted videos of themselves lip-syncing to it.
The ABBA singer Agnetha Fältskog used the song for a clip on TikTok in which she said Ms. Francis had long been her favorite singer. And the Broadway actress Gracie Lawrence, who is currently playing Ms. Francis in “Just in Time” — a play about Bobby Darin, Ms. Francis’s onetime romantic partner — also posted a video of herself lip-syncing to it, in her 1960s costume and hair.
The song’s current popularity is an unexpected twist to Ms. Francis’s long and illustrious career. In 1960, she became the first female singer to top the Billboard Hot 100 and, by the time she was 26 years old, she had sold 42 million records and had two more singles top the Billboard charts. But this particular song, which she recorded in seven different languages, remained so obscure that Ms. Francis, 87, told People magazine that she had forgotten ever recording it.
Amid the frenzy of the unexpected attention, Ms. Francis is trying to figure out how to turn this sudden attention into opportunities for herself. She and her publicist, Ron Roberts, enlisted Mr. Roberts’s son to help them set up a TikTok account for her and, in a phone interview on Thursday, she said she had been mulling the idea of emerging from retirement to do some kind of show in the next few months.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How does it feel now that this song is having a kind of resurgence?
Well, it’s not a resurgence because it never happened in the first place. It’s an obscure song on an album that I did — it wasn’t even a single record. It went unnoticed. Now it has 10 billion views.
How do you feel about that?
On top of the world and overwhelmed that a whole new generation of people know me and my music now.
In another interview, you mentioned that you forgot recording this song.
Yes, I had to play it to remember it.
What were your thoughts hearing it back?
It’s a cute song. I couldn’t imagine that it has the effect that it has worldwide on people — it’s hard to believe. I wanted something for the B-side of a single and I chose something that wouldn’t give my A-side any competition. I don’t even know the name of the record that I put it on. But I think it has a ring of innocence in this chaotic time and it connects with people.
I saw that you now have a TikTok account. Can we expect posts from you?
Yes, when my publicist Ron Roberts said I went viral on TikTok, I said, “What’s that?” That was my reaction. “What’s viral? What’s that?” I thought my computer had a virus or something. I didn’t know what he was talking about.
Are you using TikTok regularly now?
Yes, I think it’s great. I’m going to be putting a lot of different things on my TikTok now. Thank you, TikTok.
Alisha Haridasani Gupta is a Times reporter covering women’s health and health inequities.
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