Connie Francis, who dominated the pop charts in the late 1950s and early ’60s with sobbing ballads like “Who’s Sorry Now?” and “Don’t Break the Heart that Loves You,” as well as up-tempo soft-rock tunes like “Stupid Cupid,” “Lipstick on Your Collar,” and “Vacation,” died on Wednesday. She was 87.
Her publicist, Ron Roberts, announced her death in a post on Facebook.
Petite and pretty, Ms. Francis had an easy, fluid vocal style, a powerful set of lungs and a natural way with a wide variety of material: old standards, rock ‘n’ roll, country and western, and popular songs in Italian, Yiddish, Swedish and a dozen other languages.
Between 1958 and 1964, when her brand of pop music began to fall out of favor, Ms. Francis was the most popular female singer in the United States, selling 40 million records. Her 35 Top-40 hits during that period included 16 songs in the top 10, and three No. 1 hits: “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” and “Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You.”
She was best known for the pulsing, emotional delivery that coaxed every last teardrop from slow ballads like “Who’s Sorry Now?”, and made “Where the Boys Are” a potent anthem of teenage longing. Sighing youngsters thrilled to every throb in “My Happiness” and “Among My Souvenirs.”
“What struck me was the purity of the voice, the emotion, the perfect pitch and intonation,” said Neil Sedaka, who wrote “Stupid Cupid” and “Where the Boys Are” with Howard Greenfield. “It was clear, concise, beautiful. When she sang ballads, they just soared.”
Her song “Pretty Little Baby” had a TikTok-fueled resurgence this year, trending for weeks on the social media app and soaring to top spots in Spotify’s Viral 50 global and U.S. lists.
Concetta Franconero was born on Dec. 12, 1938, in Newark and grew up in the Ironbound neighborhood. Her father, the son of Italian immigrants, was a dockworker and a roofer who loved to play the concertina, and he put an accordion in his daughter’s hands when she was 3.
From that moment, he hovered over her musical development and her career, putting her onstage at local lodges and churches. She made her stage debut at 4, singing “Anchors Aweigh” and accompanying herself on the accordion at Olympic Park in Irvington, N.J.
At 11, she was a regular on a “Marie Moser’s Starlets,” a local television variety show. After appearing on Ted Mack’s “Original Amateur Hour” and “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.” Mack advised her to lose the accordion, and Godfrey advised her to change her last name to “Francis.” She then embarked on a four-year run as one of the child entertainers on “Startime.”
As she outgrew the child-star category, Ms. Francis obtained forged documents and began singing in clubs and lounges. Imitating the vocals styles of stars like Patti Page and Rosemary Clooney, she made demonstration tapes for music publishers who wanted to place their songs with famous singers.
A full obituary will be published later.
The post Connie Francis, Whose Ballads Dominated ’60s Pop Music, Dies at 87 appeared first on New York Times.
