‘Pretty Little Baby’ Singer Connie Francis Dead At 87

Pop singer Connie Francis, best known for her iconic single “Pretty Little Baby,” has died at the age of 87.

The celeb is also known for being the first female singer to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Besides “Pretty Little Baby,” Francis is known for the single “Who’s Sorry Now?” and for singing the theme song for the film “Where the Boys Are” (1961). She also acted in the movie.

Her death was announced via Ron Roberts, president of her label Concetta Records, in a Facebook post. 

“It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness that I inform you of the passing of my dear friend Connie Francis last night. I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news,” the update said. “More details will follow later.”

Francis had previously shared a health update with her fans in March, saying she was in a wheelchair “to avoid undue pressure on a troublesome, painful hip.”

Her last social media update was shared on July 4 when she said, “Today I am feeling much better after a good night.”

The singer was born Concetta Franconero in Newark, New Jersey, and later changed her name at the suggestion of TV host Arthur Godfrey, per NPR. Francis became massively popular at a young age, selling more than 40 million records by the age of 25.

Besides music, she had a short-lived acting career and appeared in several romantic comedies. The outlet also noted several major tragedies that happened to her over the years.

For example, Francis’ good friend was strangled to death in 1967, and her brother was murdered in 1981.

Francis had cosmetic surgery on her nose in 1967, which left her unable to sing. It would take three more surgeries over the years to correct the damage.

“I couldn’t sing in air conditioned rooms,” she told NPR in 1982. “Which presented great problems in Las Vegas. They had to shut the air conditioning off, and the people would wilt. And I would, and the band would.”

Then in 1974, the singer was raped at knifepoint at a Howard Johnson motel after singing at a music festival. She wound up receiving $2.5 million, the largest settlement for a rape case in history to that point.

“There was a doctor in New York who said that he could correct this,” she told NPR. “So I went for surgery, and two weeks before I went in for that surgery, I was recording an Italian album, and two weeks after the surgery, I went back to finish the overdub of the album, and that was one of the most terrifying moments of my life, because my voice was gone.”

She continued, “So, it wasn’t the rape that affected my voice. It was definitely the surgery. And I had a range of about seven notes. There was not one song I could sing from beginning to end. Oh, incidentally, two months after I’d lost my voice, my husband got up and left, and he just left. And that was the end of that.”

Francis has been out of the industry for years after retiring to Florida, but has become a household name among the youth after the song “Pretty Little Baby” went viral on TikTok recently.

The singer addressed the newfound popularity of the song. “My thanks to TikTok and its members for the wonderful, and oh so unexpected, reception given to my 1961 recording ‘Pretty Little Baby,'” she wrote on Facebook in May.

“The first I learned of it was when Ron called to advise me that I had ‘a viral hit.’ Clearly out of touch with present-day music statistics terminology, my initial response was to ask: ‘What’s that?'”

“Thank you everyone!” she added.