Connie Francis virtually transported herself through radio waves almost every other Sunday in Bengali homes — wallowing in the smell of jhinge posto and mutton curry — singing songs like Stupid Cupid, Who’s Sorry Now? and Lipstick On Your Collar through Musical Bandbox on All India Radio. The voice that saw a revival earlier this year through TikTok and Instagram Reels has been silenced.
She died at age 87. Her publicist, Ron Roberts, announced her death in a post on Facebook but did not cite a cause.
Even without visiting India, her music built up a substantial following through the late 1950s till the mid-60s, at a time when Elvis Presley had shifted the gears on his hips, moving from making rock-and-roll records to delivering mostly forgettable Hollywood films, while the Beatles from Liverpool were reshaping the music world and Bob Dylan-Joan Baez were burning politicians with their revolutionary lyrics. Her music was of teenage love and heartbreak.
Consider, for instance, the pop music chart in India on December 18, 1961 (courtesy HMV’s The Voice magazine). Sitting pretty on top was Francis with the song Together, followed by Ricky Valance, Alma Cogan, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, and the group The Four Preps with the song Calcutta. She also owned the number-eight spot that week with Breakin’ In A Brand New Broken Heart.
Francis was the hitmaker who also found some success on screen, though Jamboree and Rock, Rock, Rock sank at the box office fast enough for her to even think of giving it all up to pursue a career in medicine.
Her fortune changed when the song Who’s Sorry Now? released in 1957, followed by Stupid Cupid the next year. The songs were different from what was coming out of Memphis, where Sun Records and Stax Records were moulding rock and roll and Southern soul, respectively.
She was soon off on a European tour and then had prime TV appearances, like on The Dick Clark Show and Ed Sullivan Show.
Hollywood called again, and she responded with the film Where The Boys Are. The year 1961 became a banner year all around. She wrote her first book, For Every Young Heart, and then signed a multi-million-dollar contract with MGM Records.
The 1960s were also the time when her political allegiance shone through.
Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign attracted the likes of Francis, Pat Boone and John Wayne. Her voice is heard on a Nixon campaign in which she sings that the man, who later became the focus of the Watergate Scandal, would set things right if elected President.
But it was the 1970s that changed her life forever. Still a big draw on the live music circuit, she had completed a concert at the Westbury Music Fair in November 1974. That night, she was raped at knife-point in her room at a lodge. For a while, she became a recluse.
Her third husband, whose business she bankrolled, left. In 1981, her brother, George Franconero, was shot to death in front of his house.
To make matters worse, she thought her voice was fading.
After several operations, she could sing again. Her comeback didn’t reflect the success she enjoyed a couple of decades earlier.
Earlier this year, one of her lesser-known songs, Pretty Little Baby, was rediscovered by a younger generation through TikTok and Instagram. She had almost forgotten about the 1962 song.
Since it was recorded in several languages, the track enjoyed a second life, to the point that Francis joined TikTok.
Born to an Italian-American family, Francis’s father encouraged her to participate in local talent contests. Life wasn’t easy, but she had a dream.
“My father’s dream may have been for me to one day have my own ‘Accordion School of Music’ in Newark. But my dream, all my life, was to take bows. Now this dream of mine didn’t necessarily have to be in show business, but there simply had to be some other job, hopefully as a doctor in research — some other really good reason in any area where I’d be destined to always take a lot of bows,” she wrote in her book Among My Souvenirs.
It’s time to take a bow, Connie Francis.