Connie Francis, pop star of the 1950s and ‘60s has died at the age of 87.
According to Apnews, Radio DJ Bruce “Cousin Brucie” Morrow, a longtime friend, told The Associated Press that she died Wednesday at a hospital in Florida.
Morrow did not cite a specific cause of death, but Francis had posted on social media earlier this month that she had been hospitalized with “extreme pain.”
Francis had gained renewed attention in recent months after “Pretty Little Baby” became a sensation on TikTok, with Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner among the many celebrities citing it.
“I’m flabbergasted and excited about the huge buzz my 1962 recording of ‘Pretty Little Baby’ is making all over the world,” she said in a video on TikTok, which she had joined in response to the song’s unexpected revival.
“To think that a song I recorded 63 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 1957-64.
Able to appeal to both young people and adults, she had more than a dozen Top 20 hits, starting with “Who’s Sorry Now?” and including the No. 1 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 17 when she signed a contract with MGM Records following appearances on several TV variety shows.
Her records would go ahead and became hits worldwide as she re-recorded versions of her original songs in Italian and Spanish, among other languages. Her concerts around the country quickly 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 some of it in her autobiography, “Who’s Sorry Now?”
“My personal life is a regret from A to Z,” she told The Associated Press in 1984, the year the book came out. “I realized I had allowed my father to exert too much influence over 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.