Pretty little Connie Francis gone at 87

It was only a month or two ago when the music world went agog over the surprising success of the song Pretty Little Baby by Connie Francis. Recorded in 1962, it was a composition by Don Stirling and Bill Nauman that was meant to be a filler for an album titled “Connie Francis Sings Second Hand Love.”

You know how it is with long-play albums which usually contain 10 or 12 songs. Producers would put in one or two tracks with a strong chance of becoming a hit. All of the other cuts are so-so fillers. That was how Pretty Little Baby was born. A filler. It was later released as the B side to a song titled I’m Gonna Be Warm This Winter.

Nobody remembers I’m Gonna Be Warm This Winter anymore, but everybody knows Pretty Little Baby. The song became a favorite among TikTokers who used it as background music to reels featuring their babies, pets and anybody or any situation that can be described as cute. Would you believe even Kim Kardashian uploaded a video on TikTok using Pretty Little Baby. So, 63 years later the song went viral online and then finally entered the current hit charts. And did it globally at that.

Suddenly a new generation all over the world was listening to Connie Francis. She was one of the most popular girl singers of the late ‘50s and ‘60s eras. She was often described as the female Elvis Presley because she sold a lot of records and headlined concerts. She was the first female to have No. 1-selling singles. She even appeared in the movies. Remember Where the Boys Are? And like the Pelvis, she could sing anything. Pop, rock and roll, standards, country, novelties and she did it in English, Italian, Spanish and other languages. Even Yiddish.

So aside from Pretty Little Baby, her fans also discovered Who’s Sorry Now, Stupid Cupid, My Happiness, Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool, My Happiness, Lipstick on Your Collar, Among My Souvenirs, Where the Boys Are, Never on Sunday, Frankie, Al Di La and so many others. Think of over 100 million records sold. Pretty Little Baby was not among them but that all changed because of TikTok and it is now her biggest hit.

As Connie said in interviews that came in the wake of Pretty Little Baby’s success, she herself had already forgotten she ever recorded the song. But she was happy about its success. She even made a Facebook account, joined TikTok and took the trouble to interact with her new fans. Connie, a chirper 87-year-old was once more a star.

Unfortunately Connie passed away last July 16 in Florida, where she had been living these past years. She was taken to the hospital to fix a fracture that had kept her wheelchair-bound but was found to be also suffering from pneumonia. Sad news. Losing Connie while on her second wind. But then it can be said that she made her final bow in a blaze of glory befitting the big star she was.

Connie was born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero on Dec. 12, 1937 to an Italian-American family in Newark, New Jersey. Trained by her father she started out singing as a child while accompanying herself on the accordion which her father also taught her how to play. Her father was later advised to ditch Connie’s accordion. So, she dropped the instrument, changed her name to Connie Francis and made the rounds of singing contests.

Her first recording and first hit song was the standard Who’s Sorry Now. It was followed by Stupid Cupid, which was composed by her good friends Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield.

And it was uphill for Connie from then on. She did have her share of sad moments along with non-selling tunes later, but Pretty Little Baby became her best revenge.