Connie Francis died on July 17, 2025. I have been writing the Radio Faux Show for over 4 years, and Francis has been spotlighted several times during this time. Here is what I wrote when I first spotlighted Francis in Radio Faux Show Volume 1, Number 32 (October 10, 2021): Female Artists from A to Z (Part 1 – A to M).

Connie Francis began her professional career in 1953 at the age of sixteen and spent four years attempting to break through onto the pop charts. During those years, she worked as voice-over talent by recording the vocals for songs that Hollywood actresses could lip sync to in their films, and she had a minor hit as a duet with Marvin Rainwater (peaked at #93, and then went on to sell over a million copies after she became a pop star). In October 1957, during what was considered her last recording session if she didn’t produce a hit, she recorded a cover of a 1923 song that was famous with people her parents’ age called “Who’s Sorry Now.” She thought that covering an old song her parents liked was a bad idea, and at first the single was a flop just like all the rest of her releases. Then in February 1958, Dick Clark played the song on American Bandstand and by the summer it had sold over a million copies. She spent the next four years as the #1 female pop star in America, was also extremely popular in the UK, and by 1964 had become the most successful female pop star in history with 35 Top 40 hits. Although her Top 40 career ended in 1964 (as did most older artists after The Beatles changed pop music forever), she continued to record international hits into the ’70s and was a huge concert draw both at home and abroad.

The rest of the Connie Francis story is heartbreaking. In 1974, she was raped at her hotel room after a concert in New York and was almost murdered by suffocation. The next fifteen years of her life included issues with depression caused by her rape and attempted murder, a 4-year loss of her voice due to nasal surgery, and the loss of her beloved brother after being assassinated by the mafia. Somehow, in the end, she was able to overcome her difficulties and has spent the last thirty-plus years making occasional sold out appearances. She has spent most of her life as an advocate for victim’s rights, reform of the criminal justice system’s inability to resolve violent crime, and mental health.

Connie Francis’ record of thirty-five Top 40 hits (all recorded in a six year period) was not surpassed until Madonna released hit number thirty-six in 1997 (“Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”), fourteen years into her career. The music of Connie Francis certainly sounds like it is from another time, especially compared to the pop music of the 21st century, but she was the first female pop artist to show that a woman can be just as successful as a man in the world of pop music, and everyone from Madonna to Beyoncé to Olivia Rodrigo owes her a debt of gratitude for leading the way.

• In Memoriam