Pop singer and actress Connie Francis, 87, died on July 16. Mixing sweetness and toughness, and a strong, clear voice, Francis became a star in the late 1950s with such hits as “Who’s Sorry Now,” “Heartaches,” “Stupid Cupid,” “Where the Boys Are,” ‘V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N,” “Lipstick on Your Collar,” and “Everybody's Somebody's Fool,” among others. Never a leading lady or sex symbol, she played comedy sidekick in such films as Where the Boys Are, Follow the Boys, Looking for Love and When the Boys Meet the Girls. Francis’s private life was tinged with drama: four marriages; a stormy romance with Bobby Darin; a kidnapping and rape in 1974; the Mafia killing her brother in 1981; and hip surgery, cancer, and tuberculosis. Francis credited her father for her success, telling interviewer Gary James, “He had insisted on ‘Who's Sorry Now’ for a year and a half. I had gone through 18 bomb sides, nine releases on MGM. We were down to our last recording. My father said ‘Look, dummy’—he had this great, but very elusive charm—'You picked out 18 duds. Let me pick one song. Sing this song. For a year and a half I've been trying to get you to sing this song.' I said, 'Don't tell me it's ‘Who's Sorry Now’ again.' I said, 'Please Daddy. The kids will laugh me right off American Bandstand.' He said, 'Unless you do this song, sister, the only way you'll get on American Bandstand is if you sit on top of the TV set.'
Connie Francis sings “Who’s Sorry Now” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ws60MDF7OY&list=RD5Ws60MDF7OY&start_radio=1
