Gen z is going wild for connie francis’ ‘pretty little baby’ — but song doesn’t scratch the surface of tragic life filled with murder, heartbreak

Who’s sorry now? Not Connie Francis. The Jersey girl was a pop superstar of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s with hits such as “Who’s Sorry Now?” and “Stupid Cupid.” She retired after a life filled

with both immense success and incredible tragedy, including being raped and her brother’s murder. Now, at age 87, she’s back on the charts with a song she hardly recalls cutting. Her

little-known B-side “Pretty Little Baby” — originally recorded in 1961 when JFK was President and Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” was plugging young Connie’s records — has gone viral on

TikTok. More than 2 million videos using the song have been posted to the social network, and the tune is now trending on Spotify’s Viral 50. The lyrics include “You can ask the flowers/I

sit for hours/Telling all the bluebirds … Pretty little baby, I’m so in love with you” making it an ideal soundtrack for videos of pets, babies and date night prep. The octogenarian has been

shocked by the song’s sudden success, calling it “so unexpected” on her official Facebook page. “My initial response was to ask [about TikTok] ‘What’s that?’” she wrote. “I am thrilled and

overwhelmed at the success of ‘Pretty Little Baby.’ I recorded that song 63 years ago, and to know that an entire new generation now knows who I am, and my music, is thrilling to me.” 

EXPLORE MORE In her heyday, Francis was, of course, quite well known. With golden oldies such as “Lipstick on Your Collar,” and “Stupid Cupid,” she had a remarkable 15 Top 10 hits — topped

only by Elvis Presley, who had 16. Born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero, her career began at age 4 when her father, an Italian immigrant and roofer, began taking her to talent shows to

compete. But the fame and success that followed was marred by shocking crimes and misfortune. In 1974, a few weeks shy of her 38th birthday, Francis was appearing at the Westbury Music Fair.

A knife-wielding man broke into her room at the nearby Howard Johnson Motor Lodge at 5:30 in the morning and violently raped her, then tied her to a chair, bound her hands behind her back,

and covered her with a mattress. The man fled with her mink coat and jewelry, and the police never found him. Emotionally and physically debilitated by the attack, Francis suffered a

breakdown — lying in bed for months and never leaving home. She hid from the world for seven years before she appeared again on stage, choosing, bravely, the Westbury music venue near where

she had been attacked. She sued the motel chain for failing to protect her and was awarded nearly $1.5 million. Not long after the rape, her third husband, Joseph Garzilli, walked out on her

after she financed his successful travel business. She later told The New York Times that his last words to her were, “You’ve become a loser and I don’t like losers.” Her first two

marriages each lasted just a few months. In press interviews and later in her bestselling 1984 memoir, “Who’s Sorry Now?” she revealed that she was in psychotherapy for a number of years and

saw psychiatrist after psychiatrist. In March 1981, Connie’s beloved brother, lawyer George Franconero, was gunned down by two men outside his home in a ritzy section of North Caldwell,

N.J. The assailants fled in a car, and George was found bleeding by his wife. He was just 40 years old. The shooting was considered by authorities to be a mob hit. In the past, George was

said to have given information to a state commission about alleged organized-crime dealings, and feared for his life. At the time of his death, he was facing a two-to-three year prison term

on a land fraud conviction in Morris County, N.J. In 1978, he had pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges, and received a two-year suspended prison sentence and three years’ probation. Of all

the men in her life, Connie’s true love was Bobby Darin, with whom she had a brief romance. They first met when he came to her office in 1956 to show her a song he had written. The two had

an immediate connection, and would often exchange love letters.. But their dreams for the future sadly ended in December 1973, when Darin, who had had rheumatic fever as a child, died

unexpectedly after heart surgery. The “Mack the Knife” singer, who won two Grammys and was nominated for an Oscar, was just 37. “He was very sweet in all his letters,” Francis wrote in 2017

tell-all memoir, “Among My Souvenirs.” “In one he wrote that he knew his feelings were genuine, and that every time he thought of me, he felt a lump in his throat like the one you get when

you’re going to cry.”