OAN Staff Abril Elfi
10:30 AM – Thursday, July 17, 2025
Connie Francis, known for her hit songs such as “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” and “Pretty Little Baby,” has died at 87-years-old.
On Thursday, Ron Roberts, the president of Francis’ record label Concetta Records, announced her passing in a Facebook post.
“It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness that I inform you of the passing of my dear friend Connie Francis last night,” he wrote. “I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news. More details will follow later,” the message concluded.
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In early July, Francis, who first found fame in the 1950s, revealed she had been hospitalized for “extreme pain.” Francis was just 20-years-old when her song “Who’s Sorry Now?” became a hit in 1958, launching her career.
“I am back in hospital where I have been undergoing tests and checks to determine the cause(s) of the extreme pain I have been experiencing,” she wrote on Facebook. “I am pleased to advise that following a series of tests and examinations in Intensive Care, I have now been transferred to a private room.”
Her last post was on July 4th, two days after announcing her hospitalization. She had informed her fans that she was “feeling much better after a good night.”
Nonetheless, Roberts recently spoke with People Magazine, where he expressed that the legendary singer’s death was unfortunately “expected.”
“We were expecting it, unfortunately … they couldn’t locate where the pain was exactly,” Roberts said. “It’s been two months of the most extreme high then the most extreme low.”
Roberts also told the outlet that Francis began to “deteriorate” after leaving the hospital earlier this month, and that she was “unconscious” for at least two days before she died.
“She slipped away peacefully,” he stated.
Francis was best known for hit singles such as “My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own,” “Where the Boys Are,” “Don’t Break The Heart That Loves You,” “Lipstick on Your Collar,” and more.
In a 2018 interview with Fox News, Francis opened up about the story behind one of her biggest hits, “Who’s Sorry Now?”
“My father wanted me to record that song for a year and a half and I turned him down,” she told the outlet. “It was a square song, it was written during the 1920s, and the kids on ‘American Bandstand’ would laugh at me right out of the show. He said, ‘If you don’t sing this song, sister, the only way you’ll get on ‘American Bandstand’ is if you sit on top of the television set.’ So I did it as the last song.”
“I stretched the other songs before I got to ‘Who’s Sorry Now’ so there wouldn’t be time,” she continued. “But there were 16 minutes left. My father said, ‘If I have to nail you to that microphone, you’re gonna do ‘Who’s Sorry Now.’ So I did it. I didn’t like it… I remember that record had been out for three months and it went nowhere… But Dick Clark liked it… It was a cosmic moment for me. It’s a moment I’ll never forget. Because I knew in five seconds my life would never be the same. And it wasn’t. It was a happy shock.”
Additionally, in 2011, Francis said in an interview with Village Voice that she had faced a number of personal challenges throughout her life, including a suicide attempt in 1984, a rape assault in 1974, and family turmoil.
“To make a short story long, in the ’80s, I was involuntarily committed to mental institutions 17 times in nine years in five different states,” she said. “I was misdiagnosed as bipolar, ADD, ADHD, and a few other letters the scientific community had never heard of. A few years later, I was discovered to have had post-traumatic stress disorder following a horrendous string of events in my life.”
She is survived by a son, Joseph Garzilli Jr.
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