Pretty Little Baby (1962) – Connie Francis

“I had to listen to it to remember. To think that a song I recorded 63 years ago is touching the hearts of millions of people is truly awesome. It is an amazing feeling.”

I was shocked to learn, while researching this article, that Connie Francis passed away on Wednesday, July 16th. How I missed this very sad news in my usual news feeds is anyone’s guess. Connie had been receiving treatment for pelvic pain due to a fracture, and during her hospital stay she was diagnosed with pneumonia and passed away on Wednesday night. The BBC article I found about her passing also mentions how today’s song became a viral hit online in May – that’s actually how my daughter discovered it and then shared it with me. So, to pay tribute to the shining light and enigma that was Connie Francis, here is Pretty Little Baby.

If any song captures the sweet charm of young love and the youthful sparkle of Connie Francis herself, Pretty Little Baby surely does. After my daughter sent me this song, I sent her back another Connie tune I wrote about here not long ago – My Happiness. That article dives more into her early career and rise to fame. But this piece focuses more on her struggles later in life – stories that are not easy to read, especially when you think about how she managed to keep going right up to the grand old age of 87.

Roll back a couple of decades and I could never have imagined myself enjoying these kinds of old-school, easy-listening pop songs. But getting older has a way of softening us, making us nostalgic for simpler times. Take now for example, I don’t like when people abuse language and create pseudo realities, I prefer when Connie sings: Don’t you know it’s much more fun to love / While the heart is young and gay? Pretty Little Baby is almost like a lullaby. I love the way Connie’s voice wraps around you – so warm and comforting, like something you want to just curl up with.

Just last month Francis said she had been surprised by the sudden success of a track that had originally been a b-side. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t even remember the song!” she told People magazine. She also said, “What’s viral? What’s that?” Pretty Little Baby was one of the 40 songs the 24 year-old Connie Francis had recorded during several recording sessions at MGM Records over four days in August 1961. The song was included in her 1962 album Connie Francis Sings Second Hand Love & Other Hits.

Connie’s fame faded a bit during the mid-1960s as acts like The Beatles and Bob Dylan took over the charts. She also lost her voice temporarily following nasal surgery. In 1974, she made a comeback performance in New York – but that same night, she was beaten and raped at knife point in her motel room. Deeply traumatised, she withdrew from the spotlight and spent time in psychiatric care – some of it, she later claimed, was forced upon her by her father. At her lowest, she even attempted to take her own life. Yet somehow, she returned to music in 1989, resumed recording, and continued singing to sold-out audiences well into her seventies.

[Intro]
Pretty little baby (Yah, yah)
Pretty little baby (Yah, yah)

[Verse]
Pretty little baby, you say that maybe
You’ll be thinkin’ of me, and try to love me
Pretty little baby, I’m hoping that you do
You can ask the flowers, I sit for hours
Tellin’ all the bluebirds, the bill and coo birds
Pretty little baby, I’m so in love with you

[Pre-Chorus]
Now is just the time, while both of us are young
Puppy love must have its day
Don’t you know it’s much more fun to love
While the heart is young and gay?

[Chorus]
Meet me at the car hop, or at the pop shop
Meet me in the moonlight, or in the daylight
Pretty little baby, I’m so in love with you

References:
1. Connie Francis: Pretty Little Baby singer dies at 87 – BBC News
2. Pretty Little Baby (Connie Francis song) – Wikipedia

About observationblogger

“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand