Chart entered : 20 January 1966
Chart peak : 44
Another fifties survivor now makes her exit and it had been coming, this one being the last of only three small hits since the arrival of the Beatles.
"Jealous Heart " was already a country and western classic, written in 1944 by Jenny Lou Carson but popularised by Tex Ritter. Since then there had been numerous versions but the only one to make the UK charts ( just ) was by an obscure Irish girl group, Eileen Reed and the Cadets, just six months before Connie's version. It was the title track of a forthcoming album of standards, a retro move after her attempts to update her sound had made scant impact. There's not too much wrong with it. Connie's in fine double-tracked voice and the lush arrangement from Ernie Freeman swings. It's perhaps a little over-produced but I suspect the real problem was it just didn't sound like 1966.
Sadly "Jealous Heart" marked a series of "lasts" for Connie. Not only was it her last UK hit, it was her last to make the US Top 50 ( number 47 ) and the album was her last to chart in the US ( 78 ).
Her next single was released while "Jealous Heart" was still in the charts. "The Phoenix Love Theme ( Senza Fine )" was featured in the popular film The Flight Of The Phoenix. The song was written by Gino Paoli and the melody is reprised at numerous points in the film. Connie's reading of the song is exquisite but Italian language hits were thin on the ground and it didn't make it.
After that she returned to working with Tony Hatch and her next single in March was his song "Love |Is Me Love Is You" which I haven't heard. It got to 66 in the US. In June she did "Somewhere My Love" from Doctor Zhivago but lost out to a rival version by the Mike Sammes Singers which hung around the charts for nearly a year. Connie's version is rather sporific. Its parent album , the self-explanatory "Movie Songs of the 60s" didn't do any better.
In November she released "Spanish Nights And You" a lush flamenco ballad with a double-tracked Connie emoting amongst the strings. it scraped to 99 in the States. March 1967 saw "Another Page" a translation of an Italian song as Connie sought to consolidate her enduring popularity in Latin territories. In July "Time Alone Will Tell" was more of the same given a big production number by Joe Sherman. It got to 94 in the US. With "My Heart Cries For You" ( a million seller for Guy Mitchell in 1950 ) in November she turned to France.
In March 1968 she returned to her old friends Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield for the deeply poignant "My World Is Slipping Away". I know nothing about her next single "Why Say Goodbye" beyond its release in May. November's "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place" was written in 1941 and had been covered by Benny Goodman, Jerry Vale and Al Martino.
In March 1969 "The Wedding Cake" became her last US hit peaking at 91. Written by Margaret Lewis and Myra Smith it's a fatalistic country ballad about the trials of marriage with melodic similarities to Gentle On My Mind . The sob in Connie's voice suits the material and the Spanish guitar and electric piano spice up the arrangement.
Connie's next release in the UK was a reissue of her last major hit "Vacation" but she had one more new single to come before the sixties closed. "Mr Love" was from her album "Connie Francis Sings The Songs of Les Reed" recorded in London. I could have sworn it was a mid- sixties Sandie Shaw singing it.
It marked the end of her fourteen year contract with M-G-M and the worn-out 31 year old was anxious for a break. For the first three years of the seventies she did very little beyond the odd TV appearance apart from one flop single "Don't Turn Around " ( another Sedaka-Greenfield number ) in 1971 which wasn't even released in the UK. In 1973 she returned to the studio to record an answer song to Dawn's monster hit Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree ( my gran's favourite record ). "(Should I) Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree" uses the same melody and arrangement ( save for a weeping guitar solo ) and while Connie's voice remains in fine fettle you wonder why she chose such a tacky vehicle for a comeback.
Connie had suffered a miscarriage that year and as a therapeutic exercise her husband encouraged Connie to tour in 1974. This ended in disaster in November when she was raped, robbed and nearly killed in a New York Motel. The assailant was never caught; Connie reckons he might have spared her life because the pursuit would have been more vigorous if he'd killed someone famous. She later successfully sued the motel chain for its inadequate security. The motel owner suggested she was making it up and the strain broke up her marriage.
In 1977 she had nasal surgery which drastically affected her voice and she needed singing lessons to recover. Connie didn't return to the recording studios until 1978 to record the album "Who's Happy Now ? " for United Artists. The first single was a discofied version of her 1961 hit "Where The Boys Are" which is just hideous. Connie's vocal isn't too bad - she sounds like Nena - but producer Ken Barnes keeps interrupting the flow of the song to throw in another disco cliche. The B side was a version of the Eurovision winner "A Ba Ni Bi" ( or "I wanna be a polar bear" as we sang in the playground ). The second was "My Mother's Eyes". Connie's reluctance to do much promotion torpedoed their chances.
Interspersed with these were a couple of singles on Polydor "Burning Bridges" and "Three Good Reasons" which actually dated from 1969 but hadn't previously been issued. The latter's a slow ballad that sounds more like Ruby Murray i.e a decade out of date even when it was first recorded. After that her only UK singles were reissues of her hits.
In 1980 she re-emerged on MGM ( though now part of Polydor ) with "I'm Me Again" . It was the title track to a "new" album the following year. There was only one other newly recorded song on the album which was otherwise made up of unreleased material from the 50s and 60s. Not surprisingly it failed to garner much interest but it did get her out on the road again despite the death of her brother in an apparent Mafia hit.
She had a minor country hit with the ironic "There's Still A Few Good Songs Left In Me" in 1983 but by that time she had been diagnosed with manic depression. Sporadic further recordings were made in between hospital stays but no one felt inclined to release them. Connie's condition didn't stop , in fact may have given her the time to write her autobiography inevitably titled "Who's Sorry Now" which was published in 1984 and went to the top of the book charts. She also headed a task fore on violent crime for Ronald Reagan and became a prominent spokesperson for victims' rights.
By 1989 she was well enough to resume performing and recorded "Where The Hits Are" a double album of re-recordings of her biggies plus a handful of classics such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight". In 1992 a German producer placed a medley of her German hits on the charts there as "Jive, Connie" ( no prizes for guessing the inspiration there ). A somewhat overweight but otherwise well-preserved Connie appeared on German TV to promote it. She went on to do a couple of duets with Peter Kraus but her new German-language album was never released. In 1996 she released a Buddy Holly tribute album "With Love To Buddy" which is her last widespread release to date though subsequent recordings have sporadically been issued in small quantities on her own Concetta label.
At the turn of the millennium she started working with Gloria Estefan on an autobiographical film in which the Cuban singer would play her. The project was eventually cancelled in 2009 after the women could not agree on the writer. She's also been involved in litigation against UMG firstly for allegedly taking advantage of her condition to delay royalty payments and then for licensing her music to sexually explicit films. She didn't succeed in either suit.
Now 75 , Connie hasn't yet retired from performing although a series of Botox injections haven't done her voice any favours and a youtube video of a concert posted last year is unwatchable; the poster must really hate her.
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