Latest news with #LorettaLynn
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Connie Francis obituary
At the height of her career in the late 1950s and early 60s, Connie Francis, who has died aged 87, occupied a unique slot in the American record industry as she amassed sales that comfortably outstripped most of her male contemporaries. She scored her first big hit with Who's Sorry Now? in 1957, and by 1967 had amassed 35 Top 40 hits in the US and sold 35 million records worldwide. She was blessed with a voice that could handle everything from amusing novelties such as Stupid Cupid (1958) or Pretty Little Baby (1962) to intimate ballads, tales of heartbreak and even full-blown epics such as the flamenco-flavoured Malagueña (1960). She was also versatile enough to embrace the Nashville sound, and her performances of songs such as When the Boy in Your Arms (1963) or Don't Break the Heart That Loves You (1962) carry echoes of country artists such as Patsy Cline or Loretta Lynn. Having grown up in an Italian-Jewish neighbourhood in New Jersey, she was fluent in Italian and Yiddish and familiar with Hebrew, and recorded several albums of Italian songs as well as a disc of Jewish favourites and other recordings in German, Italian and Spanish. Her theme song for the 1960 film Where the Boys Are was recorded in six languages, while Die Liebe Ist ein Seltsames Spiel, her German translation of her 1960 US chart-topper Everybody's Somebody's Fool, sailed to the top of the West German chart. Mama, her version of Cesare Andrea Bixio's evergreen Italian classic Mamma – covered by Beniamino Gigli, Luciano Pavarotti and many more – gave her a deliciously lachrymose Top 10 hit in 1960. Francis's success with that song helped her to broaden her audience from teenagers to the more sophisticated adult audiences in upmarket nightclubs in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe. Elvis Presley came to see her perform at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas not long after his mother had died, and when she sang Mama he burst into tears and had to leave the theatre. She was born Concetta Franconero in the Ironbound district of Newark, New Jersey, to George and Ida (nee Ferrari-di Vito). Her father was the son of Italian immigrants and worked as a docker and roofer. He was also a keen musician, and he gave his daughter an accordion when she was three. Her parents encouraged her musical progress, and she made her performing debut at four, singing Anchors Aweigh at the Olympic Park in Irvington, New Jersey, to her own accordion accompaniment. She appeared regularly on the TV show Startime, with the show's producer, George Scheck, acting as her manager, and featured in Marie Moser's Starlets, Original Amateur Hour and Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. It was Godfrey, struggling to pronounce her surname, who suggested she change it to Francis. Scheck secured her a recording contract with MGM in 1955, and she was employed to overdub her singing voice for film actresses, including for Tuesday Weld in the movie Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956) and for Jayne Mansfield in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958). However, her efforts under her own name were initially unsuccessful, and she recorded 10 singles for MGM that all flopped. She had been contemplating giving up music in favour of a pre-med scholarship at New York University when opportunity knocked with her 11th release, Who's Sorry Now?, a song dating back to 1923. She disliked it and recorded it only as a favour to her father, who took a robust guiding interest in his daughter's career. However, his instincts proved correct. Boosted by exposure on Dick Clark's American Bandstand TV programme, it shot into the US Top 10 and sold a million copies. It also topped the British charts. That lit the fuse on a run of hits which would see her scoring nearly 30 Top 40 successes on both sides of the Atlantic over the next six years, including Stupid Cupid (which reached No 4 in the US and No 1 in the UK), My Happiness (1958), Lipstick on Your Collar (1959), Among My Souvenirs (1961) and Mama. She notched up her first US chart-topper with Everybody's Somebody's Fool, and repeated the feat with My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own (both 1960) and Don't Break the Heart That Loves You (1962). In addition, Stupid Cupid marked the start of her long and fruitful collaboration with the songwriters Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, based in New York's songwriting mecca, the Brill Building. Also working there was Bobby Darin, who wrote several songs with Francis in the course of the pair becoming lovers. However, they split up after Francis's father threatened Darin with a shotgun. The latter part of Francis's career was marred by a succession of tragedies. In 1974, after she had performed at the Westbury Music Fair in New York, she was raped at knife-point at the hotel where she was staying. She won a $2.5m award in court (reduced in a later settlement) after suing the hotel for failing to offer adequate security, but the event triggered years of depression during which she rarely left her New Jersey home. In 1981 her brother George, an attorney who had testified against organised crime, was murdered by the Mafia. Though Connie tried to resume her recording and touring career, she was diagnosed with manic depression, and in 1984 she attempted suicide. She eventually made a comeback in the 90s, appearing in Las Vegas and making several recordings, including the album With Love to Buddy (1996), a tribute to Buddy Holly. In 2018 she retired to her new home in Florida. She wrote two autobiographies, the New York Times bestseller Who's Sorry Now? (1984) and Among My Souvenirs (2017). Married and divorced four times between 1964 and 1985, Francis was in a relationship with the psychologist Tony Ferretti from 2003 until his death in 2022. She adopted a baby son, Joey, during her third marriage. Connie Francis (Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero), singer and songwriter, born 12 December 1937; died 16 July 2025
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Connie Francis obituary
At the height of her career in the late 1950s and early 60s, Connie Francis occupied a unique slot in the American record industry as she amassed sales that comfortably outstripped most of her male contemporaries. She scored her first big hit with Who's Sorry Now? in 1957, and by 1967 had amassed 35 Top 40 hits in the US and sold 35 million records worldwide. She was blessed with a voice that could handle everything from amusing novelties such as Stupid Cupid (1958) or Pretty Little Baby (1962) to intimate ballads, tales of heartbreak and even full-blown epics such as the flamenco-flavoured Malagueña (1960). She was also versatile enough to embrace the Nashville sound, and her performances of songs such as When the Boy in Your Arms (1963) or Don't Break the Heart That Loves You (1962) carry echoes of country artists such as Patsy Cline or Loretta Lynn. Having grown up in an Italian-Jewish neighbourhood in New Jersey, she was fluent in Italian and Yiddish and familiar with Hebrew, and recorded several albums of Italian songs as well as a disc of Jewish favourites and other recordings in German, Italian and Spanish. Her theme song for the 1961 film Where the Boys Are was recorded in six languages, while Die Liebe Ist ein Seltsames Spiel, her German translation of her 1960 US chart-topper Everybody's Somebody's Fool, sailed to the top of the West German chart. Mama, her version of Cesare Andrea Bixio's evergreen Italian classic Mamma – covered by Beniamino Gigli, Luciano Pavarotti and many more – gave her a deliciously lachrymose Top 10 hit in 1960. Francis's success with that song helped her to broaden her audience from teenagers to the more sophisticated adult audiences in upmarket nightclubs in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe. Elvis Presley came to see her perform at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas not long after his mother had died, and when she sang Mama he burst into tears and had to leave the theatre. She was born Concetta Franconero in the Ironbound district of Newark, New Jersey, to George and Ida (nee Ferrari-di Vito). Her father was the son of Italian immigrants and worked as a docker and roofer. He was also a keen musician, and he gave his daughter an accordion when she was three. Her parents encouraged her musical progress, and she made her performing debut at four, singing Anchors Aweigh at the Olympic Park in Irvington, New Jersey, to her own accordion accompaniment. She appeared regularly on the TV show Startime, with the show's producer, George Scheck, acting as her manager, and featured in Marie Moser's Starlets, Original Amateur Hour and Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. It was Godfrey, struggling to pronounce her surname, who suggested she change it to Francis. Scheck secured her a recording contract with MGM in 1955, and she was employed to overdub her singing voice for film actresses, including for Tuesday Weld in the movie Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956) and for Jayne Mansfield in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958). However, her efforts under her own name were initially unsuccessful, and she recorded 10 singles for MGM that all flopped. She had been contemplating giving up music in favour of a pre-med scholarship at New York University when opportunity knocked with her 11th release, Who's Sorry Now?, a song dating back to 1923. She disliked it and recorded it only as a favour to her father, who took a robust guiding interest in his daughter's career. However, his instincts proved correct. Boosted by exposure on Dick Clark's American Bandstand TV programme, it shot into the US Top 10 and sold a million copies. It also topped the British charts. That lit the fuse on a run of hits which would see her scoring nearly 30 Top 40 successes on both sides of the Atlantic over the next six years, including Stupid Cupid (which reached No 4 in the US and No 1 in the UK), My Happiness (1958), Lipstick on Your Collar (1959), Among My Souvenirs (1961) and Mama. She notched up her first US chart-topper with Everybody's Somebody's Fool , and repeated the feat with My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own (both 1960) and Don't Break the Heart That Loves You (1962). In addition, Stupid Cupid marked the start of her long and fruitful collaboration with the songwriters Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, based in New York's songwriting mecca, the Brill Building. Also working there was Bobby Darin, who wrote several songs with Francis in the course of the pair becoming lovers. However, they split up after Francis's father threatened Darin with a shotgun. The latter part of Francis's career was marred by a succession of tragedies. In 1974, after she had performed at the Westbury Music Fair in New York, she was raped at knife-point at the hotel where she was staying. She won a $2.5m award in court (reduced in a later settlement) after suing the hotel for failing to offer adequate security, but the event triggered years of depression during which she rarely left her New Jersey home. In 1981 her brother George, an attorney who had testified against organised crime, was murdered by the Mafia. Though Connie tried to resume her recording and touring career, she was diagnosed with manic depression, and in 1984 she attempted suicide. She eventually made a comeback in the 90s, appearing in Las Vegas and making several recordings, including the album With Love to Buddy (1996), a tribute to Buddy Holly. In 2018 she retired to her new home in Florida. She wrote two autobiographies, the New York Times bestseller Who's Sorry Now? (1984) and Among My Souvenirs (2017). Married and divorced four times between 1964 and 1985, Francis was in a relationship with the psychologist Tony Ferretti from 2003 until his death in 2022. She adopted a baby son, Joey, during her third marriage. Connie Francis (Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero), singer and songwriter, born 12 December 1937; died 16 July 2025
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'90s country star says what she had to ‘let go of' after coming out as gay
Chely Wright recently told Variety that coming out as country music's first openly gay singer is 'the thing of which I'm most proud.' However the country singer, who first rose to fame with hits such as 'Single White Female' and 'Shut Up and Drive,' knew her decision to come out would come with some sacrifices. 'The outcome that I was going for was telling the world who I was, all the pieces of me — this person of faith who toured in support of the troops and was from the Midwest who loves the Grand Ole Opry and loves country music and loves Connie Smith and Loretta Lynn and also happened to be gay," Wright, who publicly came out in 2010, told Variety. 'Beyond that, I had to let go of people liking me. The goal, as a country music, is to make sure that as many fans like you and like what you're doing as possible. And wanting everyone at the end of this to be so delighted with me was a hard thing to throw out of the basket,' Wright continued. 'But once I did, everything got easy.' Wright decided to come out after contemplating suicide in 2006. The singer told PEOPLE that she felt like she 'did not have a choice' and 'had to come out or I wasn't going to make it.' Wright also grappled with the thought of losing her career entirely if people knew she was gay. 'I knew that at any moment that my career could be gone like that if I were found out. So I did spend a good deal of my time holding on really tightly to that identity and hiding,' she told Variety. 'You spend a lot of your energy when you're in the closet staying in the closet. I did think about what would I do if this career were taken from me.' With no major country star having ever come out, Wright had to look to other queer icons in the entertainment industry for help. She credits Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres and Melissa Etheridge for inspiring her to share her truth. Wright then spent four years preparing for her coming-out moment. At 39 years old, she came out in her 2010 memoir, 'Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer.' 'I was very measured and very strategic in how I came out. I took a lot of flack for that, by the way, but I wouldn't change a single thing about the strategy and thinking 'How do I do this and how do I do it well and how do I control it?' That was business thinking,' Wright told Variety. Despite initially getting death threats, hateful messages and a New York visit from someone who said 'they were gonna do whatever they were gonna do to me,' Wright soon started getting 'opportunities to do culture work, belonging, DEIB work with corporations and higher-ed and faith communities,' she told Variety. 'I actually had more of that work than I wanted to do. I kind of kept it at 30% of my work, and the rest was music,' she said. 'There's no reason I couldn't have gone 70/30 (in favor of the culture work), but I was still holding on so tightly to who I thought I was and who I thought I should be. I was having an identity crisis, because if I'm not 70% a touring musician, who am I? You know, I didn't want to feel like anything was taken from me. So that opportunity became more and more real to me, and viable, and fun and gratifying, and certainly lucrative. And then when I was on tour, when COVID hit, all of that (music performance) went away — and the next week my clients were calling for virtual events. I took on new clients, so that went from 30% to 100%. It was there all along, but I didn't wanna hear it. I didn't know what that said about me as an artist." The 54-year-old has since left the music industry. She now serves as Senior VP of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and New Market Growth for North America at ISS, a facility management company that has 320,000 employees around the world. When asked if she was completely done with music, Wright replied with, 'I'd be surprised if that were the case.' 'I am still every day jotting down lines and humming into my voice memo melodies,' she added. Wright is actually working on a musical inspired by her memoir, to which actress Jean Smart acquired the life rights. 'It's just cool to even know Jean Smart, frankly. So that project is really fun to be working on,' Wright told Variety. 'I also believe in my bones I'm gonna make another album, if not several. I don't think that could ever not be part of who I am.' Wright has released eight albums since 1994. Her last album, 'I Am the Rain,' came out in 2016. Support surges for country music legend who suffered stroke on stage Country star skewered by fans after calling out revered album: 'It just ain't country' Move over 'Brat summer': Old Dominion hopes to make 2025 a 'Barbara summer' Country singer who rejected usual treatment says he's 'whipping cancer's ass' Country music star 'doing much better' after having stroke on stage Read the original article on MassLive.
Wall Street Journal
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
House of the Week: A 100-Year-Old Cottage on Scotland's West Coast
When Ethan Lyell traveled to Scotland in 2017, the countryside reminded him of visits to his grandmother, the late country music star Loretta Lynn, on her nearly 10,000-acre farm in Tennessee. 'I remember as a kid not appreciating it as much as I do now,' says Lyell. 'When we went to Scotland, it almost felt a little bit like coming home.' Outside his roughly 100-year-old cottage 5 miles south of Ayr, on Scotland's west coast, the Dallas-based healthcare executive frequently strums the 'Coal Miner's Daughter' singer's guitar to an audience of woolly sheep. 'I'm certainly not as astute on the guitar as she was, but to be able to play the guitar in front of all the sheep—it really is just a magical place,' he says.
Miami Herald
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Loretta Lynn's Granddaughter ‘Stands Where She Stood' at the Grand Ole Opry to Sing ‘Coal Miner's Daughter'
The hallowed stage of the Grand Ole Opry once again echoed with the timeless strains of "Coal Miner's Daughter" on Sunday, June 29, as Loretta Lynn's granddaughter, Tayla Lynn, offered a heartfelt performance in tribute to the music legend." Before stepping into her grandmother's iconic shoes, Tayla shared a poignant reflection on her deep bond with Loretta. Lynn said, "She started teaching me how to sing her songs on the road with her, and she let me go out on the road with her for the next 25 years whenever I'd want to crawl on that bus, she'd let me get back there with her and honey, we'd either be watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre or her stories about Jesus just back there and having a wonderful time playing dress up and, and out here singing those songs." "Tonight I just want to stand where she stood and sing what she sang and I'm gonna do it for her tonight," Lynn continued. Her words painted a vivid picture of a childhood steeped in music and familial love, preparing her for the occasion. Loretta Lynn's legacy casts a giant shadow over country music. As the "Coal Miner's Daughter," she broke barriers and told raw, honest stories of rural American life, love, and hardship through her songwriting. Lynn became the first woman to be named Entertainer of the Year at both the Country Music Association Awards (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM), cementing her status as a trailblazer. Her authentic voice and fearless approach to sensitive topics resonated deeply with generations of fans, making her an enduring symbol of strength and integrity in the genre. Her music continues to inspire, shaping the landscape of country music even after her death in 2022. Tayla Lynn is not the only one in the family carrying on the musical torch. Loretta's granddaughter Emmy Russell recently captured national attention with her impressive run on American Idol. Russell's soulful performances and artistry introduced the Lynn family's musical talent to a new generation of fans, showcasing the influence of her famous grandmother. Russell's journey on the popular singing competition further underscored the remarkable musical lineage that continues to thrive. Tayla Lynn's performance at the Grand Ole Opry served as a reminder of Loretta Lynn's mark on the music industry. Singing the song that defines her legacy, Tayla honored her grandmother not just with a song, but with a testament to a family's enduring passion for music and for each other. The evening celebrated the past, present, and future of a country music dynasty. Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved
