Forever No. 1 is a Billboard collection that pays particular tribute to the lately deceased artists who achieved the very best honor our charts have to supply — a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single — by taking an prolonged look again on the chart-topping songs that made them a part of this unique membership. Right here, we honor Connie Francis, whose infectious 1960 smash “Everyone’s Anyone’s Idiot” — the primary of her three No. 1s on the Sizzling 100 — was the primary track by a feminine solo artist to prime the chart. Francis died on Wednesday (July 16) at age 87.
Connie Francis’ “Everyone’s Anyone’s Idiot” will be the cheeriest-sounding track ever recorded about unrequited love. The peppy toe-tapper made historical past in June 1960, changing into the primary track by a feminine solo artist to prime the Billboard Sizzling 100, which had been launched practically two years earlier.
Francis was born on Dec. 12, 1937, to an Italian-American couple in Newark, N.J. At 13, she appeared on Arthur Godfrey’s Expertise Scouts, a top-rated TV selection present. Francis was simply shy of 19 in December 1957 when she made her first look on a pre-Sizzling 100 Billboard pop chart with “The Majesty of Love,” a duet with Marvin Rainwater. The track peaked at No. 93. She landed her first large hit, a remake of the 1923 ballad “Who’s Sorry Now,” the next spring. It climbed all the way in which to No. 4.
Francis practically turned the primary solo girl to prime the Sizzling 100 in January 1959 when “My Happiness” (a canopy of one other classic ballad, from 1948) peaked at No. 2. It was saved from the highest spot by a basic, The Platters’ doo-wop remake of the usual “Smoke Will get in Your Eyes.” In November of that 12 months, Della Reese practically was first to the honors when her torchy ballad “Don’t You Know” additionally peaked at No. 2, once more stopped by a basic – Bobby Darin’s model of “Mack the Knife.”
Francis would merely not be stopped with “Everyone’s Anyone’s Idiot.” The track opens with an organ solo, which supplies it a particular sound. It has a gradual beat, a lovely shuffle association and a pronounced nation/pop sound. Francis, who was simply 21 when she recorded the track, sings with youthful zest.
The track has an uncommon lyrical thrust — she’s staying in a nasty relationship, reasoning “I’d be twice as blue with out you” and “Although I’m a idiot/not less than I do know the rating.” (This isn’t probably the most clear-headed logic, however we’ve all been there.) The track is just like Guy Mitchell’s “Heartaches by the Quantity,” a No. 1 hit in November 1959, each in the way in which its jaunty melody belies its heartache theme, and in its general nation/pop sound.
The strains “And there aren’t any exceptions to the rule / Sure, everyone’s anyone’s idiot” have been recycled virtually word-for-word in The Main Ingredient’s 1972 hit “Everyone Performs the Idiot.” (In fact, the precise title of Francis’ track was itself recycled from a distinct track that Lionel Hampton recorded in 1950 – and which Michael Jackson coated on his 1972 album Ben.)
“Everyone’s Anyone’s Idiot” was the highest new entry on the Sizzling 100 at No. 52 within the difficulty dated Might 9, 1960. Within the June 13-dated difficulty, it reached No. 2, matching “My Happiness” as Francis’ highest-charting hit to that time. It remained in that place the next week, making it seem to be she may simply miss out on a No. 1 once more. However within the difficulty dated June 27, in its eighth week on the chart, Francis bumped the Everly Brothers out of the highest spot, after 5 weeks on prime with their smash “Cathy’s Clown.” She remained in pole place for a second week, earlier than she was dethroned by Hollywood Argyles’ “Alley-Oop.”
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Francis’ model of “Idiot” additionally reached No. 24 on Sizzling C&W Sides – C&W standing for Nation & Western. (The chart title was modernized to Sizzling Nation Singles in November 1962; at present, it’s Sizzling Nation Songs.)
Many nation artists have since coated the track. Nation legend Ernest Tubb had an excellent higher-charting nation hit with the track in 1960. His model, produced by the nice Owen Bradley, reached No. 16 on Sizzling C&W Sides. Debby Boone – daughter of Pat Boone, a recent of Francis on the pop charts within the late ’50s and early ’60s, took it to No. 48 in 1979 on what was then known as Sizzling Nation Singles. (Debby Boone had beforehand had nation hits with covers of two different Francis hits, “My Coronary heart Has a Thoughts of Its Personal” and “Don’t Break the Coronary heart That Loves You”). The track additionally appeared on Billboard 200-charting albums by instrumentalist Billy Vaughn (in a rustic association), Jody Miller and Marie Osmond. Loretta Lynn and Lynn Anderson, amongst others, additionally took a crack at it.
In keeping with lore, “Everyone’s Anyone’s Idiot” was initially meant to be the B-side of Francis’ Italian-language ballad “Jealous of You (Tango Della Gelosia).” That’s believable: Francis’ earlier single launch, “Mama,” which made No. 8 on the Sizzling 100, had been an Italian ballad. And Francis had reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 in March 1960 with Italian Favorites, her first of 4 chart albums sung in Italian.
We needs to be glad that “Idiot” received the push as an alternative, as a result of it’s an irresistible pop confection; a one-listen smash. (“Jealous of You,” launched because the B facet of “Idiot,” reached No. 19 on the Sizzling 100.)
A polka-style model of “Idiot,” recorded by Francis in German, was a smash in what was then West Germany. The track was titled “Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel.”
Francis’ follow-up single, “My Coronary heart Has a Thoughts of Its Personal,” additionally topped the Sizzling 100, making Francis the primary feminine solo artist to land two No. 1 hits. Howard Greenfield and Jack Keller co-wrote each songs. Greenfield had co-written three earlier Francis hits – “Silly Cupid,” “Fallin’ ” and “Frankie” – together with his ordinary collaborator, Neil Sedaka. Greenfield and Sedaka would go on to put in writing “The place the Boys Are,” the title track to the 1960 film during which Francis co-starred. The ballad turned considered one of her signature hits.
Greenfield went on to co-write two extra No. 1s with Neil Sedaka for different artists – Sedaka’s 1962 smash “Breaking Up Is Onerous To Do” (1962) and Captain & Tennille’s “Love Will Preserve Us Collectively” (1975). These Francis hits have been Keller’s solely No. 1 hits. The 2 songwriters additionally composed pitch-perfect theme songs for 2 sitcoms that debuted inside a 12 months of one another – Bewitched (1964) and Gidget (1965).
Francis topped the Sizzling 100 for a 3rd and ultimate time in March 1962 with “Don’t Break the Coronary heart That Loves You.” She was the one feminine solo artist with three No. 1 hits within the ’60s. She stood alone as the one feminine solo artist with three Sizzling 100 No. 1s till Cher nabbed her third No. 1 with “Darkish Woman” in March 1974.
Francis had 14 Sizzling 100 prime 10 hits, the final being “Trip” in September 1962. (That doesn’t depend the pre-Sizzling 100 smash “Who’s Sorry Now.”) These 14 prime 10s constituted the file amongst solo ladies artists till Aretha Franklin’s “Freeway of Love” turned the Queen of Soul’s fifteenth prime 10 Sizzling 100 hit in August 1985.
Francis by no means acquired a Grammy nomination and has by no means even been nominated for the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame. However whereas such institutional honors by no means got here her method, she was beloved by followers. “Everyone’s Anyone’s Idiot” is without doubt one of the finest indications of why.