The Exciting Connie Francis
After her breakthrough in early 1958 with her single "Who's Sorry Now?", a rock 'n' roll oriented version of the 1923 standard, and a subsequent album of the same title, Francis chose to take a more adult approach to her second album. For "The Exciting Connie Francis", she chose twelve American standards. Francis clearly marked the album as a concept album by dividing it into two sections with different moods: Side A is filled with songs differing between mid-tempo and up-tempo, while Side B consists solely of ballads.
Connie Francis
In 1981, further tragedy struck Francis when her brother, George Franconero, Jr., with whom she was very close, was murdered by Mafia hitmen. Despite this, she took up live performing again, even gracing the "American Bandstand" 30th Anniversary Special Episode and appearing in the town where she had been raped. Francis' newfound success was short-lived, though, as she was diagnosed with manic depression, which brought her career to a stop for a further four years, during which she was committed to a total of 17 hospitals. Francis admitted that she nearly committed suicide because she found the hospitals to be extremely depressing.