A Viral Deep Cut Brought This Artist Back to the Charts For the First Time In 42 Years
Connie Francis' “Pretty Little Baby” debuts on this week’s Global 200 chart.
Connie Francis is a legend on Billboard’s charts.
Few artists were as dominant in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Now, after a 42-year break from the charts, the 87-year-old singer returns this week with a surprising debut: “Pretty Little Baby,” a deep cut from her 1962 album Connie Francis Sings Second Hand Love & Other Hits.
The song debuts at No. 160 on the Billboard Global 200 chart this week (dated May 24), fueled almost entirely from its global streaming sum: 15.8 million official global streams (up 163% from the previous week) in the May 9-15 tracking week, according to Luminate. The song also nearly reaches the Billboard Hot 100, entering at No. 15 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 ranking (which lists the top songs just shy of the Hot 100 that haven’t yet debuted). If the song debuts on the Hot 100, it would mark Francis’ first appearance since “The Wedding Cake” in 1969.
Francis last appeared on Billboard’s charts on March 26, 1983, when her song “There’s Still A Few Good Love Songs Left In Me” ranked at No. 94 on Hot Country Songs. Before that, she charted on Adult Contemporary in 1981 with “I’m Me Again” (No. 41 peak), and then prior to that, she’d been absent since the ‘60s.
So, how does this 60-year-old non-single land on the charts in 2025? TikTok, of course.
The song unexpectedly caught fire on the platform over the past month, with users (including people like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian) lip-synching to the line: “You can ask the flowers / I sit for hours / Telling all the bluebirds / The bill and coo birds / Pretty little baby, I’m so in love with you.” Many of the TikTok users are wearing fun retro outfits and/or singing to actual babies, cute pets and flowers. To date, the song has been featured in over 1.3 million clips on TikTok, helping it also reach No. 1 on TikTok’s Viral 50 chart. (Note: activity on TikTok doesn’t directly contribute to Billboard’s charts, but it does have an effect on users’ streaming habits).
While the song’s global streams drove it onto the Global 200, its U.S. numbers are still substantial too. It raked in 4.6 million U.S. streams in the week ending May 15, a 95% increase from the 2.3 million streams from the week prior (May 2-8).
As the song gained momentum, Francis spoke with Billboard from her home in Parkland, Fla., admitting she had almost no memory of recording it. “I had to listen to it to identify it,” she said. “Then, of course, I recognized the fact that I had done it in seven languages.”
And she wasn’t exaggerating. On May 16, Francis’ label, Universal Music, reissued the versions Francis had sung in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Swedish — potentially helping set up the track for future global success.
Francis was a titan during her era on the charts. To put her historic chart dominance in perspective:
— She was the first solo female artist to top the Billboard Hot 100, with “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” in July 1960.
— She earned two other No. 1s on the Hot 100: “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” (1960) and “Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You” (1962).
— She charted 53 total songs on the Hot 100, all between 1958 and 1969, including 15 top 10s — the most top 10s among solo women until Aretha Franklin passed her in 1985.
— She was the first woman to chart multiple songs in the top 10 of the Hot 100 simultaneously. On July 6, 1959, “Lipstick On Your Collar” ranked at No. 5 and “Frankie” was No. 9. The only artists to do that before her were the Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson and Elvis Presley.
— She appeared on the first Hot 100 chart, on Aug. 4, 1958, with “Stupid Cupid” (No. 72).
Below: the June 27, 1960 chart on which Francis became the first solo female artist to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 — she had a second song on the chart that week too: “Jealous of You” at No. 20.
In an era long before the streaming boom, 53 Hot 100 entries was a staggering number of chart hits. By 1967, only one artist had charted more songs on the Hot 100: Elvis Presley. Francis closed out the 1960s as the woman with the most Hot 100 hits, and fifth among all acts (after Presley, Ray Charles, The Beatles and James Brown). Francis held onto her record for the most Hot 100 hits by women until Franklin surpassed her in 1978. (These days, Taylor Swift leads all women, with 264.)
Outside of the Hot 100, Francis also landed 29 songs on Adult Contemporary, seven on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and three on Hot Country Songs.
And now, six decades after her heyday, she’s once again connecting with a new generation. “I’m getting calls from everywhere: ‘You’re a TikTok phenomenon,’” she said.
—Xander Zellner
For more on the charts, click here. And check out Connie Francis’ full interview with Billboard here.