Archive Photos/Getty "Pretty Little Baby" singer Connie Francis has died at age 87, her close friend, Ron Roberts, confirmed on Facebook "It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness that I inform you of the passing of my dear friend Connie Francis last night," Roberts wrote late on Thursday, July 16 "I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news," he added Connie Francis has died at the age of 87, two weeks after it wasrevealed that she'd been hospitalizeddue to "extreme pain." Francis' close friend, Ron Roberts, who is the president of the musician's label Concetta Records, confirmed the news onFacebooklate on Thursday, July 16. Roberts wrote, "It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness that I inform you of the passing of my dear friend Connie Francis last night." "I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news. More details will follow later," the message, which was also shared on Francis' official Facebook profile, concluded. The news comes after Francis confirmed in a Fourth of JulyFacebookpost that she was "feeling much better after a good night," two days after it was confirmed that she had been hospitalized. Themusician revealedthat she was "back in hospital" on July 2, telling fans she'd been "undergoing tests and checks to determine the cause(s) of the extreme pain I have been experiencing." Francis had recently been making headlines due to her 1962 song "Pretty Little Baby"becoming a huge hit on TikTok, 63 years after she recorded the B-side. Archive Photos/Getty A contemporary of Elvis Presley and Brenda Lee, Francis was one of the most popular singers of the 1950s and early 1960s, with Top 10 singles like "Who's Sorry Now?," "My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own," "Where the Boys Are" and "Don't Break The Heart That Loves You." Francis was the first woman to have a No. 1 hit on theBillboardHot 100 with her 1960 track "Everybody's Somebody's Fool." The singer was born Concetta Franconero in Newark, New Jersey, in 1937. As early as age 4, she began taking part in talent contests and pageants, at her father's encouragement, singing and playing accordion. Later, she began appearing on TV shows and was a featured performer on NBC'sStartime Kids. She chose Connie Francis as her stage name. She signed a recording contract with MGM Records in 1955, but most of her early singles were unsuccessful. The label was going to drop her, but her father convinced her to record a version of "Who's Sorry Now?" as a last attempt at a hit in 1957. "I had 18 bomb records," Francis toldUPIin 1996. "He wanted me to record a song written in 1923. I said 'Forget about it — the kids onAmerican Bandstandwould laugh me right off the show.' He said, 'If you don't record this song, dummy, the only way you'll get onAmerican Bandstandis to sit on the TV.'' The track also performed poorly — until it debuted on Dick Clark'sAmerican Bandstandin 1958. It then became a hit in both the U.S. and the U.K., and Francis and Clark would form a lifelong friendship. Archive Photos/Archive Photos/Getty Francis's career grew from there, with follow-up hits like "My Happiness," "Lipstick on Your Collar" and "Among My Souvenirs." Her 1959 albumConnie Francis Sings Italian Favoritesbecame her most successful, and 1960's "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" became her first No. 1 in the United States — and the first ever by a solo female artist on theBillboardHot 100, which had launched in 1958. Francis also found international success, thanks, in part, to her re-recording of her songs in different languages. She had two more No. 1 hits, with "My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own" (which hit the top spot just three months after "Everybody's Somebody's Fool") and "Don't Break The Heart That Loves You." "'I was sitting on top of the world and didn't know what problems were yet," she told PEOPLE in 1992 of her early career. Francis also appeared in a handful of films in the 1960s, including the 1960 hitWhere the Boys Are, a teen rom-com costarring a young George Hamilton. Getty Francis became less successful as the music industry changed in the late 1960s, and then suffered a series of personal tragedies. In 1974, she was the victim of a rape in a Long Island motel room. She had nasal surgery in 1977 that caused her to temporarily lose her voice. And in 1981, her brother George was murdered by the mafia. That same year, she launched a career comeback, but it was hindered by her struggles with her mental health. Her father had her committed to multiple psychiatric hospitals, and she survived a 1984 suicide attempt. That same year, she published her first memoir,Who's Sorry Now?. "To make a short story long, in the '80s, I was involuntarily committed to mental institutions 17 times in nine years in five different states," she toldthe Village Voicein 2011. "I was misdiagnosed as bipolar, ADD, ADHD, and a few other letters the scientific community had never heard of. A few years later, I was discovered to have had post-traumatic stress disorder following a horrendous string of events in my life." She partnered with Ronald Reagan's presidential administration on a task force on violent crime and was an advocate for rape victims. In 2010, she partnered with Mental Health America to help raise awareness of the effects of trauma and treatments for it. Brad Elterman/FilmMagic "I tried to see humor in everything, even when I was in a mental institution," she toldThe Oklahomanin 2018. "But I have to say the support of the public has also been incredibly uplifting. They saw me through the best and worst of times and never stopped writing from around the world to encourage me." Francis released another memoir,Among My Souvenirs, in 2017. Francis had a relationship with singer Bobby Darin early in her career, but her father kept them apart. She considered Darin, who died in 1973 at age 37, the love of her life. "My personal life is a regret from A to Z," Francis told PEOPLE in 1984. "I realized I had allowed my father to exert too much influence over me." A. Schorr/ullstein bild via Getty She was married four times. Her first husband was Dick Kanellis; they married in 1964 and divorced after five months. She married Izzy Marion in 1971, divorcing 10 months later. She married Joseph Garzilli in 1973. They adopted a son, Joseph Garzilli Jr., in 1974. The couple split in 1977. She married for a fourth time to Bob Parkinson in 1985, but once again the marriage only lasted a few months. Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Francis told PEOPLE in 2017that she wanted to be remembered "not so much for the heights I have reached, but for the depths from which I have come. . . . I hope I did okay." Francis is survived by her son. Read the original article onPeople