Oh What A Night - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
Frankie Valli
Frankie Valli (born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, May 3, 1934 First Ward, Newark, New Jersey) is an American musician, most famous as frontman of The Four Seasons.
Valli, along with Tommy DeVito, Nick Massi, and Bob Gaudio, the original members of The Four Seasons, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.
Valli scored 29 Top 40 hits with The 4 Seasons, one Top 40 hit under The 4 Seasons alias of 'The Wonder Who?' and nine Top 40 hits as a solo artist. As a member of The 4 Seasons, Valli scored number one hits with "Sherry", "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", "Rag Doll" and "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)". As a solo artist, Valli scored number one hits with "My Eyes Adored You" and "Grease". His best known solo recording, though, is "Can't Take My Eyes off You", which reached number two in 1967. "You're Ready Now", a Valli solo recording from 1966, became a surprise hit in England, as part of the Northern soul scene and hit number 11 on the British pop charts in December, 1970
The Four Seasons (since 1967, known off and on as Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons - although not shown that way on any of their hit records), is an American pop and rock group. They also had a sound somewhat reminiscent of doo-wop, although they were not thought of as a doo wop quartet. By the mid 1960s, The Four Seasons had become an internationally famous rock and roll group.
In 1960, the group known as The Four Lovers evolved into The Four Seasons, with Frankie Valli as the lead singer, Bob Gaudio (formerly of The Royal Teens) on keyboards and tenor vocals, Tommy DeVito on lead guitar and baritone vocals and Nick Massi on bass guitar and bass vocals (Massi was replaced in 1965 by Charles Calello, who was in turn replaced later in 1965 by Joe Long on bass guitar and bass vocals).
The official name of the organization is the Four Seasons Partnership, formed by Gaudio and Valli after a failed audition in 1961. While singers, producers, and musicians have come and gone, Gaudio and Valli remain the group's constant (with each owning fifty percent of the act and its assets, including virtually all of its recording catalog).
The Four Seasons (group members 1960–1965) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.
Frankie Valli's first commercial release was "My Mother's Eyes" (as Frank Valley) in 1953. The following year, he, along with Tommy DeVito formed the Variatones (with Hank Majewski, rhythm guitar, Frank Cattone, accordion, and Billy Thompson, drums), which between 1954 and 1956, performed and recorded under a variety of names before settling on the name The Four Lovers. The same year, the quartet released their first record, "You're the Apple of My Eye", which appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, peaking at #62. Five additional Four Lovers singles (on RCA Victor) were released over the next year, with virtually no sales, airplay, or jukebox play. In 1957, the group's seventh single (this time on Epic) had a similar lack of success.
From 1956 until 1960, the group stayed together, performing in clubs and lounges as The Four Lovers and recording on various record labels with various names: Frankie Tyler, Frankie Valley, Frankie Valley and the Travelers, Frankie Valle and the Romans, The Village Voices, and The Topics are some of the 18 "stage names" used individually or collectively by the members of the group.
In 1958, the group started working with producer Bob Crewe, primarily with session work (Crewe wrote "I Go Ape", which Valli recorded with the intention of releasing it as a "solo" single). Later that year, the Four Lovers were performing in Baltimore on the same stage as The Royal Teens, who was riding the wave of success of "Short Shorts", a song that was co-written by then-15-year-old Bob Gaudio, who was also the Royal Teens' guitarist.
The next year, Gaudio replaced Nick DeVito in the lineup, with Gaudio doubling as both keyboardist and guitar, and Charles Calello replaced Majewski on bass (Callelo would soon return as the group's arranger). In 1960, Calello left and was replaced by Nick Massi.
Despite the change of personnel, the fortunes of The Four Lovers did not change in the beginning of 1961, when they failed an audition for a lounge at a Union Township, Union County, New Jersey, bowling establishment. According to Gaudio, "We figured we'll come out of this with something. So we took the name of the bowling alley. It was called the Four Seasons." Despite the last few years of frustration of the Four Lovers, this proved to be the turning point of the group: on a handshake between guitarist/keyboardist/composer Bob Gaudio and lead singer Frankie Valli, the Four Seasons Partnership was formed.
The Four Seasons released their first single in 1961 ("Bermuda"/"Spanish Lace" on Gone Records). While the single did not chart, the songs gave the group enough of a following to be signed with Vee-Jay Records late that year.
In 1962, the group released their first album featuring the single "Sherry", which was not only their first charted hit but also their first number one song. Under the guidance of producer/songwriter Bob Crewe, The Four Seasons followed up "Sherry" with several million-selling hits, including "Big Girls Don't Cry" (their second #1 hit), "Walk Like a Man" (their third #1), "Candy Girl", "Ain't That a Shame", and several others. In addition, they released a Christmas album in December 1962 and charted with a unique rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town".
From 1962 to early 1964, only the Beach Boys matched the Four Seasons in record sales in the United States, and their first three Vee Jay non-holiday single releases marked the first time that a vocal group hit #1 on the Billboard singles charts with three consecutive entries (ignoring their version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town").
Despite the group's success, Vee Jay Records was in financial distress. Vee Jay released several early Beatles singles in America, and when The Beatles became wildly popular, Vee Jay was swamped with a flood of orders. (Vee Jay shipped more than two million Beatles records in a single month.) The huge demands of mass production, and the cash flow problems involved, found Vee Jay hard pressed to stay afloat.
The label eventually filed for bankruptcy, and a royalty dispute between Vee Jay and The Four Seasons headed to the courtrooms. At the end of 1963, after several successful albums and lack of money from them, The Four Seasons left Vee Jay Records and moved over to Philips Records, a division of Mercury Records. In the settlement of the lawsuit against Vee Jay in 1965, Vee Jay retained release rights for all material the group recorded for the label and exercised them liberally over the following three years. The group was obligated to deliver one final album to Vee Jay, which they did in the form of a live LP.
The change of label did not diminish the popularity of the Four Seasons in 1964, nor did the onslaught of the British Invasion and Beatlemania. However, "Dawn (Go Away)" (recorded for Atlantic Records, which rejected it) was kept from the #1 spot on the Hot 100 by no fewer than three Beatles singles in the March 21, 1964, edition (two weeks later, the top 5 slots were filled by Beatles singles).
In mid-July of that year, the Four Seasons made their fourth trip to the top of the singles charts with "Rag Doll"; additional massive-selling singles from 1964 on their new label included "Ronnie", "Big Man in Town", "Save It for Me", "Bye, Bye, Baby (Baby Goodbye)" (originally "Bye Bye Baby"), and "Girl Come Running". In the meantime, Vee Jay continued releasing Four Seasons singles from their vault, including "Stay" and "Alone." The ultimate in Vee Jay recycling occurred on October 1, 1964, when it coupled 1963's Golden Hits of the 4 Seasons with the label's only Beatles album, Introducing... The Beatles, in a two-record set dubbed The Beatles vs. the Four Seasons: The International Battle of the Century!. Vee Jay put little effort into the package, as each disc in the set still featured the original album's label with the original title and catalog number.
Nick Massi left The Four Seasons in September 1965. The group's arranger, Charles Calello (a former member of the Four Lovers), stepped in as a temporary replacement. A few months later, Joe Long was permanently hired. Joe became the mainstay on bass and backing vocals until 1975. In the meantime, The Four Seasons released recordings under a variety of names, including The Valli Boys, The Wonder Who?, and Frankie Valli (every Valli "solo" recording from 1965 to "My Eyes Adored You" in 1975 had the same personnel and production team as the Four Seasons disks that were recorded at the same time: his first post-1950s single without the Four Seasons was 1975's "Swearin' to God").
More Top 20 singles credited to the Four Seasons followed in 1965, 1966, and 1967, including "Let's Hang On!", "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" (as the Wonder Who?), "Working My Way Back to You", "Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'bout Me)", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Can't Take My Eyes off You" (released under Valli's name as a "solo" single), "Beggin'", "Tell It to the Rain", "C'mon Marianne", and "I Make a Fool of Myself" (Frankie Valli "solo"). "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" was the group's last top 40 hit for seven years (reaching #24), just after Valli's last "solo" hit of the 1960s, the #29 "To Give (The Reason I Live)".
By 1969 the group's popularity had deteriorated as public interest moved away from street corner pop and towards rock with a harder edge, deeper soul music, and music with more socially conscious lyrics. The group's last single on Philips, "Patch of Blue," featured the group's name as "Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons," but the change in billing did not change the act's lack of success in 1970.
After leaving Philips, the newly rechristened act signed onto Motown Records with disastrous results. The first LP, Chameleon, failed to sell after it was released by Motown subsidiary label MoWest Records in 1971. A Frankie Valli "solo" single from 1971 ("Love Isn't Here" on Motown) and three Four Seasons singles ("Walk On, Don't Look Back" on MoWest in 1972, "How Come" and "Hickory" on Motown in 1973) - sank without a trace. A recording that was destined to reach the upper parts of the UK Singles Chart, "The Night", was not commercially released as a single by Motown in the United States after promotional copies (showing the artist as Frankie Valli) were distributed in 1971.
In late 1973 and early 1974, The Four Seasons recorded eight songs for a planned second Motown album, which the company refused to release to the public. Later in 1974, the record label and The Four Seasons parted ways. On behalf of the Four Seasons Partnership, Valli initially tried to purchase the entire collection of master recordings the group made for Motown; upon hearing the amount needed to buy them all, he arranged to purchase one recording for $4000 (US): "My Eyes Adored You".
Valli took the tape to Private Stock Records owner and founder Larry Uttal, who, after repeated listenings of the Four Seasons recording, wanted to release it as a Frankie Valli "solo" single. While the group remained unsigned in the latter part of 1974, Valli had a new label — and a new solo career.
Source : Wikipedia
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Oh What A Night By Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.
Oh, what a night.
Late December back in '63.
What a very special time for me,
'Cause I remember what a night.
Oh, what a night.
You know, I didn't even know her name,
But I was never gonna be the same.
What a lady. What a night.
Oh, I. I got a funny feeling when she walked
In the room and I,
As I recall it ended much too soon.
Oh, what a night,
Hypnotizing, mesmerizing me.
She was everything I dreamed she'd be.
Sweet surrender, what a night!
I felt a rush like a rolling bolt of thunder
Spinnin' my head around and taking my body under.
Oh, what a night!
Oh, I. I got a funny feeling when she walked
In the room and I,
As I recall it ended much too soon.
Oh, what a night.
Why'd it take so long to see the light?
Seemed so wrong, but now it seems so right.
What a lady, what a night!
I felt a rush like a rolling bolt of thunder
Spinnin' my head around and taking my body under.
Oh, what a night!
(Do, do, do, do, do. Do, do, do, do, do, do.)
Oh, what a night!
(Do, do, do, do, do. Do, do, do, do, do, do.)
Oh, what a night!
(Do, do, do, do, do. Do, do, do, do, do, do.)
Oh, what a night!
(Do, do, do, do, do. Do, do, do, do, do, do.)
Oh, what a night!
(Do, do, do, do, do. Do, do, do, do, do, do.)
Oh, what a night!
(Do, do, do, do, do. Do, do, do, do, do,do)
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