Songoftheday 6/28/19 - I felt a rush like a rollin' ball of thunder, spinnin' my head around n' takin' my body under
originally from the album Who Loves You (1975)
1994 remix from the album Oh What A Night (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak (1976): #1 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40 (1976): 15
Billboard Hot 100 peak (1994): #14 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40 (1994): 20
Today's song of the day comes from Frankie Valli and his group the Four Seasons. Valli, who had spent much of the 1950 with a band called the Four Lovers, which had a minor pop hit with the single "You're The Apple Of My Eye" (#62, 1956), but with no other success. By the end of the decade and countless name changes, Valli, along with keyboard player Bob Gaudio and Nick Massi on bass, and Tommy DeVito on guitar, settled in with "The Four Seasons". Hooking up with producer Bob Crewe, they released one independent single on Gone Records that stiffed ("Bermuda") before signing with Vee Jay (one of the labels that distributed early Beatles' records). Their first effort there was a song written by Gaudio and produced by Crewe, "Sherry". That song became their first hit, going all the way to #1 on both the pop and R&B charts. That was followed by two more #1 pop hits, "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Walk Like A Man", an impressive hat trick that instantly made them national superstars. However, because of the label's financial troubles caused by its stunted relationship with the Beatles that eventually affected their work with the Seasons, with only one more top ten hit ("Candy Girl", #3 1963) before they were able to completely break free in 1965. But in the meantime, the band had already started releasing music on the Phillips label, beginning with 1964's "Dawn (Go Away)", which still sported the Gaudio/Crewe partnership (with Sandy Linzer co-writing), which went to #3 for three weeks on the Hot 100. Within a couple of months the Seasons had scored their fourth #1 pop hit, "Rag Doll".
In 1965, Massi left, eventually replaced by Joe Long (with a little stint by former Four Lover and band arranger Charlie Calello). So much music was being recorded that some of it from the same sessions was released as "solo" recordings of Frankie Valli, with about the same success - The Four Seasons went to #3 in that year with "Let's Hang On", while two years later Valli spent a week at #2 with "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". But by the end of the decade, the hits dried up both as a group and a solo act as rock music eclipsed the vocal groups that the Seasons were patterned under. After a failed psychedelic album experiment left them dropped from Phillips, the Four Seasons again were all over the place, releasing some music in the early 70s in the UK only, while other work through Motown for a couple of years. In 1974, on the Private Stock label, Valli returned in a big way with "My Eyes Adored You", his first "solo" #1 hit on the American pop chart that also went to #2 on the Adult Contemporary list (Frankie's biggest there so far) and #5 in the UK. That was followed by a second top ten hit with "Swearin' To God" (#6). With this momentum, but without his bandmates save Gaudio who shifted over to producer for the band, the Four Seasons got a deal with Warner Brothers. Forming a new band with guitarist John Paiva, bass player Don Ciccone, keyboardist Lee Shapiro, and now official drummer Gerry Polci. Because of Valli's failing voice due to health troubles at the time, Ciccone and more importantly Polci shared lead vocal duties with Frankie.
In the spring of 1975, while Valli's solo "Swearin' To God" was climbing the charts in America, the "old" band's Motown recording of "The Night" (with Valli, Long, and Gaudio) became a big hit in the UK at #7. The summer of that year brought the first single by the revamped "Seasons", "Who Loves You". Written by Gaudio and wife Judy Parker, the single fit right in to the disco craze that was getting in full swing, and climbed to #3 for two weeks on the American pop Hot 100, while hitting #7 on the Adult Contemporary format list (the band's first appearance) and #6 in the UK. Also, Valli's solo remake of Ruby & The Romantics' "Our Day Will Come" landed at #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #11 on the pop Hot 100. But (of course) in December of 1975 the Four Seasons, buoyed by the success of "Who Loves You", released the second single from the Who Loves You album. "December, 1963 (Oh What A Night)", again written by Gaudio and Parker, was a look back to the singer's younger past in finding love for the first time (in vague meaning) set over a bouncy midtempo beat that was groovy but not as slick as the disco stylings of the rest of the album. But it definitely touched a nerve with the fans, and the Four Seasons and especially Valli found themselves with another chart-topping hit. But for this one, Valli took a backing role as Polci sang lead while Ciccone did falsetto on the late hook, leaving Frankie singing the bridge...
"December 1963 (Oh What A Night)" spent three weeks at #1 on the pop chart in America in March of 1976, spending 27 weeks on the Hot 100, a pretty decent feat in those times. The song also climbed to #18 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, while internationally topping the charts in both the UK and Canada. A third single from Who Loves You, the Polci led "Silver Star", got to #38 on the pop chart in the U.S., but rose to #3 in Britain.
But while that "comeback" held enough for Valli to grab a #1 solo pop hit with the title song from the smash movie version of the Broadway show Grease, neither Frankie nor the Seasons were able to capitalize on the momentum for another album, with a couple of minor hits for each, with a live version of "Spend The Night In Love" (again, sung by Polci) slipping in at #91 in 1980.
Fast forward to the late 1980s, which found "Four Seasons" much as a touring act, having released an album, Streetfighter, that went nowhere, as will their release from 1992, Hope & Glory (which had the same no-name besides Valli lineup). But in 1988, a remixed version of "Who Loves You" started to catch notice in Europe (I had even picked up the 12" single then). That was remixed by Dutch DJ Ben Liebrand, who had worked on material from the likes of Paula Abdul and Alexander O'Neal. He also did a revamp of "December 1963", which at first didn't go anywhere in 1988, but in 1994 was re-released by Curb Records to a receptive mainstream radio atmosphere, and the single came back to the charts in a big way, spending another 27 weeks on the Hot 100, setting a record at the time...
Liebrand's remix of "December 1963" brought the song back into the top-20 in October of 1994. The song also went to #22 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format chart. Internationally, the single peaked at #8 in Belgium and #18 in the Netherlands.
This would be Valli and the Four Seasons' last charting hit so far, but their legacy carries on not only with him touring but the Broadway show and eventually movie Jersey Boys.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the band performing on Dick Clark's New Years Eve show in 1977...
and a concert gig from the 70s...
In 1995, when everything had to be released in a Eurodance version, the British act Clock put out a cover version, which hit #13 in both the UK and Ireland...
Back to the Four Seasons on the Midnight Special live TV Show...
And Valli still hangin on in 2018...
And finally, a promotional video done by the Who Loves You-era band in Reno...
Up tomorrow: Rocketman goes a-round and a-round.
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