Sherry · The Four Seasons · 1962

  Play the song.  

Some of our grandchildren were visiting us over the weekend. At one point on Saturday evening I came across my youngest granddaughter. She was playing games on one of the computers in my home office. And at the same time she was grooving to some music I had in a playlist on another. The six-year-old was happily singing along with the Four Seasons as they sang “Sherry” I asked her if she liked that song, and with a smile, she nodded her approval. Currently, one of the most popular Broadway musicals is “Jersey Boys” which is based on the story of the Four Seasons and their songs. Here’s a little more information about the Jersey boys.

Along with the emergence of rock and roll music in the mid fifties, there came a series of fads. Here are just a few that I remember: the hula hoop, coonskin caps, sideburns and “DA” haircuts, and short shorts.

I can remember my older (girl) cousins being intrigued by short shorts. (I suppose the older boys found them fascinating too, but I was too young then to pick up on it.) Back then, short shorts were a new—and daring—attire for teenage girls.

And that fad inspired a popular song in 1958. In that year, the Royal Teens, a quartet from Fort Lee, New Jersey, had a number three hit on the Billboard™ Top 100 singles chart called “Short Shorts.” One of the members of the Royal Teens was Bob Gaudio.

Meanwhile, there was another New Jersey group in Newark that was trying to get some attention. That group had been founded back in 1955 by Frankie Valli. The name of the group was the “Variatones”. Or was it “Frankie Valli and the Travelers”? Wait a minute, it might have been “Frankie Love and the Four Lovers” or just “The Four Lovers”. Come to think of it, his name might actually have been “Frankie Vally.” Or was it “Frankie Tyler.” No. Wait—I’m positive it was “Frankie Valle and the Romans.”

Actually, it was all of the above plus “Billy Dixon and the Topics”, Village Voices”, “The Topics”, and “Eric Anthony.” (Bob Gaudio had had a couple of alter egos as well: “Turner Di Sentri” and “Alex Alda.”)

Anyway, back in the fifties, while Frankie and the Four Lovers were searching for an identity, they were looking for a hit song too. They recorded “You’re the Apple of My Eye,” a song they performed on the Ed Sullivan TV show. But subsequent releases failed to chart. Then, in 1958, Frankie met songwriter Bob Crewe when he recorded a solo effort titled “I Go Ape.” That was the beginning of a successful partnership, as Bob became the group’s producer and co-writer.

Then one day in 1958, Frankie and his boys appeared on the same Baltimore TV show that was featuring the Royal Teens singing “Short Shorts.” And that is how Frankie Valli met Bob Gaudio. This Jersey connection produced the basis of one of the most successful groups of the sixties: The Four Seasons. (They took their new name from a New Jersey bowling alley.)

“Sherry“, written by Bob Gaudio, produced by Bob Crewe, and featuring the unmistakable falsetto vocals of Frankie Valli, topped the Hot 100 in September of 1962, for five weeks.

“Big girls don’t cry,” was a phrase uttered by Clark Gable in a movie, and it inspired Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio to write the second chart-topper for the Four Seasons. Peaking in November of 1962, also for five weeks.

  Big Girls Don’t Cry
 

  Walk Like a Man  

Now the group was gaining momentum. Their next charted song was a holiday release “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” in December. But following that, topping the chart on March 2, 1963, is “Walk Like A Man“.

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  Rag Doll  

This song apparently had its genesis in lower Manhattan, around Greenwich Village. According to writer Bob Gaudio:

“I was coming down the Westside Highway, near 10th Avenue, where there is the longest traffic light of all time. When you stop for the light, a bunch of kids run out and clean your windows and get a couple of cents. I had come in one day going to a session and stopped at the light, and this little girl—I didn’t realize it was a little girl right away—came over and was cleaning my windows.

“I saw her face—just the picture of her face and the clothes…with holes in her stockings and a little cap on her head. She finished cleaning and was standing by the window and I started searching my pockets. I didn’t have any change at all. I thought, ‘this is terrible, what am I going to do?’ I found my money, and the smallest thing I had was a five dollar bill.

“There was a split second where I said, ‘I can’t give her a five dollar bill,’ but I couldn’t give her nothing. So I gave her the five dollar bill. The look on her face when I was pulling away—she didn’t say ‘thank you,’ she just stood there with the bill in her hand and I could see her in the rear-view mirror, just standing in disbelief in the middle of the street with the five dollars. And that whole image stayed with me, a rag doll was what she looked like.” Source: The Billboard Book of #1 Hits

“Rag Doll“, written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, topped the singles chart during the week of July 18, 1964, occupying the top spot for two weeks.

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons CDs