May 14, 2009

And The Answer Is…

May 14th, 2009

Two blog readers responded to our question–Can You Name the Unsung Song in Jersey Boys?–with the answer: “The Sun Ain’t Gonna to Shine Anymore.” That’s true–the instrumental of that great song plays in the background in the show; however, we were actually looking for the song whose lyrics are spoken, but not sung, in the show. One reader gave us the correct answer.

In Act Two, Frankie says (to us): …and Nicky was right–the soap keeps getting smaller and the nights keep getting longer. And I’m haunted by this one song Bobby wrote:

“I climbed the ladder of success
I’m one step higher than the rest
I’ve got the guts, I’ve passed the test.
Believe me, friend, that’s all there is.
There ain’t no more.
But if you’ve got a home and family,
You’ve got much more than me.”

The Answer: “Everybody Knows My Name” by The Four Seasons

Written by Bob Gaudio, this song was on The Four Seasons’ 1966 album Working My Way Back To You And More Great New Hits and it is also featured on the 2007 Jersey Beat box set.

14 Comments »

  1. While that verse may have been true for Frankie Valli, and for Bob Gaudio for music insiders and Four Seasons fans, its only with the success of Jersey Boys that Bob Gaudio has achieved the full recognition he has always deserved.

    How Bob Gaudio or anyone else could have produced all those albums for Neil Diamond back in the 1970s and 1980s and didn’t have name recognition among the general public is but one more example.

    Comment by Ted Hammond — May 14, 2009 @ 11:16 am

  2. What about the songs that are played in the background of the show but only the instrumental parts? Wasn’t there a thread about that in the forum one time? No one answered those. I thought this was what this question was about. But thanks for the song clip. I’ve never heard this Four Seasons song before.

    Comment by Amber — May 14, 2009 @ 1:35 pm

  3. You’re so right,Ted. I remember when Diamond’s “Jazz Singer” lp came out, Gaudio’s name was missing as a producer. I think eventually later pressings did have his name it.

    Calello as well. I think he’s still waiting for a thank you from Neil for his arrangement on “Sweet Caroline”.

    Up here in New England where the Red Sox fans sing “Sweet Caroline” in between innings,everytime they accentuate the Bom, Bom, Bom…all I think of is Calello.

    Without Jersey Boys, the general public would still have no idea of the number of songs they hum that came from the Four Seasons School Of Music”.

    Comment by Ray — May 14, 2009 @ 5:20 pm

  4. Speaking of Calello…recently on the local NY news, they were talking about Frank Sinatra (this week marked 11 years since he died of a heart attack at age 82) and the photo they displayed was one of him and Charlie Calello.

    Great little quiz, by the way!

    Comment by Audrey — May 15, 2009 @ 12:56 am

  5. Audrey and Ray, as we well know, there are scores of tracks from uncharted FV4S albums, and even charted ones, that would have charted if they had been the favored artists that others were at the time.

    Another little known fact is that Charles Calello is credited on Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run” album, though not on the title track. And then there’s the “Barnabas Theme Fron Dark Shadows”, arranged and conducted by Charles Calello in 1969. Though that preceded the Disco era, it would have fit right in with “Disco Lucy” and “A Fifth Of Beethoven” in the mid 1970s.

    Comment by Ted Hammond — May 16, 2009 @ 1:00 pm

  6. A Q for you experts already commenting: To me, the arrangement on that sound clip is reminiscent of Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” and Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone.” Any behind-the-scenes reasons for that?

    Comment by stubbleyou — May 17, 2009 @ 10:57 am

  7. EVERYBODY kNOWS MY NAME IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF A SONG THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A HIT IF RELEASED BUT WAS ONLY AN ALBUM CUT.
    LITTLE ANGEL IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE BUT WAS A BB-SIDE.

    Comment by Marty — May 17, 2009 @ 3:35 pm

  8. My take on the similarity of instrumentation is just what you heard on the radio at the time. 65/66 folk-rock tunes had a similar sound and I think that Gaudio/Crewe were just trying to keep their tunes relevant to the times. “EKMN” was kind of a biographical number and that softer sound made the lyric more believable, while many of the other tracks on the “Working” lp used much more lavish horn arrangements.

    Comment by Ray — May 18, 2009 @ 6:04 am

  9. I have a $5 bet with a friend. I say the black and white videos are being filmed on stage as it happens -they are NOT film of the original Seasons.
    Am I right?
    Ann

    Comment by ann — May 18, 2009 @ 12:14 pm

  10. I remember the first time I heard this cut from the “Working My Way Back To You” album. I was away at college and the school library had a copy of the album. I enjoyed all the cuts on this release, but the one that stood out was “Eveybody Knows My Name.” And like Stubbleyou noted earlier, my first though was Frankie and the Seasons were doing a spot-on take on the music/singing styles of both Bob Dylan and Sonny Bono! To this day, this is one of my very favorite non-hit tracks by the Seasons, and I was pleased it was included on the recent “Jersey Beat” collection.

    Comment by Len Gersten — May 18, 2009 @ 12:20 pm

  11. Ann: You’re right.

    Comment by Leanna — May 18, 2009 @ 12:39 pm

  12. I was told the Jersey Boys show in NYC is longer then the Las Vegas show. I was told they sing more songs in the Broadway production? Does anyone know if this is true?

    Comment by Iris Hontz — October 11, 2009 @ 6:43 pm

  13. All the productions are longer than the Vegas production, but no, they do not “sing more songs” outside of Vegas. No full songs have been cut from the Vegas production — just a few lines of dialogue, one verse of Beggin, one verse of Apple of My Eye, and one verse of Ces Soirees La. (There might be more, but they’re all very inconsequential.)

    Comment by Leanna — October 11, 2009 @ 10:33 pm

  14. Charlie Calello should feel honored that his arrangement of “Sweet Caroline” has now been played at Yankee Stadium and Cubs Stadium in solidarity of the people of Boston mourning the tragedy at the Boston Marathon. The fans in Boston and now New York and Chicago sing along with Charlie’s signature horn arrangement.

    Here is the Yankee Stadium performance link with crowd noise singing along with Charlie’s horn arrangement.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puyzSpsfyAU

    Comment by Ted — April 17, 2013 @ 9:15 pm

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