“Peanuts” was a remake of “Peanut” (with no “S” on the end) originally
done by Little Joe & The Thrillers in 1957.

“The Girl In My Dreams” is a remake of a remake where like in “Peanuts” with an “S,” the title of the original was slightly changed. Frankie and Tommy with Tommy’s brother Nick and Hank Majewski recorded “The Girl in My Dreams” as the Four Lovers for RCA and it appeared as the “B” side to the Four Lovers only hit “You’re The Apple of My Eye.” But the original original was entitled “Girl of My Dreams” with credit going to The Cliques as the artists in 1956. Actually “The Cliques” was Jesse Belvin who recorded his voice fout times to create the effect of a four man group. Jesse Belvin is more famous for recording “Goodnight My Love” which was also covered by the 4 Seasons (see “Big Girls Don’t Cry and Twelve Others” Jersey Boys Blog entry). Legendary Rock ‘n’ Roll DJ Alan Freed used to close his show every night with “Goodnight My Love” by Jesse Belvin. It is my understanding that his closing line was “It’s not goodbye but just goodnight.” Jesse Belvin is also credited as one of the song writers of the Rock ‘n” Roll classic, “Earth Angel” a song also later covered by the 4 Seasons on the “Dawn” album and which is sung by Christian Hoff in “Jersey Boys.”

Lastly, “Lost Lullabye” was a remake originally done by that now famous group Billy Dixon & The Topics. If I recall correctly, it was the “B” side to the now famous “Trance” as sung by Donnie Kerr in “Jersey Boys.” It was one of the first, if not the first, collaberations by Gaudio and Crewe.

Your insight into the Four Seasons’ music is phenomenal and appreciated! Can’t wait to hear what you guys have to say about “Big Girls Don’t Cry & 12 Others” (coming soon to the blog)!

Best,
Susie

Thank you for the kind words. For many of us who frequent the Blog, the 4 Seasons were a big part of our life in the ’60s as “kids” and to be able to share stories and history about the group after all these years is just great and we all have “Jersey Boys” and Susie’s “Blog” to thank for that, as well as Steve and Christy Holden’s “Podcast” and Frank Rovello’s GILG web site. To this day, I continue to pick up information about the group from other fans and from interviews I read given by Frankie, Bob, and Tommy, and those connected with “Jersey Boys.” Perhaps the only thing I have more information of than most is that I saw the original 4 Seasons, and that is always inclusive of Joe Long in my opinion, perform in concert so often. Later in life, I did some research on the 1950s material and artists like Rose Murphy, Nellie Lutcher, James Moody, Annie Ross, King Pleasure, Eddie Jefferson, and Little Jimmy Scott, and then only because they were inspirations to Frankie Valli.

Regarding the many stories about “Don’t Think Twice” and the “Wonder Who” I am very confident that the version I gave is the correct version as I have confirmed it with Frank Rovello, and is more or less the version used by the group when they performed it live back in the ’60s and they did a little introduction of the making of it before they sang it, which was always done with a little dose of humor. “Don’t Think Twice” became their audience participation song and always got the crowd going. Thanks for letting me share this with you and other 4 Seasons fans.

As always, you are an incrediable source of information regarding Frankie Valli and The 4 Seasons (and apparently Rose Murphy as well!)!! Although my post above was obviously received after your initial post regarding the “Sherry and 11 Others” blog entry, it had not yet been posted at the time I submitted mine. My comment pales in camparison to all the wonderful insights you offer in the above two comments.

The background information you share concerning the making of the record “Don’t Think Twice,” by the Wonder Who is truly fascinating. Over the years, I had heard some asides concerning the origin of this track, but your version seems to makes the most sense. And the information you share regarding your purchase of the original album is uncanny!! The fact that you can remember the exact purchase price of the record, $2.89, is literally priceless!

I (and I am sure many others on this blog and the related podcasts) enjoy your comments immensely! They add a wonderful dimension and scope to the understanding and history of Frankie Valli and The 4 Seasons, and Jersey Boys in particular, and the development our country’s popular music and cultural heritage in more general terms.

Thank you,

Len

You are correct regarding “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love.” There is a connection to the “Wonder Who,” See above comment No. 1.

The only other thing to add is that when the 4 Seasons were recording the “Big Hits” album for Philips (half Bacharach/David hits and half Dillon hits) and did the basic track (instruments and background vocals) for Dillon’s “Don’t Think Twice” it was done in a key that was too high for Frankie’s regular/normal voice. They had to either do the basic track over again or Frankie had to sing it in a higher key, which obviously was not a problem for him. He apparently started fooling around in the higher key using his old Rose Murphy voice. As I understand it, the “Wonder Who” was created by accident in this way, Rose Murphy’s “Bruup, Bruups” included. It is also my understanding that is was Bob Crewe who said let’s do it that way and release it. Frank Rovello from the GILG website may be able to add some additional color to this quirk of fate genesis of the “Wonder Who” (“The stars were in alignment”)