March 22, 2009

Today in Frankie Valli Music History

March 22nd, 2009

On March 22, 1975, “My Eyes Adored You” by Frankie Valli topped the Billboard Top 100 chart! The song, written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, stayed in the top spot for one week and remained on the chart for 23 weeks.

So many memories with “My Eyes Adored You”! I’ll never, ever forget hearing it for the first time, sometime in December, 1974 on the WCOL Radio, the AM Top 40 radio station in Columbus! It was the OMG moment–when I found out that Frankie Valli was back on the charts! Buying the 45 at the local record store, calling the nightly “hitline” to request the song, and watching the song climb up the local and national charts–it was all so great!

What about your “My Eyes Adored You” memories?

13 Comments »

  1. What I remember the most about this song is that Frankie started including it in his live shows in 74, asking people what they thought of it as a potential release. Of course, we loved it but coming off failed releases like “The Scalawag Song”, I did’t think it would hit the air either. When I eventually heard it on radio I thought that it might have a chance. It took forever to climb the charts. Thanks to Larry Utal’s faith in this record….we had ourselves a comeback.

    Comment by Ray — March 22, 2009 @ 7:08 am

  2. Thanks for posting this anniversary, Susie. It represents a very bittersweet memory for me, and one I’ve relived hundreds of times in the past 34 years.

    The date was Nov. 30, 1974, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I had grown up with the Four Seasons since I was 11 years old and my widowed dad was also familiar with Frankie Valli’s music. My father and I were listening to WPIX-FM as we were riding in the car on Nov. 30, and MEAY came on. Both of us were pleasantly surprised, since we hadn’t heard from Frankie or the Seasons in a long time. We both loved the song.

    The following Monday, my father died in an accident, so that memory of the last song we shared together was indelibly etched in my mind forever.

    Through the 1974-1975 winter, I listened to Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40″ evey week to monitor MEAY’s ever-so-slow progress to the top of the charts (it took a then-record 18 weeks), almost as a tribute to my father. I also glanced at Billboard on the newsstands, and remember noting that when the song lingered in the 40′s or 50′s, I thought it had peaked. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

    “My Eyes Adored You” hit #2 on 3/15/75, and I recalled that “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” had stalled at #2 in 1967, unable to overtake the Association’s “Windy”. Would history repeat itself?

    I vividly recall listening to Casey’s countdown the next week, and the Doobie Brothers’ “Black Water” slipped to #4 from #1, I knew there were only three possibilities for #1: Frankie’s “Eyes”, LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade” and Minnie Riperton’s “Lovin’ You”. First, Casey announced “Lovin’ You” at #3, and I not-so-patiently waited for the birds to stop chirping. As he then introduced LaBelle’s “Marmalade” at #2, I let out a shout (and I was alone) “Dad, we made it!” and literally wept.

    The next Sunday, I didn’t have to wait long to learn “My Eyes Adored You” had slipped to #8, and my life returned to normal. Or had it??

    Comment by Howard Tucker — March 22, 2009 @ 9:00 am

  3. The first time I ever heard “My Eyes Adored You” was around Thanksgiving, 1974. I remember coming home from the library where I had just checked out a bunch of books for an college Art History paper, and flipped on the radio and heard it. It was on WOMC, the 190,000 watt FM powerhouse from Detroit (now WCBS-FM’s sister station).

    At the time, WOMC was an “Easy Listening” or “Adult Contemporary” format station. The record broke on those stations a few weeks before the Top 40 stations began playing it. There was a lot of resistance to more mellow songs like “My Eyes Adored You” by the PDs at Top 40 stations, who preferred hard rock and “Album Oriented Rock” to FV4S and more mellow fare, and that resistance continues today on many “Oldies” and “Classic Hits” type stations. That resistance is also why it took 18 weeks, the longest ever at the time, for MEAY to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

    Comment by Ted Hammond — March 22, 2009 @ 9:40 am

  4. Great to see some live performances appearing in good sound quality from the days when we all supported the concerts. The performances on the UK tours back in 1976 and 77 are historic for UK fans.

    More please.

    Comment by Ken Charmer — March 22, 2009 @ 10:36 am

  5. This music is taken from the Re-United Live album, I am 99% sure of it
    Love this song, hearing Ryan sing it in Jersey Boys when Mary leaves Frankie, always makes me shed a tear

    Comment by Tina Ryan — March 22, 2009 @ 11:48 am

  6. I really like this live version. There will always be only be one Frankie. What a nice soft touch he gave to this performance. He so much deserves all this adoration that JB has brought him.

    Comment by grace — March 22, 2009 @ 12:22 pm

  7. A warm welcome to you and the other UK posters, Ken.

    I was just looking through my Whitburn Publications to check my memory of 1974, Howard.

    “My Eyes Adored You” debuted on the Adult Comtemporary Chart for the week ending 11/9/74, and Bubbled Under at #103 for the WE 11/16/1974, before debuting at #94 for the WE 11/23/1974.

    I was looking on Wikipedia for the history of WPIX-FM, and it called itself an “Adult Top 40″ station in that era. That and the fact that Frankie Valli had been known for that New York/New Jersey “sound” added up to an early add on WPIX-FM.

    It did not debut until January 14, 1975 on WABC at #29, from the musicradio77 website.

    http://www.musicradio77.com/Surveys/1975/surveyjan1475.html

    Comment by Ted Hammond — March 22, 2009 @ 12:45 pm

  8. Ray is so right. I heard MEAY many times in concert before actually hearing it on the radio. Frankie also sang MEAY on a Mike Douglas appearance. It is not too much of a stretch to say that without MEAY, which is Frankie’s real comeback song, there may not have been a 4 Seasons’ resurgence and there might not have been “Who Loves You” or “December ’63.”

    The melody is infectious. According to co-writer Kenny Nolan, the original words he had a dream about was “Blue Eyes in Georgia…They’re the only eyes I ever loved, my eyes in Georgia.” The next day when he was putting a demo of the song on cassette “Blue Eyes in Georgia” became “My Eyes Adored You.” A few years later, Kenny Nolan recorded a song by himself called “I Like Dreamin’” and had a big hit with it with basically the same melody.

    Comment by D. Cace — March 22, 2009 @ 1:39 pm

  9. howard, your story about this song is very touching, as it was when you told me in my store quite some time ago, i remember this song when i was graduating high school and was happy that my paisan from newark was again on the top of the world………

    Comment by jim petrecca — March 22, 2009 @ 9:16 pm

  10. I checked the Blog quickly yesterday morning before running out for the start of the Four Seasons Old Neighborhood Tour and was excited to see this music history moment. What a memorable date to link with the day of our tour. I’m SO impressed with the comprehensive and detailed knowledge of many JB Blog readers.

    Comment by Audrey — March 23, 2009 @ 9:14 am

  11. The song is from the 1980 LIVE Reunited Tour album …

    Comment by Jerry — March 23, 2009 @ 8:53 pm

  12. My 10-piece group, “The BRASS KNUCKLES BAND” does a Frankie Valli “Eyes” medley – “MY EYES ADORED YOU” and “CAN’T TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU.” Our audiences love it. Thank you, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons for creating such ever-lasting music. “Let’s Hang On!”

    Comment by Rich Miller — March 23, 2009 @ 10:07 pm

  13. It’s fun to coordinate all the information from books, the internet, and our memories of these times. I just tried to find WPIX-FM surveys online. There’s only ONE I could find, from November 26, 1975. “Who Loves You” was #8. Howard, David, Jim, Len, and others, if you know anyone who has a collection of them, they might want to copy them and send them to ARSA. ARSA has the same one that is on the site I found. It’s surprising that in a Metro as big as NYC, no one would have collected them. I know used record stores in many towns have access to local surveys, it’s kind of a sideline.

    Comment by Ted Hammond — March 23, 2009 @ 10:51 pm

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