Bob Gaudio’s Reflections on Jersey Boys & The Four Seasons’ Music!
December 12th, 2010
Bob Gaudio (Photo Credit: J.T. Macmillan Photography)
Jed Gottlieb of The Boston Herald has posted an interview with the legendary Bob Gaudio, who discusses the global success of JERSEY BOYS, the 50-year Four Seasons’ phenomenon, and other artists’ covering the songwriter’s hits. Here’s a sneak peek:
“Jersey Boys,†the smash musical based on the story of the Four Seasons, returns to Boston on Thursday for a six-week engagement at the Colonial Theatre. Meanwhile, the show has celebrated its fifth anniversary on Broadway and expanded into new countries: Canada, England and Australia.For Gaudio, seeing his tunes celebrated around the globe all over again is astonishing. Original fans take their kids to the show, and those kids take their kids.
Of course, Gaudio has never had trouble finding a foothold with a new audience.
When he was 15 years old, he co-wrote the hit “Short Shorts†for his group the Royal Teens. During and after the Seasons’ heyday, he wrote and produced for icons including Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Neil Diamond. He saw “December, 1963†remixed into a college-bar club anthem in the ’90s and “Can’t Take My Eyes off You†twisted into hip-hop by Lauryn Hill.
“I love Lauryn Hill’s version to death,†he said. “For her to take the horn lick out, took a lot of, and I could use a stronger word, guts. And then to have it work was amazing.â€
Visit BostonHerald.com to read the entire interview with Bob Gaudio.
I keep discovering more and more covers of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons songs, many accidentally, on the Internet. Like Mr. Gaudio has said, the Four Seasons had a time in the UK in the 1970s when they were fanatically popular. Two of their songs, “You’re Ready Now” and “The Night”, are on Kev Robert’s “Northern Soul Top 500″ of all time. A third is a cover by The Velours of a virtually identical arrangement of the Petrillo/Cifelli composition “I’m Gonna Change”. The vocals on the cover are different because they didn’t have Frankie Valli’s vocal range to work with.
Another interesting one is Shocking Blue’s cover of “Beggin’” from 1974.
Comment by Ted Hammond — December 13, 2010 @ 10:59 am