Friday Flashback: Mid ’70s Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons!
May 13th, 2011It was a treat to find this mid-’70s video of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons (Don Ciccone, John Paiva, Gerry Polci, & Lee Shapiro) in the recording studio singing “Who Loves You”!
I’ll never forget the first time I heard “Who Loves You”! It was on July 4, 1975 post-fireworks at a 13-year-old slumber birthday celebration for one of my classmates. Frankie Valli was the host of the “Midnight Special” and his guests included The Four Seasons, The Hollies, Orleans, and Freddy Fender.
When the Seasons began singing “Who Loves You,” the TV screen was split into four squares–with group singing the phenomenal chorus, then when Frankie began his vocals, he was in a circle right in the middle of the screen. I was having an OMG moment, thinking, ‘This song is going to put the Seasons back on the charts!’
By mid-August of that year, my prediction came true as Top 40 radio stations began playing “Who Loves You”! 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!
The song, written by Bob Gaudio and Judy Parker, peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November, 1975!
What about your “Who Loves You†memories?
My wife and I were married in 1974 and Frankie came out with “My Eyes Adored You” right after that.
“Who Loves You” was released in August of 1975, right after our first son was born and went to #3 on the charts by November.
The “Who Loves You” album came out in November of 1975 and became my favorite Season’s album.
“WLY” is also my favorite single …
Comment by Jerry D. — May 13, 2011 @ 1:00 pm
I also heard “Who Loves You” first on the Midnight Special. I also remember Orleans singing “Dance With Me” on that show, and both became big hits. It was not until several weeks later that I first heard WLY on the radio, on the same station that broke “Dawn (Go Away)” in “late December back in ’63″ when it was an acetate being shopped to radio stations and record labels. Although WLY was being played on some stations in August, 1975, I didn’t hear it until about the beginning of September.
I was really upset when WLY lost its star at #3 on Billboard. It did hit #1 in a handful of station charts.
Comment by Ted Hammond — May 13, 2011 @ 7:07 pm
@Jerry D: The “Who Loves You” album is one of my top favorite Seasons albums as well…We’ll have to feature clips from the whole album soon. So many great cuts!
@Ted: As I recall, for quite a few Sundays in a row, the American Top 40 host (it was either Robert W. Morgan? or Wink Martindale?–while Casey Kasem was gone for a while) kept stating that WLY was “a strong contender for #1.” I was disappointed when his prediction didn’t come true. In Columbus, as I recall, WLY remained at #2 for 3 straight weeks on the big AM Top 40 station at the time.
Comment by Susie — May 13, 2011 @ 7:49 pm
I was just looking at some websites that have nearly complete archives of music surveys, Susie. WABC New York didn’t add WLY until October 14, 1975, and WLS Chicago didn’t add it until November 1, 1975. They both showed up without being “Hitbound” or “Pick Hits”. It almost looks like they added it because they could no longer ignore it, because IT WAS OBVIOUSLY ALREADY A BIG HIT!
Looking over the ARSA website, WCOL was an “early add” station, and not just for the Four Seasons. I sometimes wonder how many more #1 hits, how many more Top 10 albums, and how many more records FV4S would have sold if they had had agressive marketing like the Beatles, etc. And I also wonder what effect that late radio survey adds in the larger markets had on overall sales of the “early add” songs in smaller markets.
Comment by Ted Hammond — May 14, 2011 @ 6:09 pm
great song, always brings cheers from fans as soon as they begin to harmonize. best of all, seeing Joey Long’s name in the credit’s. I miss his bantering with Frankie during concerts
Comment by Bob Nelson — May 15, 2011 @ 7:50 am
Love this video! You can download it on iTunes so you can carry it everywhere you go
Comment by Meg — June 3, 2011 @ 5:20 pm
Gerry Polci and Lee Shapiro are now The Hit Men http://www.thehitmenlive.com performing all of the music of Frankie Valli and The 4 Seasons and sounding exactly like they did back in the day! Gerry sang lead on “Oh What a Night”
Comment by Ron Gartner — June 15, 2014 @ 7:45 pm