New JB Blog Poll: What’s Your Favorite Four Seasons’ Hit NOT Featured in Jersey Boys?
January 6th, 2007It’s time for a new Jersey Boys Blog Poll! We’d like to know what is your favorite Four Seasons hit that was NOT featured in Jersey Boys.
As you all know, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons had a TON of hits on the charts throughout the 1960′s and ’70s! Although Jersey Boys features an incredible amount of the group’s monster hits, there were quite a few hits not performed in the show. So, we thought we’d highlight some of the hits you don’t get to hear on stage, and ask which one is your favorite.
Below are some fun facts about each of the Four Seasons’ hits listed on the JB Blog Poll:
Candy Girl: Released in the summer of 1963 on the Vee-Jay label, this smash, written by Larry Santos, climbed to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Marlena: : This song, written by Bob Gaudio, was the B side of “Candy Girl,” and peaked at the #36 position on the charts. Many fans thought this should have been released as an A side.
Ronnie: Released in the spring of 1964 on the Philips label, this Bob Gaudio/Bob Crewe pop classic rose to #6 on the charts.
Save It For Me: This was another Gaudio/Crewe masterpiece from the “Rag Doll” album that peaked at #9 in the fall of 1964.
Girl Come Running: This Gaudio/Crewe tune entered the charts in the summer of 1965 and made it to the #30 position.
Don’t Think Twice: The Four Seasons released a version of this Bob Dylan song as a single in the fall of 1965 under the pseudonym The Wonder Who? Despite an unknown band name, it was still a hit, going to #12 in the US.
I’ve Got You Under My Skin: During the fall of 1966, the Four Seasons climbed to #9 on the charts with this Cole Porter standard.
Tell it to the Rain: This late ’60s Four Seasons sensation, written by Mike Petrillo and Anthony Cifelli, rose to #10 in the winter of 1967.
Will You Love Me Tomorrow: This timeless Carole King/Gerry Goffin song was originally recorded and hit the top of the charts by the Shirelles in 1960. The Four Seasons made it their own, going to #24 in the spring of 1968.
Before you vote, you might want to take a moment to listen to these tremendous Four Seasons’ hits from Rhino’s Anthology: Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
You can vote for your favorite hit in the current poll on the sidebar to the right, or from the JB Blog Polls page.
I would add “Silence Is Golden”, reported Gaudio’s favorite of ALL the songs he wrote.
It was covered from the Four Seasons album by the Walker Bros before it could be released as a 4Seasons single and was a huge hit for The Walker Bros as it would have been for the $ seasons.
It is a great song/record and many believe the 4Sreasons version is much beytter than the Walker Bros cover!!!!!
Comment by Karl — January 7, 2007 @ 3:23 am
I agree 100% that the 4 Seasons version of “Silence is Golden is head and shoulders above the cover. The cover version was, however, done by the Tremeloes, another UK group. The Walker Brothers covered Frankie’s first solo attempt, “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore).” The Tremeloes vocals (lead and backgroud) on “Silence of Golden,” are weak in comparison to Frankie’s and the 4 Seasons’, and the guitar playing is amateurish compared to Tommy DeVito’s. The whole production actually is really weak when comparied to what Bob Crewe did with “Silence is Golden.” “Silence is Golden” was the “B” side to “Rag Doll” as I recall but should have been released as an independent “A” side for sure, much like “Marlena” should have (“B” side to “Candy Girl”). “Silence is Golden” originally appeared on the “folk-flavored” Philips “Born To Wander” album. Frankie still performs “Silence is Golden” to this day. It is still an audience favorite after all these years.
Comment by David Cace — January 7, 2007 @ 11:30 am
I think that “To Give” should have found it’s way into the show.
Gaudio/Crewe penned this one to showcase Frankie’s
vocal talents and it certainly would have fit the framework of some of the later scenes.
It has such a Broadway-esque feel to it and I believe it could have been a show stopper.
Comment by Ray Ricci — January 7, 2007 @ 11:37 am
Thanks for the correction. Actually, “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” is the song I meant to refer to…..THAT song is reportedly Gaudio favorite of all the songs that he wrote.
The additional of both these songs “Silenece Is Golden” and “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” are possible additions/replacements to the UK production of Jersey Boys when it opens in London.
So they would be appropriate to this list.
Comment by Karl — January 7, 2007 @ 1:52 pm
I guess we all have other favorites that weren’t even “nominated” above. I would have included “Watch the Flowers Grow.” I also remember as a child enjoying “Connie-O”, which I think was the B-side of “Big Girls Don’t Cry”.
Comment by Howard — January 7, 2007 @ 2:15 pm
I noticed that the song “Big Man In Town” has been added to the list of eligible songs to vote on. As much as I enjoy this tune, it should not qualify for this particular poll because it appears in the opening of Act 2 in the show. I would just like to say that the other additions to the list were all extremely deserving selections! Thanks!!
Comment by Len Gersten — January 8, 2007 @ 4:05 pm
Ray
What an insightful comment about “To Give.” It would indeed make a great Broadway tune…kind of like the “Impossble Dream.” There may be one small problem, however, and this is not a knock against any of the great singers who play Frankie Valli in the show, but who would be able to sing “To Give” live every night. You would have to be an operatic tenor, or Frankie Valli in 1968, to sing it. I recall Frankie singing “To Give” live on the old Joey Bishop show with a full orchestra and his own personal horn section. I also have some tape recordings of Frankie singing “To Give” live in concert in 1968 and his singing of it is absolutely stunning and moving. Ditto for Frankie’s live closing on “My Mother’s Eyes” even better than his “Solo” album rendetion.
In 1970, Frankie replaced those two songs in the show with “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore)” and “Circles in the Sand” both of which were much better than the recordings and of course had a closing rather than a fade out ending. When I first heard “Circles in the Sand” in a concert just before the release of the “Half and Half” album, I would have given 10 to 1 that it was going straight to number one. No promotion and a mediocre recorded version, however (although the single release did have a closing instead of a fade out ending as does the album cut, but nowhere near as effective as when Frankie did it live in concert). Bob Gaudio provided the “double tracking” effect to Frankie’s lead on “Circle in the Sand” in concert.
Comment by David Cace — January 12, 2007 @ 6:34 pm
Another underrated song is “The Girl I’ll Never Know (Angels Never Fly This Low)”. It hit #52 Billboard, but was equal in production quality and had a similar theme to “Just My Imagination”, a #1 hit for the Temptations.
I agree “Marlena” is one of the best also. I think that “Marlena” had an influence on Graham Nash in the Hollies’ “Carrie Anne”. I suspect that Graham Nash was a big secret fan of the Four Seasons, and evolved that “Roop doop dooby doop” of “Marlena” into the “Doo doo doo doo doot” in “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” by Crosby, Stills and Nash. But you’ll never read that in Rolling Stone publications.
Comment by Ted Hammond — April 1, 2007 @ 9:51 pm
“The Girl I’ll Never Know…(GNK)” is one of my favorites too Ted and apparently quite a few others based on the latest Jersey Boys Blog poll of favorite Frankie Valli songs. Its high placement in the poll is a bit of a [pleasant] suprise to me. Frankie did GNK on the Mike Douglas Show and in concert when it was a hit and for a short time thereafter and it was always an audience favorite.
I agree that the 4 Seasons were influences for many artists if only acknowledged by Bill Joel. For example, one commenter like yourself made a great point that Tommy DeVito’s guitar introduction on “C’mon Marianne” was in effect copied by organist Ray Manzarak (spelling may be off) of the Doors on “Touch Me.”
Comment by David Cace — April 2, 2007 @ 7:20 am
The list of imitators and artists that The Four Seasons may have influenced is quite extensive.
Elton John admitted he was a big fan in the 1970s, and it could well have influenced the Piano Arpeggio Introduction to “Grey Seal” from “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” which is very reminiscent of the Piano Arpeggio Introduction in “Save It For Me”. And the end fade of “Save It For Me” seems to have also heavily influenced the fade out of “Make Believe” by Wind (actually Tony Orlando).
Adrian Baker, fomerly of Gidea Park, which recorded the “Seasons of Gold” Four Seasons Medley, toured with and actually sang lead on “Sherry” at a BEACH BOYS Concert a few years ago! This was well before “Jersey Boys” began to take off.
Comment by Ted Hammond — April 2, 2007 @ 1:29 pm
This was a really good thread and I wanted to add a couple of points to the discussion.
First, Billboard wasn’t always very good in its research and assessment of B sides. Many radio stations had “Marlena” at #1 or near the top of the chart and listed before “Candy Girl” during part of the chart run.
Too often, Billboard peak Hot 100 position influences what songs continue to get played over the years and this influences research, as “oldies” and other stations only play a few hundred recurrent records in their normal rotations.
For example, I sometimes wonder why I hear “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You”, a Beatles B side that was judged to peak at #95, and not “Marlena”, which peaked at #36.
Let me say that I have liked many of the covers of FV4S songs by other artists. I have often come to appreciate both the original and the cover versions.
One reason “Silence Is Golden” may not have been released as a Four Seasons” single was that it ran a little long at 3:23 for the milieu of 1964 Chart Hits. This often got songs rejected by PDs of many radio stations at the time. The Tremeloes version shaved about 15 seconds off the song by singing it faster and a doing a little editing. Fifteen seconds was an eternity to PDs of that time. The only things that really bother me about the Tremeloes version is that all versions are monaural that I’ve ever heard, and the audio quality isn’t as good as the Four Seasons stereo version.
One thing we also neglected to mention is that Cher did a cover of “The Sun Ain’t Gonn Shine Anymore” a few years ago and that that version was featured on an episode of “The X Files”.
Finally, being quite familiar with well over 100 FV4S tracks, it really becomes difficult to single out favorites, as there are so many.
Comment by Ted Hammond — October 28, 2007 @ 10:39 pm