Time for a Four Seasons’ Trivia Question!
April 28th, 2011
Last night on “American Idol,” the contestants saluted the music of legendary singer/songwriter Carole King. During the show’s introduction, photos of the many artists who have recorded King’s songs flashed on the screen, including The Four Seasons.
Now, for today’s trivia question: What Carole King song did The Four Seasons release as a single in 1968?
Will You Love Me Tomorrow
Comment by Lynne Menefee — April 28, 2011 @ 9:02 am
“Will You Love Me Tomorrow”.
Comment by Dina Chirico — April 28, 2011 @ 9:10 am
Will you love me tomorrow?
Comment by Julie Moore — April 28, 2011 @ 9:11 am
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Comment by Tina — April 28, 2011 @ 9:15 am
You’re exactly right, Julie. Dina & Tina. “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” by The Four Seasons peaked at #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1968.
Comment by Susie — April 28, 2011 @ 9:22 am
The Four Seasons arrangement is very complex, complete with Electric Sitar, Violins, and Harpsichord. Carole King must have loved what the “Sweet Seasons” did with it. They made the song their own, as they did with many of their cover songs.
Comment by Ted Hammond — April 28, 2011 @ 10:19 pm
A good follow-up trivia question would be, “Which song and on what album did the Seasons record that was written about Carole King? And who co-wrote and recorded the original hit version of this song? (Hint: the artist is mentioned in the Broadway smash, ‘Jersey Boys’).”
Comment by Len Gersten — April 30, 2011 @ 10:58 am
Is this an open book test or off the top of my head, Len?
If it’s not open book, I’d say it’s “Oh Carol” (pretty sure there’s no “e” on the end), and it was written and originally performed by Neil Sedaka.
Good question. And now, back to the countdown…
Comment by Ted Hammond — April 30, 2011 @ 11:59 am
Of course it was Neil Sedaka, Ted. And that’s when Carole King was Carol Klein. Susie, tonight you’re making it so easy…but will you stump me tomorrow??
By the way, rumor is that Carole King is planning her own Broadway show about the 1960′s. Surprised she was born in 1942. I thought she was older.
Comment by Howard — April 30, 2011 @ 7:35 pm
“It’s Too Late” to change my answer or expand on it, and since it’s a closed book test, but “Oh Carol” was cowritten by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. And I believe I misquoted Casey Kasem. He says, “Now, ON WITH the countdown”, not “back to the countdown”.
The “cover song” with much misinformation on the web is “Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby” (CTEOYB). The first versions of the song, written by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, and arranged by Charlie Calello, were recorded nearly contemporaneously by The Four Seasons and The Toys. Denny Randell has been quoted elsewhere saying the Toys RECORDED it first. It was put out as a single that never charted by The Toys on Bob Crewe’s DynoVoice Label, and as a track on a Toys album. But the FIRST CHARTING TRACK of CGEOYB was on the Four Seasons’ “Working My Way Back To You” LP, which charted a week before the Toys LP charted. The DynoVoice single was released several months later, and the ? And The Mysterians single charted over a year later.
Colour Field and Smash Mouth essentially copied the ? garage band arrangement decades later.
Comment by Ted Hammond — April 30, 2011 @ 8:22 pm
Funny, my first two albums both had that song on them: The 4S “Sherry and 11 Others” and “Neil Sedaka’s Greatest Hits.” Consistent with Ted’s comment above, the 4S cover was substantially different than the song’s writer’s. Theirs used an arrangement that sounded a lot like the Diamonds’ “Little Darlin.’” And I’ll bet it was no accident.
(Now let’s be sure to not confuse this song with the identically titled one by the Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry. I Wonder Who they were singing about?)
Comment by stubbleyou — May 1, 2011 @ 12:48 am
You’re probably right Stubbs. And don’t forget that on the Four Seasons’ cover of “Oh Carol” and “Little Darlin’” the spoken parts are done by Nick Massi.
Comment by David Cace — May 1, 2011 @ 11:27 am
What’s amazing to me is that so many of you here on the blog, people officially associated with Jersey Boys, and people like Paul Shaffer, actually had the early LPs of the Four Seasons from the get go. My recollection is that before the Beatles, few people bought LPs, and even then, not much before Sgt. Pepper, in 1967, revolutionized record sales by selling an LP without single releases. And then there’s the misconception that the Four Seasons were not an album group, when in fact, my Whitburn Top Pop Albums edition, though from 1992, shows them as the #75 Top Album Artist of all time at that time. They outdid scores of artists, that one thinks of as album artists, that followed them. While it’s true that the Four Seasons did a a lot of song covers in their early LPs, so did the Beatles, Beach Boys, and every other group early in their careers.
I think that the difference between a “cover song” and a “remake” would be where groups like the Four Seasons made a song their own, with a new arrangement and unique style, as opposed to just going through the motions of recording the songs if others, which many have done, even Frank Sinatra.
Comment by Ted Hammond — May 1, 2011 @ 2:55 pm
Good point Ted about the distinction between a “cover” and a “remake” – wouldn’t call the Four Seasons version of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” a cover of Frank Sinatra’s.
While speaking of Neal Sedaka, the Four Seasons did a “remake” of “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” on the “Dawn” album – one of my favorite Four Seasons’ album cuts.
Comment by David Cace — May 1, 2011 @ 5:45 pm
Fascinating discussions above! Just found this on a blog–a video of American Idol contestant James Durbin’s rendition of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”…Here’s what the blogger stated about the performance, “At times he seemed to be channeling Frankie Valli, who, with the Four Seasons, made the high notes feel like the top of a roller coaster, and had a hit with this song in 1968.”
Comment by Susie — May 1, 2011 @ 9:32 pm
As long as we’ve come this far afield, let me toss out another interesting view regarding “covers” and “remakes.” Don McLean is adamant, vociferous even, that “cover” specifically refers to remakes by white artists of songs of the late ’50′s or so which were originally done by black artists whose recordings were not considered “appropriate” for white audiences. The Crewcuts’ cover of the Chords’ Sh-boom comes to mind, as do several Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson (yes, I said Ricky with a “y”) recordings of Fats Domino and Little Richard songs. (I originally read this on McLean’s website but I can no longer find it; however, a wiki article on covers discusses McLean’s view and even mentions he thought covers were “a racist tool.”)
Just another spin on things…
Comment by stubbleyou — May 3, 2011 @ 12:44 am
The Four Seasons made a “remake” of “Ain’t That A Shame” which was a unique arrangement very different from both the Fats Domino AND the Pat Boone versions.
Comment by Ted Hammond — May 3, 2011 @ 5:12 pm