Today in Four Seasons History: March 13, 1976
March 13th, 2012On March 13, 1976, “December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)†topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three consecutive weeks. This was the first Four Seasons’ Number One song since 1964’s “Rag Doll.â€
Written by Bob Gaudio and Judy Parker, “Oh, What A Night” broke right around Christmas of ‘75, and slowly climbed to Number One by mid-March. The song spent six months on the chart, and sold more than three million copies, making it the Four Seasons’ best-selling single ever. In 1994, thanks to the film “Forrest Gump,†the song reentered the Top 100 (peaking at #14), becoming one of the longest-running single in the chart’s history, with 54 weeks total.
I’ll never, ever forget the first time I heard this song–on my birthday in mid-December, 1975! Thanks to my parents knowing my musical tastes, one of my presents that year was The Four Seasons’ new “Who Loves You” album! Of course, I went nuts–playing it nonstop! I was so into Top 40 charts at the time, that I speculated which song would be the Seasons’ next single. For an older guy who was from the Big Band era, my Dad actually adored pop music of the ’60s & ’70s–so we got to chatting about which song would be their next hit from the album. I wondered if “December, 1963″ would be the single, or would it be my other favorite cut at the time, “Mystic Mr. Sam.” (Do any of you guys remember that one from the album?). Well, my Dad set me straight and said, “No way in hell will ‘Mystic Mr. Sam’ hit the charts–trust me–this ‘Oh, What A Night’ is going to their biggest hit of all time!”
What about the first time you heard this great song? Was it off of the “Who Loves You” album? On the radio when it hit the chart? On one of the Seasons’ TV appearance? Or much later?
I was going away to school, so I didn’t have a lot of pocket money for albums. I saw the album in the record store, and the title “December, 1963″ immediately caught my eye. But since I had to decide between eating fast food and a record album, I waited. In the meantime, I called WTRX and requested it. I believe it was the day after Thanksgiving, 1975. I told them that I wanted to hear it before I bought the album. I never heard them play it, so I don’t know if they did at that time.
I returned home from school for the Holiday Break, after a difficult month preceding finals. I flipped on the radio, tuning between my favorite night Top 40 stations, and landed on WCFL 1000 in Chicago. The song had just begun, and before it went into the first Frankie Valli solo, I knew that was it, even though it had Gerry Polci and Don Ciccone also as alternating lead vocalists. It was Saturday, December 20, 1975.
But I remember telling people it was going to be a big hit, even before I heard it.
Later, I had this repuation at school as being an expert on song titles of all artists. Not knowing that I was a huge Four Seasons fan, one of my classmates tried to stump me with “Mystic Mr. Sam”. Obviously, he didn’t.
I thought “Storybrook Lovers” and “Silver Star” were most likely to be singles. I knew that they would have to edit “Silver Star”. I tried to figure out how I would have edited it. I was suddenly but hypothetically faced with that dilemma from the later Bob Seger song “Against The Wind” about “what to leave in, what to leave out”, and I could see that it was best left to another Bob, Bob Gaudio!
Comment by Ted Hammond — March 13, 2012 @ 4:09 pm
Great song from my favorite 4 Seasons album. My first son was born in 1975 so along with the release of my favorite Seasons song of all time, “who Loves You”, and “December 63′” we had alot to be happy about that year.
Just wish they would stop trying to tie “December 63′” to the Forest Gump movie, of which it never appeared …
Comment by Jerry — March 19, 2012 @ 2:01 pm