Today in Four Seasons History: March 13, 1976
March 13th, 2011Thirty-five years ago today, on March 13, 1976, The Four Seasons had their fifth Number One hit with “December 1963″ (Oh, What a Night),†which was their first hit to top the charts since “Rag Doll†in 1964. “December 1963″ remained in the top position on the Billboard Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks and was also their only British Number One single.
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 charts and sold more than three million copies, making it The Four Seasons’ best-selling single ever.
Now, for the trivia question about this great song. In 1976, “Oh, What A Night” spent 27 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100, then it hit the chart again for another 27 weeks. In what year did the song make a repeat appearance on the chart?
Back in 1994, the re-mix of December 1963 went to #14 on the charts giving the Seasons song the longest time, 54 combined weeks, any record ever spent on Billboard Hot 100 chart …
Comment by Jerry — March 13, 2011 @ 10:56 am
I remember hearing Frankie Valli talking about the reentry on a radio interview in the summer of 1994. I had bought the now RIAA Gold CD of “Digitally Remastered” Hits in around 1991. I remember being surprised when the remix began to be played on the radio in about 1993. Now, as FV4S purists, I’m sure David and Howard and I never liked it as much as the original, but we were glad to see the chart reappearance.
Due to the way the charts are now determined, and changes in the whole recording market, songs now stay on the Hot 100 chart a lot longer, and you cannot really compare them directly to the chart runs of the past. Another fact that illustrates this is that the cast of “Glee” has now passed Elvis, The Beatles, James Brown, and everyone else in the number of Hot 100 cahrt appearances, just in the short tenure of the show.
Even Zooey Deschanels’ version of “Sugar Town” by Nancy Sinatra, from the movie “The 500 Days Of Summer”, hit the Hot 100 briefly. Though I enjoyed this and the Glee Cast remake of “Run, Joey, Run” by David Geddes, they made very brief appearances, mostly at the lower regions of the chart.
So today’d chart is really different from 1975-1976 or even 1994-1995.
Comment by Ted Hammond — March 13, 2011 @ 12:39 pm
Ted, as pointed out to me by our Charles Alexander, the remix of “Oh What a Night” was scheduled to be in the 1994 film “Forrest Gump” but apparently didn’t make the final cut.
Interestingly, whenever I’ve asked a band at a wedding, testimonial dinner, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, or any other affair for a “Four Seasons song”, I believe every band has responded with “Oh What a Night.”
Comment by Howard — March 15, 2011 @ 6:18 pm