Tommy DeVito’s Insight on Four Seasons’ Songs
January 1st, 2008During his Goldmine interview, reporter Ken Sharp asked Tommy DeVito to share memories of some of The Four Seasons’ biggest songs. Below are some of Tommy’s thoughts:
“Rag Dollâ€: Me and Gaudio were coming out of the studio and we had some kid run up and do our windshield. I didn’t have any single and Bob only had a $5 dollar bill. I said, “Why don’t you give it to her? She looks like a rag doll.†She was wearing torn clothes and had a pretty little face. That night he called me and said, “Tom, come up I wanna play something for you†and he played me “Rag Doll.â€
“Opus 17 (Don’t You Worry ‘Bout Me)â€: That’s a great song. It’s got a Motown flavor. I remember it was tough to record. Playing it and singing in onstage wasn’t easy because of the complicated chord structures and the voicing was tough too.
“Beggin’”: I liked it when I first heard it. When I heard Frankie sing it I thought it had a haunting melody and that it might be a number one. But it didn’t hit as big and it should have. It wasn’t promoted as hard by the record company as other songs of ours.
I remember seeing the Four Seasons shortly after the release of Opus 17. Back in those days fans were allowed back stage for autographs. I asked one of them why they didn’t do the new record. I think it was
Bob who said with a chuckle “We have to learn it first” I was surprised thinking “How could that be?”
Wasn’t until the last few years that I realized that they probably didn’t even play on the recording as
explained in that wonderful Charlie Calello interview with Stuart Miller from 2001.
Tommy seems to admit here that it was a difficult song to learn for live performances.
Comment by Ray Ricci — January 2, 2008 @ 5:56 am
Remember Ray the 4 Seasons didn’t have a “band” with horns and additional back-up musicians until a year or so after “Opus 17″ came out. Recreation of the songs live on stage was always an issue as the musicial arrangements started to get more elaborate starting in 1966.
Tommy also gives some interesting background information on some other songs like “Bye Bye Baby” in Part 3 of his interview with Steve and Christy Holden on the JB Podcast.
Comment by David Cace — January 2, 2008 @ 11:25 am