January 15, 2021 —– Chart #74
Hello Musical Friends,
Welcome to Friday, hope are all safe and well as we start this COVID year of 2021. Today for our Chart of the Day we are going to New Jersey in 1967. “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” is a 1967 song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio. It was recorded as a single by Frankie Valli. The song was among his biggest hits, earning a gold record and reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a week, stuck behind “Windy” by the Association. Gaudio was a bandmate of Valli’s in the Four Seasons. It was Valli’s biggest solo hit until he hit No. 1 in 1975 with “My Eyes Adored You“.
Bob Gaudio, an original member of the Four Seasons, refers to “Eyes” today as “the one that almost got away” until Windsor, Ontario radio station CKLW (a station also serving the Detroit metro on the American side of the border) intervened. In 1967, the record’s producers urged Paul Drew, program director at the legendary station, to consider the tune for rotation. For much of the 1960s and 1970s, CKLW was credited with launching hit records via its powerful signal, blanketing the Great Lakes region. Drew didn’t warm to the song at first, but accepted an invitation to hear it live at the Roostertail, where Frankie Valli was performing a weeklong stint with the Four Seasons. Drew liked what he heard and added the song to his station’s playlist. “The switchboards lit up, and the rest, as they say, is history,” Gaudio recalls.
“Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” has been recorded in many other arrangements, many of which have been on the charts in different countries. The song is a staple of television and film soundtracks, even being featured as part of the plot of some films, such as when the lead characters sing or arrange their own version of the song. The Valli version was also used by NASA as a wake-up song on the STS-126 Space Shuttle mission, to celebrate the wedding anniversary of astronaut Christopher Ferguson, one of the mission’s crew members.
Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (born May 3, 1934), known professionally as Frankie Valli, is an American singer, known as the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice. Valli scored 29 top 40 hits with the Four Seasons, one top 40 hit under the Four Seasons alias the Wonder Who?, and nine top 40 hits as a solo artist. As a member of the Four Seasons, Valli’s number-one hits include “Sherry” (1962), “Big Girls Don’t Cry” (1962), “Walk Like a Man” (1963), “Rag Doll” (1964) and “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” (1975). Valli’s recording of the song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” reached number two in 1967. As a solo artist, Valli scored number-one hits with the songs “My Eyes Adored You” (1974) and “Grease” (1978).
Valli, Tommy DeVito, Nick Massi and Bob Gaudio – the original members of the Four Seasons – were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.
Valli was born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, on May 3, 1934, to an Italian family in the First Ward of Newark, New Jersey; he was the eldest of three sons. His father, Anthony Castelluccio, was a barber and display designer for Lionel model trains; his mother, Mary Rinaldi, was a homemaker and beer company employee. He was inspired to take up a singing career at the age of seven after his mother took him to see the young Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theater in Manhattan, New York City. One of his early favorite singers was “Texas” Jean Valli, from whom he adopted his stage name. Until he could support himself with music, he worked as a barber.
Enjoy the music and don’t be embarrassed to sing along. It’s fun and will keep you young!
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Frankie performing the song live (sort of): https://youtu.be/hQugcviHDTA
Keep rockin’ my friends,
Stan