The Four Seasons hit #1 with “Big Girls Don’t Cry”

Big Girls Don’t Cry The Four Seasons

Writer(s): Bob Gaudio, Bob Crewe (see lyrics here) First Charted: October 20, 1962 Peak: 15 BB, 14 CB, 13 GR, 16 HR, 13 RB, 13 UK, 12 CN, 11 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 1.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 18.5 video, 88.24 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Five weeks after the Four Seasons got their first #1 with “Sherry” they were back on top again with “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” The two songs “were recorded at the same session and it was a toss-up as to which would be released first. As it turned out, it didn’t matter. They both established Frankie Valli’s falsetto voice and the danceable rhythms of the group as the definitive East Coast sound, with its roots in doo-wop and R&B music of the fifties.” FB The two songs – both of which spent five weeks at #1 – were very similar. The group’s chief songwriter Bob Gaudio said, “I didn’t feel it was the freshest follow-up…After the success of ‘Sherry,’ we had to follow it up with something vaguely similar. The harmonies were structured differently, a little bigger.” FB The group would reach #1 again in early 1963 with “Walk Like a Man,” making them the first group in history to have three consecutive non-holiday #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. “Big Girls Don’t Cry” was inspired by a line in the 1955 Western Tennessee’s Partner, which starred Ronald Reagan with John Payne and Rhonda Fleming. In one scene, Payne slaps Fleming and asks her what she thinks about that. She responds, “Big girls don’t cry.” According to the liner notes in Time-Life Records’ Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Gaudio was dozing off during the movie, but heard the slap. He wrote the line on a scrap of paper and wrote the song the next morning. WK However, another account attributes the story to Bob Crewe, the Four Tops’ producer and the song’s other writer. SF While not featured on the blockbuster soundtrack to the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing, this song played in the opening scene of the movie. It also appeared in the movies The Main Event (1979) and Mermaids (1990). SF Resources: FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 120. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 3/12/2021; last updated 5/12/2025.

 

50 years ago: The Four Seasons hit #1 with “Sherry”

Sherry The Four Seasons

Writer(s): Bob Gaudio (see lyrics here) First Charted: August 18, 1962 Peak: 15 US, 17 CB, 13 GR, 15 HR, 11 RB, 8 UK, 15 CN, 3 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 1.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 17.42 video, 89.5 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The Four Seasons appeared to be an overnight success when “Sherry” bounded to #1 in only four weeks, but Frankie Valli (born Francis Castellucio) had been working for a decade and put together the first version of the Four Seasons in 1955. They took the name from a bowling alley in New Jersey. The group went through various line-ups and recorded under a variety of names as well as singing backup for others, including Bobby Darin, Freddy Cannon, and Danny & the Juniors. FB The line-up which recorded “Sherry” was in place in 1961. It included Bob Gaudio who Valli met in 1958 on a Baltimore TV show on which both of their groups appeared. Also essential to the group was songwriter and producer Bob Crewe, who Valli met that same year when recording the solo song “I Go Ape.” FB The Four Seasons released “Bermuda” in 1961 through Goldner’s Gone Records. It didn’t chart, but their next effort – through Vee Jay – gave them their breakout hit. FB Vee Jay had success with doo-wop and R&B in the ‘50s, but their only pop hit at the time was Gene Chandler’s “Duke of Earl.” When Valli played “Sherry” over the phone for Randy Wood, the company’s West Coast Sales Manager, he loved it and took it to local DJ Dick “Huggy Boy” Hugg. After Hugg played it on his show, the station was flooded with calls. SF This is the “Belmonts-meets-Beach Boys on Maurice Williams’ turf.” DM That “plunk-plunk rhythm…sets up the real action, in the drums and tambourine which dance their asses off while Frankie Valli’s falsetto heads to the stratosphere.” DM “Sherry” was written in 15 minutes. Gaudio explained, “I was ready to leave for a rehearsal…and I sat at the piano and it just came out. Not having a tape recorder in those days, the only way I could remember it was to put a quick lyric to it and remember the melody and the words together. I drove down to the rehearsal humming it, trying to keep it in my mind. I had no intention of keeping the lyrics. To my surprise, everybody like the the lyrics so we didn’t change anything.” FB Apparently everything was in place but the title. Gaudio had used “Terry” as a placekeeper, but the group also considered “Jackie” in honor of then-first lady Jackie Kennedy. SJ When the group performed it for Crewe over the phone, he said he liked it, but wanted to change the name. They also considered “Peri Baby.” WK Crewe’s friend, New York City DJ Jack Spector, suggested “Cheri” after his three-year-old daughter SJ and that’s the name that stuck, albeit with a spelling change. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Four Seasons FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 117. DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New American Library: New York, NY. Page 188. SJ Bob Shannon and John Javna (1986). Behind the Hits: Inside Stories of Classic Pop and Rock and Roll. Warner Brothers, Inc.: New York, NY. Page 63. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia First posted 3/14/2021; last updated 4/16/2023.