Bob Gaudio | |
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![]() Gaudio in 1966 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Robert John Gaudio |
Born | The Bronx, New York, U.S. | November 17, 1942
Origin | Bergenfield, New Jersey, U.S. |
Genres | Rock, pop |
Occupation(s) | Record producer, songwriter, musician |
Instrument(s) | Piano, vocals |
Years active | 1958–present |
Robert John Gaudio (born November 17, 1942) is an American songwriter, singer, musician, and record producer, and the keyboardist and backing vocalist of the pop/rock band the Four Seasons. Gaudio wrote or co-wrote and produced the vast majority of the band's music, including hits like "Sherry" and "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)", as well as "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" for Valli. Though he no longer performs with the group, Gaudio and lead singer Frankie Valli remain co-owners of the Four Seasons brand.
Born in the Bronx, New York, Gaudio was raised in Bergenfield, New Jersey, where he attended Bergenfield High School. [1] [2] His mother worked for the publishing house Prentice Hall and his father in a paper factory. He showed an interest in music and studied piano with Sal Mosca. [3]
He grew up in more comfortable middle-class surroundings than the other members of the Four Seasons, which caused some tension and differences early on. He was a cerebral person, interested in reading and learning. He stayed out of trouble and had a mild manner, which proved useful during negotiations throughout his career.
He rose to musical fame at the age of 15 as a member of The Royal Teens, for whom he co-wrote the hit "Short Shorts". [2] In 1958, while he and the group were promoting the single, they met Frankie Valli and his group the Four Lovers as they prepared to perform on a local television program. Wearying of touring, Gaudio left the Royal Teens soon afterward.
One year after he ceased touring, Gaudio joined the Four Lovers. While commercial success was elusive, the group was kept busy with session work (with Bob Crewe as the producer), and a string of performances at night clubs and lounges.
In 1960, after a failed audition at a bowling establishment in Union Township, called the "4 Seasons", songwriter/pianist Gaudio shook hands with lead singer Valli and formed the Four Seasons Partnership, and Gaudio, Valli, Tommy DeVito, and Nick Massi became The Four Seasons.
Gaudio wrote the Seasons' first No. 1 hit, "Sherry", 15 minutes before a group rehearsal in 1962. With producer Bob Crewe often assisting with lyrics, Gaudio wrote a string of subsequent hits for the Seasons, including "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", "Dawn (Go Away)", [4] "Ronnie", "Rag Doll", "Save It for Me", "Big Man in Town", "Bye Bye Baby", "Girl Come Running", "Beggin'", and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (the first big success under Valli's name as a solo performer). Crewe/Gaudio compositions also became major hits for other artists, including the Tremeloes ("Silence Is Golden", originally the B-side of the Four Seasons' "Rag Doll"), The Osmonds ("The Proud One", originally recorded as a Valli solo single) and the Walker Brothers ("The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore", another Valli single).
After the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album was released in June 1967, Gaudio saw the pop music market changing, and sought to position the Four Seasons into the trend of socially conscious music. One evening he went to the Bitter End in Greenwich Village and saw Jake Holmes performing. Gaudio was taken with Holmes' song "Genuine Imitation Life" and decided to base a Four Seasons album upon it. With Holmes as his new lyricist, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette album was released in January 1969. The album was a commercial failure and symbolized the end of the Four Seasons' first period of success. The appreciation of The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette has grown over the years, and it was re-released on CD (minus the newspaper cover) in the 1990s by Rhino in the U.S. and Ace in the UK. Gaudio and Holmes also wrote and produced Frank Sinatra's 1969 album Watertown .
Gaudio withdrew from touring in the early 1970s, a decision that fellow band member Joe Long indicated was due to stage fright and introversion. [5] Lee Shapiro, who had idolized Gaudio as a child, would be hired as Gaudio's replacement, while Gaudio continued to produce and write songs for the Four Seasons and continued to be credited as a full member. [6]
In 1975 Gaudio wrote "Who Loves You" and "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" with his future wife Judy Parker. The Bob and Judy songs became big hits for a reconstituted Four Seasons group (only Valli was left of the original lineup; Gaudio stopped touring with them in 1971 to concentrate on writing and producing).
Gaudio, Tommy DeVito, Frankie Valli and Nick Massi – the original members of The Four Seasons – were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, [7] the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. [8] and the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2017 (which also inducted Long). [9]
In addition to his work for the Seasons and Sinatra, he wrote and/or produced for Michael Jackson, Barry Manilow, Diana Ross, Eric Carmen, Nancy Sinatra, Peabo Bryson, and Roberta Flack. In particular, he produced six complete albums for Neil Diamond, and the movie soundtrack albums for Diamond's The Jazz Singer and Little Shop of Horrors . Gaudio also produced the hit "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" for Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond, a duet that reached the top of Billboard charts in 1978, for which he received a Grammy Award nomination.
In the 1990s Gaudio moved to Nashville and produced recordings for Canadian country artist George Fox, among others. He lured Neil Diamond to Nashville to record the album Tennessee Moon . In recent years Gaudio has focused on musical theater, writing the music for the 2001 London West End production of Peggy Sue Got Married .
Gaudio was instrumental in mounting Jersey Boys , a musical play based on the lives of the Four Seasons, which ran at the La Jolla Playhouse through January 2, 2005, and then opened on Broadway on November 6, 2005, to mostly positive reviews. In 2006, the play won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. In 2007, it won a Grammy in the Best Musical Show Album category.
Gaudio was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1995. [10]
On February 3, 2009, Gaudio received his high school diploma, 50 years after dropping out of Bergenfield High School.
On May 12, 2012, Gaudio received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his commitment to many humanitarian causes. [11]
On June 20, 2014, Warner Bros. released the film version of Jersey Boys , directed by Clint Eastwood, in which Gaudio was portrayed by Erich Bergen. [12] Jersey Boys credits a then-teenaged Joe Pesci with introducing Gaudio to Tommy DeVito. [13]
On July 1, 2014, Rhino Entertainment released Audio with a G, the first compilation of the music composed by Bob Gaudio as performed by the Four Seasons, Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, The Temptations, Cher, Roberta Flack, Nina Simone, Jerry Butler, Chuck Jackson and others. [12]
Gaudio remains active in managing the Four Seasons catalog and consults with Primary Wave, a company Gaudio partnered with to manage the catalog in 2020, on each licensing request, with a spokesman for Primary Wave noting that Gaudio was more hands-on than most musicians in how he wanted the Four Seasons' music to be used, especially in advertising. [14]
In 2022, Gaudio is credited as a co-songwriter for the song "Burning" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The song gained attention after it was used for the film Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken .
Gaudio was married to Brit Gaudio until the early 1970s. Near the end of their marriage, the two wrote three songs together, all of which have titles pertaining to a disconnected couple. [15] Brit Gaudio died in 1989, age 47. [16]
By 1975, Gaudio was in a relationship with Judy Parker, who would become his wife and regular songwriting collaborator. "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" is, according to Gaudio, based upon an early encounter between the two. [17] The two married in 1981 and remained so until Parker died September 14, 2017. [18]
The Four Seasons is an American vocal quartet formed in 1960 in Newark, New Jersey. Since 1970, they have also been known at times as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The band evolved out of a previous band called The Four Lovers, with Frankie Valli as the lead singer, Bob Gaudio on keyboards and tenor vocals, Tommy DeVito on lead guitar and baritone vocals, and Nick Massi on bass guitar and bass vocals. On nearly all of their 1960s hits, they were credited as The 4 Seasons. The band had two distinct lineups that achieved widespread success: the original featuring Valli, Gaudio, DeVito, and Massi that recorded hits throughout the 1960s, and a 1970s quintet consisting of Valli, Lee Shapiro, Gerry Polci, Don Ciccone, and John Paiva, with Gaudio and Long providing studio support.
Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer, best known as the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice.
Nicholas E. Macioci was an American bass singer, songwriter, and bass guitarist. He is best known for his work as the bassist and bass vocalist for The Four Seasons, for whom he performed under the stage name Nick Massi.
Charles Calello is an American arranger, composer, conductor, record producer, and singer born in Newark, New Jersey. Calello attended Newark Arts High School and the Manhattan School of Music, in New York City. His track record of successfully collaborating with various artists to produce or arrange Billboard hit songs led to his nickname in the industry as the "Hit Man."
Gaetano "Tommy" DeVito was an American musician. He was best known as a founding member, vocalist, and lead guitarist of rock band the Four Seasons.
Sandy Linzer is an American songwriter, lyricist, and record producer, who is best known for his songwriting collaborations with Denny Randell and Bob Crewe in the 1960s and 1970s. He co-wrote hits including "A Lover's Concerto", "Let's Hang On!", "Working My Way Back to You", "Breakin' Down the Walls of Heartache", "Native New Yorker", and "Use It Up and Wear It Out". He was nominated with Randell for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) in 2012.
Denny Randell is an American songwriter and record producer, who is best known for his songwriting collaborations with Sandy Linzer and Bob Crewe in the 1960s and 1970s. He co-wrote hits including "A Lover's Concerto", "Let's Hang On!", "Working My Way Back to You", and "Native New Yorker", and was nominated with Linzer for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) in 2012.
"December, 1963 " is a song originally performed by the Four Seasons, written by original Four Seasons keyboard player Bob Gaudio and his future wife Judy Parker, produced by Gaudio, and included on the group's album Who Loves You (1975).
Jersey Boys is a jukebox musical with a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is presented in a documentary-style format that dramatizes the formation, success and breakup of the 1960s rock 'n' roll group The Four Seasons. The musical is structured as four "seasons", each narrated by a different member of the band who gives his own perspective on its history and music. Songs include "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Sherry", "December, 1963 ", "My Eyes Adored You", "Stay", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", "Walk Like A Man", "Who Loves You", "Working My Way Back to You" and "Rag Doll".
Robert Stanley Crewe was an American songwriter, dancer, singer, manager, and record producer. Crewe co-wrote and produced a string of Top 10 singles with Bob Gaudio for the Four Seasons.
Jake Holmes is an American singer-songwriter and jingle writer who began a recording career in the 1960s.
"Big Girls Don't Cry" is a song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio and originally recorded by the Four Seasons. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 17, 1962, and, like its predecessor "Sherry", spent five weeks in the top position but never ranked in the Billboard year-end charts of 1962 or 1963. The song also made it to number one, for three weeks, on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues survey. It was also the quartet's second single to make it to number one on the US R&B charts.
"Sherry" is a song written by Bob Gaudio and recorded by The Four Seasons.
Joseph Louis LaBracio, better known by his stage name Joe Long, was an American musician. He was best known for his tenure as the bass guitarist and vocalist for the Four Seasons from 1965 to 1975, having succeeded original bassist Nick Massi in those positions.
"Who Loves You" is the title song of a 1975 album by The Four Seasons. It was composed by Bob Gaudio and Judy Parker and produced by Gaudio. It reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1975.
Judy Parker Gaudio was a record producer and songwriter who is best known for her collaborations with and marriage to fellow producer and songwriter Bob Gaudio.
Arthur Bruce Schroeck is an American musician, best known for arranging and composing popular songs and jingles. He has won multiple Clio Awards, such as when he composed the music for the 1981 ABC-TV promo "Now is the time, ABC is the place". He also composed the 1982 promo "Come on along with ABC". He arranged the classic "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" in 1967 for Frankie Valli and has written or arranged music for multiple other artists including Liza Minnelli, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra. In the 1990s, he was a regular performer at Harrah's in Atlantic City with his wife, singer Linda November, and in 1997, he wrote, arranged, and produced a tribute to bandleader Spike Jones. As of 2011, he continues to perform in Las Vegas.
Jersey Boys is a 2014 American musical drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, based on the 2004 Tony Award-winning jukebox musical of the same name. The film tells the story of the musical group The Four Seasons. Original band members Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio serve as executive producers.
The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette is a 1969 album by American rock band the Four Seasons. Member Bob Gaudio teamed up with Jake Holmes to create a psychedelic concept album which adjusted the band's stylings to the changing times of the late 1960s. Instead of love songs, the band tackled subjects such as war and racial tension.
Lee Shapiro is an American musician/arranger who was a member of the band The Four Seasons and the founder of The Hit Men, a brand of supergroups featuring session and touring musicians from other bands.