"Who Loves You" | ||||
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Single by The Four Seasons | ||||
from the album Who Loves You | ||||
B-side | "Who Loves You" (Disco version) | |||
Released | 2 August 1975 | |||
Recorded | July 1975 | |||
Genre | Disco [1] | |||
Length | 4:04 (single version) 4:22 (album version) | |||
Label | Warner Bros./Curb | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Bob Gaudio | |||
The Four Seasons singles chronology | ||||
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Vinyl 45 | ||||
Music video | ||||
Listen to "Who Loves You" (Official Music Video) on YouTube |
"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. [2] [3] [4]
After their release from Philips,the group signed with Motown and released one album and three singles for the organization in 1972 and 1973. All Motown recordings failed to chart in the U.S. and the company dropped the band. [3] In August 1975,"Who Loves You" entered the Hot 100 as Frankie Valli's "Swearin' to God" was sliding off the chart. This was the final Four Seasons hit featuring bassist and backing vocalist Joe Long. [5] [6]
As Valli was overseas and unavailable during the initial recording session,Don Ciccone took over lead vocals. When Warner Bros. heard the record,according to Ciccone,they were so impressed that they declared Ciccone the group's new lead singer,which prompted them to release the album despite Valli's existing deal with Private Stock Records. Valli,unwilling to give up his position and "annoyed" at Warner Bros.' decision,halted the song's release and re-recorded part of the lead vocal so to retain his position as lead singer. [7]
Though Bob Gaudio's then-girlfriend Judy Parker is credited as a songwriter on the record,she had not yet begun songwriting by the time the song was recorded. Parker would contribute her first lyric to their next song "December,1963 (Oh,What a Night)." [8]
Cash Box called it "a high-energy,commercially potent disk with high vocal work and sweet strings —and a rhythm that can make time in any disco." [9] Record World said that "[the group's] trademark sound moves onward!" [10]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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(* - Canadian RPM chart data incomplete for late 1975)
There were three versions of "Who Loves You" released in the United States: the one on the Who Loves You album is four minutes, 20 seconds long and begins with a short percussion section before the start of the vocals. [23] The A-side of the single has a 4-minute 4 second version which starts with an unusual "fade-in" beginning, starting with the first word of the lyrics; the B-side (labeled "Who Loves You (disco version)") extends the running time to 5:28 by featuring the instrumental break twice. [24]
Although the Four Seasons' trademark falsetto is present on "Who Loves You", Valli's vocal performance on the recording is limited to singing lead on the verses. [3]
"Who Loves You" was a tremendous success, a notable feat from a group which had not had a major hit for many years. Released in August 1975, the single spent 20 weeks on the Hot 100 (longer than any Four Seasons single before) and managed to stay on the chart until the beginning of 1976. [25]
This song was edited heavily and included as the closing number for the musical Jersey Boys . The second verse and instrumental break is completely omitted, and instead of the fade out, a loud, high-pitched ending chord is sung by the full company. However, the Original Broadway Cast Recording includes the instrumental break.
The song was often used as bumper music by late night radio talk show host Art Bell when he hosted Coast to Coast AM in the 1990s.
Christopher Knowles references the song-title and Valli/Four Seasons in a section of the libretto of Einstein on the Beach . [26]
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.
"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).
"Bye, Bye, Baby " is a popular song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio. The Four Seasons' version of the song made it to No. 1 in Canada and No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1965. On the original issue of the single, the title was "Bye Bye Baby". However, on the album, The 4 Seasons Entertain You, and on later issues of the song, the name was changed to the longer, more familiar one. The song is about saying goodbye, not because the person is unloved but rather because the relationship is adulterous.
Who Loves You is an album by The Four Seasons. It was released in 1975 on Warner/Curb Records.
"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.
"Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is a 1967 song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, and first recorded and released as a single by Gaudio's Four Seasons bandmate 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, making it Valli's biggest solo hit until he hit No. 1 in 1975 with "My Eyes Adored You".
"Walk Like a Man" is a song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio and originally recorded by the Four Seasons.
"Rag Doll" is a popular song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio. It was recorded by the Four Seasons and released as a single in 1964.
"My Eyes Adored You" is a 1974 song written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan. It was originally recorded by The Four Seasons in early 1974. After the Motown label balked at the idea of releasing it, the recording was sold to lead singer Frankie Valli for $4000. After rejections by Capitol and Atlantic Records, Valli succeeded in getting the recording released on Private Stock Records, but the owner/founder of the label, Larry Uttal, wanted only Valli's name on the label. It is from the album Closeup. The single was released in the US in November 1974 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1975. "My Eyes Adored You" also went to number 2 on the Easy Listening chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for 1975.
The Four Lovers was a band formed in 1956 that was the result of vocalist Frankie Valli joining The Variatones in 1954. The Four Lovers achieved minor success before a name change to The Four Seasons in 1960. During those five years, group members also included Nicolas DeVito, Hugh Garrity, Charles Calello (bass), Nick Massi, Bob Gaudio, and Philip Mongiovi (drums).
The Wonder Who? was a nom de disque of The Four Seasons for four single records released from 1965 to 1967. It was one of a handful of names used by the group at that time, including Frankie Valli and The Valli Boys. Wonder Who? recordings generally feature the falsetto singing by Valli, but with a softer falsetto than on "typical" Four Seasons recordings.
This is a list of singles and some albums recorded and released by Frankie Valli and/or The Four Seasons in their various guises since 1953. This list includes only commercially released singles on which Valli or some configuration of the group was credited with performing or producing. Promotional-only releases and extended play records (EPs) are omitted from this list.
"Silver Star" is the lead song on the Four Seasons album Who Loves You. As was the case of all the songs on the LP, it was written by Bob Gaudio and Judy Parker and produced by Gaudio. Drummer Gerry Polci sang lead. Frankie Valli's contribution was limited to harmony vocals, since he was gradually losing his hearing in the 1970s due to otosclerosis. An operation restored most of Valli's hearing in the 1980s.
"Let's Hang On!" is a song composed by Bob Crewe, Sandy Linzer, and Denny Randell that was popularized by the Four Seasons in 1965.
"Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'bout Me)" is a song composed by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell and recorded by The Four Seasons in 1966 for their album Working My Way Back to You.
"C'mon Marianne" is a song composed by L. Russell Brown and Raymond Bloodworth and popularized by The Four Seasons in 1967. Produced by Bob Crewe, the single was the last Four Seasons single to reach the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the 1960s, and their last Top Ten hit until "Who Loves You" in 1975.
"The Proud One" is a 1966 single written by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe and originally performed by Frankie Valli as part of his debut solo album, The 4 Seasons Present Frankie Valli Solo. Valli's version, which featured the Seasons on instrumental backing but not vocals, peaked at #68 in the U.S. and #64 in Canada. Billboard claimed that "the electric sound of Valli is used to perfection in this powerful ballad, stating that the "easy-go dance beat [is] effective." Cash Box said that it is a "powerhouse" and that "the Valli sound holds the moving, teen-oriented tale of love together and the sweeping arrangement adds a must spin again quality to it."
"Swearin' to God" is a song written by Bob Crewe and Denny Randell. It was recorded by Frankie Valli and released in May 1975 as a single from his album Closeup. It is a love song whose lyrical hook is a more literal use of the expression "I swear to God" :
Closeup is an album by Frankie Valli, released in February 1975 on the Private Stock label. It had been seven years since his prior album, and afforded Valli his first of two number-one solo hits in the US. The LP reached number 51 on the U.S. Billboard albums chart.
"Hangin' On" is a song by the Gosdin Brothers, released in August 1967. It has been recorded by numerous artists, including Joe Simon, Ann Peebles, Cher, Cliff Richard and Ann-Margret & Lee Hazlewood.