Song:Can't Take My Eyes Off You
Album:The Very Best Of Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons
Of course Frankie Valli is best known as lead singer of The Four Seasons, And most fans should be familiar with Valli's 70s solo recordings. But the 1967 top five hit Can't Take My Eyes Off You was Valli's first solo hit. Most fans probably think it was a Four Seasons song. Of course The Four Seasons were one of the top groups of the 60s. Before that Valli recorded unsuccessfully as Frankie Valley and Frankie Tyler. The Four Seasons recordings were written and produced by Four Seasons member Bob Gaudio and veteran producer Bob Crewe. Apparently Gaudio always planned to spin Valli off as a solo artist. One would think he would wait until The Four Seasons ended their successful run before doing that. But Gaudio wanted off the road so he decided to do things differently. Of course the risk was fans wouldn't recognize Valli as a solo artist. The records weren't much different except Valli sang in falsetto with The Four Seasons and he sang in his natural voice as a solo artist. Mercury Records agreed to release Valli's solo album on Smash while The Four Seasons were on Philips. At the time, The Four Seasons were on the charts with Let's Hang On. The Frankie Valli album was called Solo. But when the first four singles weren't hits, Valli thought it was because Mercury didn't promote them so they wouldn't detract from The Four Seasons. So for Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Valli hired his own promotion team. The song reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Valli then released a second solo album Timeless in 1968. But by this time, music had changed and The Four Seasons faded. Valli's next solo hit was My Eyes Adored You in 1975. You can get both hits on this budget comp. Can't Take My Eyes Off You is still a popular song. But I think most fans think it is a Four Seasons hit, not a Frankie Valli Solo hit. Here's Frankie Valli performing Can't Take My Eyes Off You 1967.
I loved the Four Seasons. "My Eyes Adored You" is one of my favorites, along with others that group sang. I loved the Four Seasons and will always cherish that time and place in my life. It was all to brief and I was very young. But I loved it and the music. It was very positive and uplifting.
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