1968 was a field
year for Instrumentalise, Exodus, Kalakaua,
Apache, Wheelz Wonderland by Night
Hawk Sound makes new inroads.
RMV makes a comeback.
Motown chalks up the first top 10 entry
with a twist and poni body contact
and dance is for the nonce ended
and the era of the Idol singular approaches
partial eclipse.
Bob, I got in on the tail end of it.
All of that was kind of coming
to an end when I got into it.
They didn't try to tear you limb from limb.
It did happen from time to time.
But, you know, you can't stop them.
You put a brick wall and they'll walk right
through it if they want to, you know,
isn't it kind of frightening?
Frightening. It's terrifying.
I remember one time in
Toledo, I think it was Toledo, Ohio.
I did a show and
walked off the stage and there was just a
typical barricade and everything.
And it was funny. I had a brand new suit on and
I love this so great.
It was expensive, more than I'd ever paid for a
suit.
And and a little girl ran
up behind me. One of them tackled me and the
other one grabbed my jacket and ripped it right
up her back.
And I was you know, I was considered myself
lucky afterwards, you know, I rip my arms
off or something. But they you know, like I
said, I think it's if they want
to take good care of
my baby,
please don't ever make it
to
you that you love her.
Make sure you're thinking of her
in everything you say and do.
It's a very insecure position to be and to be a
teenager because it was all the
way gleaming teeth and the alpaca sweaters.
And gee, dad, isn't he as an ingrate and,
you know, mom's little boy and that type of
thing. And it wasn't real.
And today kids are searching for realism.
You know, for so long, people were singing
songs about, you know, the sky is
Blue and I love you and all this very
idealistic thing.
And after a while, you know,
I think people the public started saying,
wait a minute, you know, the sky isn't blue all
the time. And, you know, I love you sometimes.
I don't love you all the time, you know?
And they couldn't identify with
the top forty music anymore.
Let me take you down,
because I'm going to
throw there is
nothing Israel
to the West Coast, middle age
and high society and kids forsake it
in favor of Watusi and mashed potatoes.
Bossanova sweeps through world capitals.
Ray Charles scores with country and Western
Tony Bennett. I Left My Heart in San Francisco
wins Grammy as best record of the year.
Rock vocal groups gain prominence.
Yeah.
Sorry,
sorry.
Baby
said.
Can you come out tonight,
come my.
Sherry.
Can you go back in time?
Why don't you go
with my.
Oh, no.
Well, either way,
I'm going to
make you
say.
Baby, baby,
baby, baby.
You can go
on.
Savegame.
Everything
almost simultaneously in 1962,
two very distinctive group sounds emerge
from opposite ends of the continent.
From California comes the surf sound of the
Beach Boys from New York, the
spread, the harmony and stratospheric falsetto
of the Four Seasons.
Frankie Valli.
We use what is basically known as a
spread harmony.
I think the overtones of the notes
is what gives it such a very big sound.
It's almost church like Bob Gaudio,
usually double our voices.
In other words, we sing the four parts
once and then double again.
Joe Long.
The first time I listen to a Four Seasons
record, I heard parts that really weren't there
and I asked Bob about it.
They were never recorded.
But it's just the overtones that happened
because of the sounds of our voices.
Tommy DeVito. I think one of the reasons
why it's pretty tough to duplicate
this particular group is because
there are a lot of singers that
try to do falsetto
the way our lead singer, Frankie.
But we've never come across a
singer that would have a strong
falsetto the way he has.
Oh, right.
I think my friend
ba ba
ba ba ba ba ba ba
ba ba ba ba
ba
ba ba ba
ba.
And
one.
Baby, baby,
baby.
Oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, I
get down
from.
Blah,
blah, blah,
blah
from the start.
Bob Gaudio has been the major writer for the
Four Seasons, working in conjunction with
the group's regular producer, Bob Crewe.
I've written many, many songs with Bob.
He's basically a lyricist and a very
good one at that. And they write anything
from a big girls don't cry to a can't take
my eyes off you are to give that,
you know, there's just no stopping it.
What they can do. Well, I can't actually write
notes down, but I do a lot of dictation.
They used to play classical music
for I played for about seven or eight years.
I was started when I was about
eight, seven, six years old
and I kind of got a little hung up on it after
a while because I couldn't
do any creating by myself.
I was always playing something that someone
else had written all of a sudden just broke
loose and I started writing after
that. I can't really think of anybody that was
an influence. There were certain influences
that made me write certain
songs. For instance,
the influence for and it has a
certain flavor of Hey Baby
by Bruce. You know, I don't know if you
remember that record.
I know.
If you be my
girl and it does, that's exactly
where it came from, not melodically, but
feeling wise, and that was my interpretation
of a baby.
Catapulted to the top of the top ten in
one week, the group's next two releases
also went to number one.
We're just really doing what we like.
You know, it's as simple as it may
sound. That's the truth.
It's I really can't remember
really ever doing anything we really didn't
like. Just so happens that there are
maybe a half a million or a million
people that happen to go along with our taste.
Really?
They call
her
da
da da
da
will be you,
hang on, hang on,
hang on.
Oh
what a bang, bang, bang,
bang, bang, bang,
bang, bang.
What the future would be
like. They'd
be
gone.
Oh,
oh, oh,
oh, oh.
Oh, yes,
oh,
baby, far
away.
Oh,
by
the way, you
go
to the places where you were
born before
you say.
Thank you. Wah,
wah, wah, wah.
Your family would say that
what you're throwing away now
would end up like
they
say.
And how do the Four Seasons feel about that
much maligned musical era in which they first
made their mark?
Some of the records, like, I guess they were 58
or 56, 57.
Those are the records that really annoy me.
Some of the I don't even want to mention any
groups that want to hurt anybody's feelings,
but like some of the records were so badly out
of tune and just so wrong
in every way, shape or form, those are the ones
that really bother me.
I find that most of the people who
put down certain kinds of music are really
not record buyers. So it really doesn't matter
what they put down. There isn't
anything I wouldn't
write it and
go get
me started
crying.
Oh,
my
God.
I
like
you're listening to The Chronicle's
Pop.