| "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cover of the 1967 US single | ||||
| Single by Frankie Valli | ||||
| from the album Frankie Valli: Solo[1] | ||||
| B-side | "The Trouble with Me" | |||
| Released | April 1967[2] | |||
| Recorded | April 1967 | |||
| Studio | A & R (New York City) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:24 | |||
| Label | Philips | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Bob Crewe | |||
| Frankie Valli singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"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,[6] making it Valli's biggest solo hit until he hit No. 1 in 1975 with "My Eyes Adored You".[7]
Gaudio describes the song as "the one that almost got away" until Windsor, Ontario, radio station CKLW (a station also serving the Detroit metro on the American side of the border) intervened. In 1967, the record's producers urged Paul Drew, program director at the legendary station, to consider the tune for rotation. For much of the 1960s and 1970s, CKLW was credited with launching hit records via its powerful signal, blanketing the Great Lakes region. Drew did not warm to the song at first, but accepted an invitation to hear it live at the Roostertail, where Valli was performing a weeklong stint with the Four Seasons. Drew liked what he heard and added the song to his station's playlist. "The switchboards lit up, and the rest, as they say, is history", Gaudio recalled.[8]
Valli recalled in 2014 that "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" was the first step in the fulfillment of his goal to sing music that did not require him to use falsetto: "I didn't want to sing like that my whole life. Once we established the sound, the plan was that eventually I would do solo [records] and some things I really wanted to do. I was very lucky to make the transition to 'My Eyes Adored You' and 'Swearin' to God', which had none of that." Valli also recalled that the record had been mothballed by The Four Seasons' record company for a year because of their fear that The Four Seasons (who had already lost Nick Massi in 1965) were breaking up, to which Valli insisted that he had no intentions of ever leaving The Four Seasons.[9]
"Can't Take My Eyes Off You" has been recorded in many other arrangements, many of which have charted in different countries.
- ^ "Official Frankie Valli Site". Retrieved November 25, 2017.
- ^ The Four Seasons; Frankie Valli (1991), Greatest Hits, Volume 2, Internet Archive, Warner Special Products, retrieved January 30, 2023
- ^ "Soul Music: Can't Take My Eyes Off You". BBC Radio 4. 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
- ^ Guarisco, Donald A. ""Can't Take My Eyes Off You" song review". Allmusic. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
- ^ "Lifestyle's weekly Spotify playlist #65". Northern Star. November 6, 2022. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
- ^ "Billboard Hot 100". Billboard. July 22, 1967. Retrieved July 31, 2015.
- ^ Bronson, Fred. The Billboard book of number 1 hits. p. 398.
- ^ "The Four Seasons Rocked at The Roostertail in Detroit! · Jersey Boys Blog".
- ^ Willman, Chris (June 6, 2024). "Frankie Valli on Jersey Boys and His Unlikely Success: 'The Way I Grew Up, It Was Basically Against All Odds'". Parade. Retrieved May 31, 2023.