THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

284-The Four Seasons-Big Girls Don’t Cry.

1962-Number 13 single.

Best Bit-At 2.04. In the interest of gender equality 10CC whispered loudly that ‘Big boys also don’t cry’ (see also best songs 154.)

The Four Seasons were formed as ‘The Four Lovers’ in Newark, New Jersey, United States, in 1956, they would retain that stage name until settling on ‘The Four Seasons’ in 1960, with the recognised 1960’s classic line up of Franki Valli, (vocals) Bob Gaudio, (vocals, keyboards, and guitar) Tommy DeVito, (1928-2020) (vocals, and guitar) and Nick Massi (1927-2000) (vocals, and bass.) These were the four musicians who played on this song, and also The Four Seasons debut studio Album ‘Sherry & 11 Others,’ from 1962.

The Four Seasons are one of Pop musics longest active acts, and continue to tour to this day, with only Frankie Valli (see also best songs 83) from the original line up still performing. In total there are 12 members in the touring band of 2022, but since the bands inception a further 33 artists have been official group members at some point. They have also released music under 17 different names including ‘The Wonder Who?,’ ‘The Variatones,’ and ‘The Village Voices.’ The Four Seasons have recorded 21 studio Albums between 1962-1992, and approximately 100 singles under a variety of different names. In America on Billboard five of their singles have reached Number 1, while in the UK there only chart topper remains ‘December, 1963 (Oh What a Night’) from 1975 (see also best songs 739.)

‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ was co-written by the legendary songwriting team of Bob Crewe, (1930-2014) (see also best songs 914-863-739-499-393-164-112 and 83) and Bob Gaudio,(see also best songs 1007-914-863-739-499-393-164 and 112) who was also a member of The Four Seasons at that time. The song was released as the follow up to their Billboard Number 1 single ‘Sherry,’ which had spent five weeks at Number 1, and repeated the fete by also spending five weeks at the top, making The Four Seasons the first group in the Rock N’ Roll era to achieve back to back Number 1’s with their first two hits.

There are contrasting stories as to who came up with the song title ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry.’ According to Bob Gaudio he was falling asleep while watching a movie called ‘Tennessee’s Partner,’ when he was jolted awake by the on-screen noise of John Payne slapping Rhonda Flemming, whose character replied, ‘Big girls don’t cry.’ Gaudio claims he immediately wrote down the iconic line on a scrap of paper, before falling asleep again. When he woke the next morning he started writing the song. The problem with that story is that the line big girls don’t cry is never uttered in that film.

According to the other songs writer Bob Crewe, he was also dozing off when he awoke to see Payne attacking Fleming, although he claims he had also been watching the movie ‘Slightly Scarlet,’ in which the line does actually appear. Frankie Valli tells a different tale.’It was taken from a Clark Gable movie, then he tells a girl he’s leaving, and says that big girls don’t cry.’

‘Told my girl we had to break up, hoped that she would call my bluff. Then she said to my surprise,Big girls don’t cry.’