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 (see also best songs 739) 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 early 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 at the time of writing, but since the bands inception a further 18 artists have been official group members at some point. They have also released music under 17 different names, including ‘Frankie Valley,’ ‘The Wonder Who?,’ ‘The Variatones,’ and ‘The Village Voices.’

The discography of The Four Seasons in all of their different guises, includes 19 studio Albums released between 1956-2008, and 74 singles released between 1956-1994, there are also 25 official compilation Albums, and two live Albums available. For the solo discography of Frankie Valli see best songs 83. In America on the Billboard Hot 100, The Four Seasons have had 31 top 40 singles, with five of those tracks including ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ making the Number 1 position, while in the UK, 17 of their singles have reached the top 40, with ‘December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night’) peaking the highest at Number 1 in 1975.

‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ was the second and final single released from The Four Seasons debut studio Album ‘Sherry & 11 Others,’ from September 1962, the song 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.) ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ 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 on the Billboard Hot 100 with their first two hits.

Bob Gaudio was born Robert John Gaudio on November 17th, 1942, in the Bronx, New York, United States, he is a songwriter, singer, musician, record producer, and the keyboardist and backing vocalist of The Four Seasons. He has written or co-written the vast majority of The Four Seasons best known songs, and although he no longer performs with the group, he and lead singer Frankie Valli remain co-owners of The Four Seasons brand. Bob Gaudio first rose to fame as a member of ‘The Royal Teens,’ co-writing their hit ‘Short Shorts’ (1958-Billboard Number 3.) In 1958 while he and the group were promoting the single, they met Frankie Valli and his group the Four Lovers as they prepared to perform on a local television programme. It would be a further year until Gaudio would join the Four Lovers. In 1960, after a failed audition at a bowling establishment in Union Township, New Jersey, called the ‘4 Seasons,’ Bob Gaudio shook hands with lead singer Franki Valli and formed the Four Seasons Partnership, with Gaudio, Valli, Tommy DeVito, (1928-2020) and Nick Massi (1927-2000) becoming The Four Seasons. The group took their new stage name from that venue at which they had failed their audition. In 1990 the quartet were inducted into the ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,’ and then in 1999 to the ‘Vocal Group Hall of Fame,’ and in 2017 into the ‘New Jersey Hall of Fame,’ which also inducted Joe Long (1932-2021) who had replaced Nick Massi in 1965, and was a group member until 1975.

Away from The Four Seasons other career highlights of Bob Gaudio include producing six of Neil Diamond’s (see also best songs 536-426 and 13) studio Albums, and the movie soundtrack Albums for Diamond’s ‘The Jazz Singer,’ (1980) and ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’ (1986) he also produced ‘You Don’t Bring Me Flowers’ for Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond, a duet that reached Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978, for which he received a Grammy Award nomination. Bob Gaudio was instrumental in the development of ‘ ‘Jersey Boys,’ a musical play based on the lives of The Four Seasons, which first opened on Broadway on November 6th, 2005. In 2006, the play won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. In 2007, it won a Grammy in the Best Musical Show Album category, and in June 2014, Warner Bros. released the film version of Jersey Boys, which was directed by Clint Eastwood.

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,’ (1955) when he was jolted awake by the on-screen noise of John Payne (1912-1989) slapping Rhonda Flemming, (1923-2020) 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,’ (1956) in which the line does actually appear. Frankie Valli tells a different tale. ‘It was taken from a Clark Gable (1901-1960) 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.’