EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by alphanguy, Jan 29, 2016.

  1. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    I really enjoyed the mini renaissance we got for Valli as well as The 4 Seasons in the middle of the 70s even though the sound was different as was the group itself . I thought Who Loves You was a good Pop record and December, a great one. It even got a second life in a dance remix form two decades in the future but that's really jumping isn't it? Love the two lead vocals and the sound of the record too. A pity it only lasted for the year.
     
    Grant likes this.
  2. Victor/Victrola

    Victor/Victrola Makng shure its write

    I'm with ya, Jrr! I liked the single Who Loves You and really liked December 1963 so I bought the album. As I remember, I bought it at the "expensive" record store in town so I paid over a dollar more than the place where I usually shopped. The two hits are terrific, the rest of the album belongs on the editing floor.

    The Four Seasons were never my favorite group, I always found Valli's falsetto irritating. On the other hand, some of their 60's records had such a huge, impressive sound to them, that they were impossible to ignore. Big Girls Don't Cry, for example, is a great sounding record and a tune that sticks in your memory for a long time. I did see "Jersey Boys" in Memphis and enjoyed it a lot, but it didn't convert me to become a Frankie Valli fan.

    I think the thing about December 1963 that hooks people is how well it mixes nostalgia with the "new sound" of disco, both of which were sweeping the USA at the time. It's a great 45, deserves to be a #1 and gave the group a sort of reprise in their career.
     
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  3. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    To quote "December, 1963's" lyrics about the Seasons' 1975-76 comeback" " . . . it ended much too soon." In that sense, that line was unfortunately prophetic for their chart fortunes.
     
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  4. bare trees

    bare trees Senior Member

    This is one of those records that just grabs you upon first listen. The drum beat at the beginning sets the tone for the song quite well just before the band kicks in. As was posted earlier, part of the song's magic is how well the nostalgic lyric melds with the then new disco inspired rhythm. I first heard "Oh What A Night" sometime in the 80s and couldn't believe it was the Four Seasons when it was back announced by the DJ (although that voice coming in at at the bridge sound ed familiar).
     
  5. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    This was not your father's 4 Seasons (or even your elder siblings). Who are all dese new guys?

    Whoever they are, they deserved to hit #1 with this cut. It's a master class in how to create a hit single - hooks galore, a great beat, and a teriffic vocal and instrumental arrangement.

    As others have rightly pointed out, beyond the two magnificent singles the album itself is a turkey. Luckily I didn't pick it up until well over a decade later, a thrift shop VG vinyl for I think a quarter.

    There was no 4 Seasons record on the Hot 100 in December 1963. "New Mexican Rose / That's The Only Way" had exhausted their short chart lives and "Dawn (Go Away)" was coming in February.

    I myself was in utero at the time.

    Wonder if Bob Gaudio has ever shared the original lyrics, which were reportedly about the repeal of Prohibition.

    -----------------

    The B-side was "Slip Away", a cut from the aforementioned turkey. It's dreadful.

     
  6. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    There was. It was called Helicon and barely scraped to #168.

    [​IMG]
     
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  7. ronm

    ronm audiofreak

    Location:
    southern colo.
    Man does this bring back memories.I was young (14) and had two girls that wanted me and this was all over the am radio that night cruising with friends for one of the first times."Oh What a Night" was right.God... to be a teen in the 70s.I wouldn't have it any other way. Oh by the way I always liked this song even to this day.
     
  8. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    Looks like I'm gonna be a chorus of one what with several already crapping over the Who Loves You album. I admit I don't remember how bad it allegedly is but I'm giving major props to the third single released - Silver Star. I love everything about this one from the military-styled drumming to the orchestration to the western themed lyrics. And of course, the fine vocals of new lead Gerry Polci. A couple of fun facts about the guy - After leaving the group, he became Manilow's music director for several television specials. He also married (and later divorced) one of Valli's daughters.

     
  9. bartels76

    bartels76 Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    CT
    December 1963 Oh What A Night-

    Love this song and was first familiar with the remix first. The remix was played at all our proms and dances back in high school.
    Interesting fact regarding the chart runs.
    1988 and 1993 remixes
    In both 1988 and 1993, Dutch DJ and producer Ben Liebrand remixed the song and re-released it as a single. The 1993 re-release spent 27 weeks on the Hot 100 (matching the chart life of the original 1975 single). The peak position of the 1993 remix version was #14. Adding together the two 27-week chart runs for the 1975 original single and the 1993 remix version (for a combined total of 54 weeks, two more weeks than a full year) gave the song the longest tenure ever on the BillboardHot 100 music chart up to that time. The tenure has never been surpassed.

     
  10. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    Jason Mraz would beg to differ. I'm Yours was on the charts for 76 weeks! And 7 other songs in the 90s did 55 weeks or better. That number ramps up in the 2000s and beyond.
     
  11. bartels76

    bartels76 Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    CT
    Looks like Wiki is wrong. Maybe they meant "that tenure was the longest up until that point (1993)"
     
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  12. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    Wiki is whack!
     
    Grant likes this.
  13. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    With Mr. Gaudio and Judy Parker changing the era of this song from the end of Prohibition to December of '63, it made sense: it was after the JFK assassination, but just before a quartet of mop tops from Liverpool made a big splash in America and changed the music scene forever. And the Seasons, though they weren't charting in that actual month, were definitely in the thick of it.
     
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  14. Hoover Factory

    Hoover Factory Old Dude Who Knows Things

    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    I’m a fan of the Four Seasons but I never warmed up to this. Maybe because it was played all of the time. I really can’t ecplain - it just never clicked with me. I really liked “Who Loves You” but not this one.
     
  15. SITKOL'76

    SITKOL'76 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colombia, SC
    'December 1963 (Oh What A Night)' is an amazing song from start to finish, another fantastic chart topper from '76, which has had a great start thus far.

    I always associate this song with the theme song for the children's cartoon 'Doug'. The 'Doo Doos' sound similar to me in both songs.
     
  16. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    Rarely have I been more disappointed musically than when I first heard this Four Seasons single. It's not a patch on several dozen outstanding '60s pop tunes that they recorded.

    I've often claimed that people criticize From Genesis to Revelation for not being Foxtrot or several other excellent progressive rock Genesis LPs, or criticize My Ding-a-Ling for not being Johnny B. Goode or numerous other top-rate rockin' Chuck Berry tracks and yet for making it to no. 1 on the charts no less. So I have to be careful that something similar doesn't cloud my thinking about December 1963. If push came to shove I'd have to admit it's certainly not the worst thing I've ever heard. Still, my opinion remains that in the second sentence of my first paragraph, above.
     
  17. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    This was certainly a time for comebacks, some bigger than others.. The Supremes were having their final top 40 hit, their first time to crack the top 40 since 1972. And their last.

     
  18. SITKOL'76

    SITKOL'76 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colombia, SC
    And they disbanded in '77. Their greatest hits released that year spent 7 weeks @ #1 in the UK. I'll always commend Mary Wilson for her part in keeping The Supremes legacy alive and sticking with the group all those 15 years.
     
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  19. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    I believe he's been quoted as saying he doesn't remember much about them except that they were kind of weird (as his lyrics did tend to be when he wrote about anything other than romantic intrigue), suggesting he couldn't share them at this point if he wanted to.

    Incidentally, while the group is frequently referred to nowadays as "Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons," hardly any of their records were billed as such. This is one when they really should have used that variation, since the group consisted of Frankie Valli plus four other guys. (The 1993 reissue did use it, but the original just said "The Four Seasons" on the label.)

    And yes, setting the song during those seven weeks between the JFK assassination and the Beatles coming to America was a brilliant touch. To those of us who aren't old enough to remember those days, it's all too easy to imagine it must have been some sort of bizarre limbo. (There was, in any event, one major piece of news then: that's when Frank Sinatra Junior was kidnapped.)

    I actually kind of like that, although it sounds even less like a Four Seasons song than the A-side.
     
  20. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    They squeaked in at #91 in 1980 with this one:



    Counting the second run of "December 1963" in 1993, that at least gave the Seasons bragging rights for making the singles chart in every decade from the '50s to the '90s. (You could argue that their one chart record in the '50s, "You're the Apple of My Eye" shouldn't count because it was under a different group name - The Four Lovers - but the group that recorded that song had more members in common with the classic Four Seasons lineup than the one that recorded "Who Loves You" and "December 1963" did, so I think it should count.)
     
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  21. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    While I love "December, 1963 (Oh What A Night)", it's just another in a loooong line of songs I got sick and tired of hearing back then. Radio played it so damned much!

    We were both at that same age to have these experiences with all of these songs. It would have been kinda cool if this song had been included in the film "Dazed And Confused".

    I had never heard the album until a year ago when I picked up a used copy of the vinyl record. I was all set to hear something really good based on its two hit singles...but, stink city! I was going to at least archive it just to have it, but halfway through the project, I decided it was a waste of time for that pile of dung. I had the two singles, and that's all I need.

    I really, really hate the 90s dance remix.
     
    ronm likes this.
  22. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I believe that has been done by the record labels over the last few decades because most comps combine The Four Seasons hits with Frankie Valli solo hits. It's the same thing Motown does with Michael Jackson and The Jackson Five.

    I hate the practice and wish it would stop.
     
  23. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    You're not gonna get any argument from me on that score, I'll tell ya . . .
     
    Grant likes this.
  24. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    It didn't help that up to and including "My Eyes Adored You," Mr. Valli's "solo" records were Four Seasons in all but name as they were his backing vocalists and/or instrumentalists. "Swearing To God" would have been the first true solo Valli record.
     
  25. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    Could be, but their final chart record on Philips, "Patch of Blue" (#94 in mid-1970) was credited to "Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons", as were some of their Motown singles (which were literally alternated between the group and Frankie solo).
     

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