The Four Seasons: Jersey Days Trivia Quiz

Answer: Two of the members formed a partnership, excluding the other two

According to Time Magazine, after the Four Lovers failed to get the Four Seasons Bowling Alley gig for which they auditioned, keyboardist/songwriter Bob Gaudio and lead singer Frankie Valli made a handshake agreement back at Valli's apartment in Newark to form the Four Seasons Partnership, with each as a 50% partner. Gaudio recalled that he said, "Neither one of us knows where we're going to wind up, but maybe we should hedge our bets. You get 50% of me, and I get 50% of you."

Although Gaudio retired from touring in the early 1970s, he and Valli are still 50-50 partners in the Four Seasons Partnership almost 50 years later (as of 2009). They own the name "The Four Seasons", the touring act, and virtually all of the group's recordings.

Answer: Don't Be Cruel

RCA Records sent the Four Lovers into the studio to record "Don't Be Cruel", with Blackwell producing, as their debut single. Before the session, though, Blackwell had RCA A&R executive Steve Sholes pitch the song to Elvis Presley, who agreed to record it if he was given co-writer credit. Blackwell then gave the Four Lovers his "You're the Apple of My Eye" instead, which reached number 62 on the U.S. Billboard Top 100 and earned the group an appearance on TV's "The Ed Sullivan Show". However, when no more hits followed this one, RCA quit on them, and they faded back to obscurity.

When the Four Seasons released their debut album in 1962, they re-recorded "Apple of My Eye" for it.

Answer: (Who Wears) Short Shorts

The Royal Teens formed when when Gaudio was only 13. The group played as backing musicians for touring artists for two years -- until they added a few words ("Who wears short shorts? / We wear short shorts") to an instrumental that Gaudio and the drummer had written. "Short Shorts" promptly became a major novelty hit in 1958.

Unfortunately, although the Royal Teens then added future Blood, Sweat and Tears founder Al Kooper (so Gaudio could concentrate on lead guitar), the group did not produce any more hits and soon split up.

Answer: Joe Pesci

In Joe Pesci's Oscar-winning performance in the 1990 movie "Goodfellas", his character (based on the real-life gangster Tommy DeSimone) was named Tommy DeVito. Pesci and DeVito are still friends over 50 years later, and Pesci was one of the producers of "Jersey Boys".

Answer: Bob Crewe

Bob Crewe was a movie-star-handsome singer-songwriter who also worked as a photo model. In 1957, his song "Silhouettes" became a major hit, and he became an in-demand producer almost overnight as a result. After using Frankie Valli as a backing singer in 1958, he signed the Four Lovers to a three-year deal to serve as backing singers and musicians on his sessions, and he continued to produce them when they became the Four Seasons (and to act as Bob Gaudio's lyricist).

He produced all the Four Seasons records until 1969 and almost all Frankie Valli "solo" records until 1977.

Answer: None of the Four Seasons played drums

Like the Beatles, the Four Seasons were formed without a drummer (the original Beatles were John, Paul and George on guitars and Stu Sutcliffe on bass). The Four Lovers hadn't had a drummer since 1958, and this lack carried over into the Four Seasons. Session drummer David "Panama" Francis, who was one of the most successful sidemen in New York City, played on the group's early hits.

He was followed by session star Buddy Saltzman. All of the Four Seasons singles in the 1960s used a session drummer, as the band did not add a permanent drummer until 1970.

While it is true that, on some Four Seasons recordings, the only member of the group to play was Bob Gaudio, many others (such as "Sherry" and "Rag Doll") featured just the Seasons and the session drummer as the backing band.

Answer: Bermuda

"Bermuda" was a song written in 1951 by Cynthia Strother that became the first single for the Bell Sisters (who were actually Cynthia and her sister Kay Strother). The Four Seasons gave the song a calypso arrangement. The B-side, Bob Crewe's "Spanish Lace", featured flamenco-style guitar and had previously been issued by the group under Gaudio's pseudonym Turner Disentri, with no success.

However, this single succeeded in getting the Four Seasons a contract with a more important label.

Answer: Vee-Jay

Vee-Jay was a famous black-owned label based in Gary, Indiana, which had had periodic hits (e.g., "Duke of Earl" by Gene Chandler) prior to signing the Four Seasons after "Bermuda" (which sounded black due to the calypso influence). Their first release for Vee-Jay, "Sherry", quickly went to number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard rhythm & blues charts, and it was quickly followed to number one by "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Walk Like a Man". Vee-Jay executives were so excited that they made a licensing deal with the British label EMI to acquire two more white artists: singer Frank Ifeld and ... the Beatles, who were touring England with Ifeld at the time. Vee-Jay got a five-year deal on both.

However, Vee-Jay went broke in 1963 due in part to its rapid growth, and the Four Seasons ended up leaving Vee-Jay over nonpayment of royalties in late 1963. Vee-Jay also lost the Beatles after just three singles ("Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" and "From Me To You") and one album ("Introducing the Beatles", which yielded "Twist and Shout" as a fourth hit single).

Answer: Candy Girl

Of the Four Seasons' first six singles, three (all written or co-written by Gaudio) climbed to number one: "Sherry", "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Walk Like a Man". The other three, written by others ("Bermuda", "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" and "Ain't That a Shame") all failed to reach the Top Twenty. The streak finally ended with their next single, "Candy Girl", written by Larry Santos (who achieved his own hit record 13 years later, in 1976 ("We Can't Hide It Anymore")). The song reached number three in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963.

The Seasons' next two Billboard top-twenty hits not written by Gaudio were "Stay" (by Maurice Williams; number sixteen) and "Let's Hang On!" (by Bob Crewe, Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell; number three), but "Candy Girl" was the first.

Answer: Marlena

"... Marlena". The song was released as the B-side of "Candy Girl" in 1963 and reached the Billboard Top 40 on its own, peaking at number 36. It turned out to be the Four Seasons last single of new material for Vee-Jay, as all subsequent Vee-Jay singles (even the 1964 hit "Stay") were just repackaged album cuts.

Answer: Dawn

"Dawn (Go Away)", with music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Sandy Linzer, is about a lower-class boy trying to convince his upper-class girlfriend to dump him in favor of a wealthy boy. It was finished in August 1963 but withheld from Vee-Jay in a royalty dispute.

Inexplicably, it was rejected by the Four Seasons' preferred destination, Atlantic Records, a label similar to Vee-Jay in its rhythm & blues orientation. "Dawn (Go Away)" ended up on Philips Records, an affiliate of Mercury and Polydor Records that primarily released European singles (e.g., The Singing Nun, Paul Mauriat) and classical music.

It was a smash hit but only rose to number three on the Billboard Top 100 due to Beatlemania, as the Beatles had five singles ("I Want to Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You", "Please Please Me", "Twist and Shout" and "Can't Buy Me Love") on four different labels (Capitol, Swan, Vee-Jay and Tollie) in the top five at the same time.

Answer: Rag Doll

Bob Gaudio discussed the inspiration for "Rag Doll", written by Bob Gaudio (music and co-lyrics) and Bob Crewe (co-lyrics) in 1964, in an interview with Mix Magazine in 2000. Said Gaudio, "I was driving into [Manhattan] for a session and I got stopped at Eleventh Avenue, which back then seemed like the longest traffic light in the world; like three minutes long. If you got stopped there, you'd have these homeless people come up and try to wash your windshield for spare change. I saw this hand come up to my windshield and connected to it was a woman whose clothes were all tattered and who had this dirty face, like something out of 'Oliver!' I didn't have any change on me. All I had was a ten-dollar bill, so I gave it to her. I drove off and saw her in the rearview mirror just staring at it. That image stayed with me. Within the next day, I had the chorus and the first verse."

The backing track included only Buddy Saltzman on drums and percussion, Nick Massi on bass, Tommy DeVito on guitar and Gaudio on organ -- and, after adding vocal tracks and some more percussion that day, the group and Crewe were certain it was a hit. The single was released ten days after that recording session. It became the Four Seasons' fourth (and last) Billboard number one hit in the 1960s, pushing both the Beatles and the Beach Boys out of the top slot.

Answer: Silence Is Golden

"Silence Is Golden" was the B-side of "Rag Doll" and apparently never considered for an A-side by Gaudio or Crewe. Meanwhile, the Tremeloes' major "claim to fame" had been that they were the group that Mike Smith of Decca foolishly signed over the Beatles in early 1962.

But the ignored song and the maligned group found a match in each other. "Silence Is Golden" was the Tremeloes' follow-up to their hit version of Cat Stevens' "Here Comes My Baby" and became their biggest hit, spending three weeks at number one in the U.K. and earning a gold single in the U.S. for sales of over 500,000 copies.

Answer: The Beatles vs. the Four Seasons: The International Battle of the Century!

"The Beatles vs. the Four Seasons: The International Battle of the Century!" was a last-ditch attempt by Vee-Jay to repackage their limited Beatles and Four Seasons material in an attempt to sell it yet again to people who had already bought it once. The set simply consisted of a copy of "Introducing the Beatles" and a copy of "Golden Hits of the Four Seasons". Vee-Jay could actually have pointed out the groups' parallels, such as the long apprenticeships, the drummer problems, the years of rejections ... and then, all at once, "overnight" success.

But Vee-Jay was just looking for quick cash, not significance.

Answer: Both singles failed to reach the Billboard Top 20 in the U.S.

During the Four Seasons' first thirteen singles (not counting the Vee-Jay repackages -- one on Gone, six on Vee-Jay and six on Philips) they had only had three singles fail to reach the top twenty. All were covers of older songs ("Bermuda", "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and "Ain't That A Shame"). Thus, no recording of new material had failed to be a smash hit for the group. Also, all three were issued prior to their move to Philips, and the group had never had two consecutive singles fail to chart in the top twenty.

However, all three of these precedents were broken on these back-to-back 1965 singles, written by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe. Each missed the top twenty: "Toy Soldier" only reached number 64, and the vastly superior "Girl Come Running" peaked at number 30.

As a result, Bon Gaudio did not write any of the next five Four Seasons singles, all of which once again reached the Billboard top twenty.