Bob Gaudio was born on November 17, 1942, in the Bronx, New York. As a founding member of The Four Seasons, he sang, played keyboards and wrote songs that made full use of Frankie Valli’s voice. His composition “Sherry” gave the group its first No. 1 hit in 1962.
Gaudio’s recording career had started before that partnership. He studied piano with jazz musician Sal Mosca and attended high school in Bergenfield, New Jersey, where he helped form The Royal Teens. He co-wrote and performed on “Short Shorts,” which reached No. 3 in 1958, and left school to tour with the group that year. He arrived at The Four Seasons with experience of making a hit record and taking it on the road.
Working with Valli opened up different possibilities. In a September 2014 interview with Pop Culture Classics, Gaudio described Valli as “someone who I perceived as being able to do anything I wanted to write.” His interest in harmony was already established, and he approached “Sherry” with the group’s vocal blend in mind: a substantial ensemble sound with Valli’s voice above it. The singer’s range gave him room to develop beyond the kind of material he’d recorded with The Royal Teens.
The song’s words began as a practical solution. Gaudio told Terry Gross in a 2014 Fresh Air interview that he came up with “Sherry” at the piano before heading to a rehearsal at Valli’s home. Without a tape recorder, he needed lyrics to help him remember the melody. He sang it on the way there so he wouldn’t lose it. Producer Bob Crewe handled the recording, which Vee-Jay released in 1962.
Gaudio and Crewe’s writing partnership then supplied “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man,” and extended to Valli’s solo career with “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” in 1967. The work didn’t always arrive as readily as “Sherry.” Recalling “Rag Doll” in the Pop Culture Classics interview, Gaudio said he and Crewe spent about four weeks trying to finish its last two lines. He also described rediscovering melodies on old tapes, recognizing ideas he had worked on and set aside.
In 1972, Gaudio stopped performing regularly with The Four Seasons and concentrated on writing and studio work. He explained to Gross that he no longer wanted to perform and believed he could contribute more to his partnership with Valli away from the stage. That decision didn’t end his work on the group’s records. For the 1975 album Who Loves You, he co-wrote the title track and “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” with Judy Parker and produced both recordings. His role had changed, but he remained directly involved in creating the music.
The distinction between being onstage and shaping what happened there carried into Jersey Boys, the musical based on The Four Seasons’ story. It opened on Broadway in November 2005, with music credited to Gaudio and lyrics to Crewe. Gaudio also produced the original Broadway cast recording, returning to songs he had helped create with a different set of singers. The album earned him a Grammy at the 2007 ceremony.
