As the newly remastered Beatles catalogue hits the street this week, most of us who were alive when the tunes first came out in the 60s remember their debut as a completely thrilling time.
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Bob Gaudio’s recollections aren’t so sweet.
Gaudio is the genius who wrote all the hits for the Four Seasons, the band the Beatles drove off the charts.
“Frankly,” he tells me over a ginger ale at the aptly chosen Four Seasons, “their early records for me were not that inventive or cutting-edge.
“When you recognize genius, you can sit back and say, ‘Okay, I don’t mind playing second fiddle while we regroup.’ The Beatles invasion was so overwhelming, it made me and Brian Wilson ask, ‘How in the hell can we overcome what is not just great records and great songs but something that’s basically a phenomenon?’
“It was like Elvis Presley. If you’re Carl Perkins, you can’t compete with Presley regardless of how many hit records you have.”
The laid-back, thoughtful Gaudio is in town to help celebrate the first anniversary of T.O.’s run of Jersey Boys, the hit musical based on the story of the rise of the Four Seasons.
The show’s done wonders to rehabilitate the reputation of the band, whose catchy tunes filled with crafty harmonies brought them more hit singles than the Fab Four. In fact, The Four Seasons Greatest Hits and the Jersey Boys Broadway cast album have been in the top 10 for more than half a year.
But songs weren’t enough in the early 60s, says Gaudio. The Beatles got a heavy media push that the Four Seasons never experienced.
I see his point. When I was in my teens, I could tell you everything about John, Paul, George and Ringo. But when the Four Seasons broke out via American Bandstand, they merely lip-synched without instruments, and it wasn’t until I saw Jersey Boys last year that I learned the boys from Jersey wrote, played and sang their songs before the Beatles ever hit the big time.
“We came under the radar, we weren’t glamour boys, we didn’t get the publicity and we were never categorized as a phenomenon,” Gaudio recalls.
Looking back on the Beatles’ early days, he says they were ripping off early rock ‘n’ roll and covering well-known Chuck Berry hits.
“I didn’t hear, see or expect the genius or creativity that came later,” he says, and he credits George Martin for taking them to the next level.
“Sure, the songs were there, but the structure, arrangements and sound play an important part.”
In the UK, Gaudio heard the Beatles’ number-one hit Please Please Me and later asked Ewart Abner Jr. of Vee-Jay Records if he was interested in a cover of the tune.
“Abner looked at me and said, ‘But would you wanna cover something like that when you have something else pretty exciting going on?’ He was talking about Walk Like A Man, which wound up turning out all right.”
Interview Clips
On the genius of vocal arranger and bassist Nick Massi
More on covering Please Please Me
susanc@nowtoronto.com
