(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please refer to the "Poor Little Fool" post.)
The Four Seasons - "Big Girls Don't Cry"
Hit Number 1: November 17, 1962
Stay at Number 1: 5 Weeks
If you remember, the Four Seasons were in this blog not too long ago with their hit "Sherry". That was a decent song, that was a little bit destroyed by some questionable falsetto and bass voices. Then all of a sudden, they were back at the top again with a very similar sounding song, "Big Girls Don't Cry". However, while "Sherry" sounds like your average song about love, "Big Girls Don't Cry" doesn't sound like something that had a lot of time put into it. Instead, it sounds like something that was scrapped together in just a couple minutes, and then the Four Seasons stumbled into the studio and recorded it. But the result of it all, was a #1 hit that occupied that spot for FIVE weeks. The charts can be a very intriguing thing.
Bob Gaudio, who wrote "Sherry" along with many other Four Seasons hits, says he got the idea for the title of the song while watching the movie "Tennessee's Partner" starring John Payne, Rhonda Fleming, and Ronald Reagan. Payne's character slapped Fleming in the face, and she replied "Big girls don't cry". Gaudio then decided that that would be a great title for the song. He fell asleep, and wrote the song the next day. Fellow bandmate Bob Crewe counters that claim, by saying that he was dozing off at home with his television on when he awoke to see Payne once again slapping around Fleming. That movie he was watching is called "Slightly Scarlet". What gives Crewe's story more validity, is that you don't hear the line in "Tennessee's Partner", but you do hear it in "Slightly Scarlet". Either way, the title for the song was apparently influenced by Rhonda Fleming getting slapped around by John Payne. It's pretty fascinating.
The song itself is a really silly piece of work. It's about a guy who broke up with his girlfriend, and he expected her to break down in tears because of it. He then became in shock when she told him "big girls don't cry". The girl then goes home, and starts to cry, with her mom calling her a "silly girl", and that she "told a lie; big girls DO cry". Just like "Sherry", Frankie Valli sings the song in his falsetto. The way he delivers the song almost gives it a novelty sound, and Nick Massi continues to sound like the dumb bully like he did in "Sherry". But both of them sound even worse on "Big Girls Don't Cry". Valli sounds like his voice is about ready to crack at the really high parts, and Massi's "silly boys" and "silly girls" sound so stupid, that you have to start wondering what the hell is even going on here with this song.
But at least in my opinion, there is a silver lining on "Big Girls Don't Cry". The whole general feel of the song is very harmless, and dare I say, cute. That makes it pretty hard for me to hate this song. I seriously hope that they weren't really going for a masterpiece here, but I can't imagine they were. The group sounds like they were out partying on the town, had several drinks, then decided they were going to head to the studio to record their song. (Kind of like the Hollywood Argyles did on "Alley Oop") But again, that's not what was going on here, I'm pretty sure. You do have to give the Four Seasons some credit here, they dominated the charts in late 1962, and both of their number one hits in this year are still oldies staples today, and are classified as true classic songs. But let's be real for a second, "Big Girls Don't Cry" isn't a very good song.
GRADE: 4/10
JUST MISSED:
The man Elvis Presley was kept out of the top spot all 5 weeks "Big Girls Don't Cry" was at #1. His song "Return to Sender" spent those five weeks at #2. It's an 8.
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