Oh What A Night!

I remember dancing my heart out to this tune when I was a kid. I had a small plastic portable record player and landed the needle-drop on the K-tel vinyl that had this track. Over and over. Probably drove everyone in the vicinity crazy. But I didn't know that the same singer/ songwriter duo that did Oh What A Night was the same that did Walk Like a Man, Can't Take My Eyes off of You, Sherry, Under My Skin, Big Girls Don't Cry and Who Loves You Pretty Baby.

You probably know by now that the group is The Four Seasons - the singer Frankie Valli, and the songwriter Bob Gaudio. The group is one of the best-selling off all time, with record sales of more than 175M worldwide. Their influence is indisputable.


Jersey Boys tells the story of the boy band's coming of age, cleverly staging the plot in Acts through Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. The music is great and the story is compelling, with a few interesting bits of trivia.... including how the actor Joe Pesci hooked Bob Gaudio up with the group. At 17, the songwriter was worried about becoming a one-hit wonder, because it had been a few years since he made the top of the charts with Short Shorts. Talk about early success.

The production has been playing in Toronto for almost a year and people have been telling us for months to go see it. Finally got around to it last night. Four of us went (Rob & me + Alex & his girlfriend). Despite the long run and the fact it was a Wednesday night, the theatre was almost full to capacity. This morning I woke up with the soundtrack running through my head and it lasted most of the morning. If that's what you call a Jersey hangover, it's a great side effect!