Bob Crewe

Robert Stanley Crewe (November 12, 1930 – September 11, 2014) was an American songwriter, record producer, dancer and manager, best known mainly for co-writing and producing a string of Top 10 singles with Bob Gaudio for the 1960s pop rock band The Four Seasons.

As a songwriter, his most successful songs include "Silhouettes" (co-written with Frank Slay); "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", "Rag Doll", "Silence Is Golden", "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", "Get Dancin' ", and "Bye, Bye, Baby" (all co-written with Gaudio); "Let's Hang On!" (co-written with Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell); and "My Eyes Adored You" and "Lady Marmalade" (both co-written with Kenny Nolan). He also had hit recordings with The Rays, Diane Renay, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Freddy Cannon, Lesley Gore, Oliver, Michael Jackson, Bobby Darin, Roberta Flack, Peabo Bryson, Patti LaBelle, Barry Manilow, and his own "Bob Crewe Generation".

Early life Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1930 and raised in Belleville, Crewe demonstrated an early gift for both art and music. Although lacking formal musical training, he gravitated to learning from many of the great 19th- and 20th-century classical romantic composers as well as giants of jazz and swing, including Stan Kenton, Harry James, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey. He studied for almost a year at Parsons School of Design in New York City with the intention of eventually pursuing a career in architecture. Crewe and Slay's 1957 recording session with The Rays for XYZ (picked up nationally by Cameo Records) produced two major hit songs.

"Daddy Cool" was the B-side of the Rays' "Silhouettes" single. Written and produced by Crewe and Slay at the same 1957 session, it achieved considerable note. Both "Daddy Cool" and "Silhouettes" were covered the same year by the Canadian group The Diamonds, whose version of the former reached No. 10 on the Billboard charts. In 1961, Guy "Daddy Cool" Darrell released another single version on the Warwick label, and in 1977, the UK band Darts made the song their first-ever studio recording, scoring a No. 6 hit.

Crewe and Slay built on their success by signing a deal with new, Philadelphia-based Swan Records. Sessions with Billy and Lillie (singers Billy Ford and Lillie Bryant) produced the 1958 hit "Lah Dee Dah", which reached the No. 9 position on the Billboard Hot 100; the following year, Billy and Lillie's recording of "Lucky Ladybug" hit No. 14. Crewe and Slay also wrote two Top 10 hits - "Tallahassee Lassie" and "Okefenokee" - for Swan's rising star Freddy Cannon. Crewe also began to score his own hits, "Sweetie Pie" (US No. 111, 1959) and "The Whiffenpoof Song" (No. 96, 1960).

The early 1960s As a solo singer, Crewe recorded a pair of albums in 1961, one of which included a Ralph Burns-produced swing version of Yale University's signature "The Whiffenpoof Song". whom Crewe greatly valued) and punctuated by the distinctive falsetto of Frankie Valli were at once classic and innovative, as was Crewe's use of melancholy harmonica on "Big Man in Town", the space-age organ of "Save It for Me", and the otherworldly glissandos of "Candy Girl".

In addition to his work with the Four Seasons, Crewe produced recording sessions for artists such as Dee Dee Sharp, The Orlons, Ben E. King, and The Highwaymen (On a New Road). With Bud Rehak and Eddie Rambeau he co-wrote "Navy Blue" for singer Diane Renay, and also produced it. Renay's recording made the Top 10 on the US pop chart in early 1964, and No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary Chart.

The mid-to-late 1960s In 1965, Crewe formed his own record label, DynoVoice Records. With the release of the 1965 hit "Concrete and Clay" by Eddie Rambeau, DynoVoice launched a run of twenty-one Top 100 hits. The label found early success with the R&B trio The Toys, best known for their songs "A Lover's Concerto", a No. 2 hit single, and "Attack". The Toys were produced by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell for executive producer Crewe.

Another DynoVoice powerhouse of the mid-1960s emerged when Crewe discovered a group called Billy Lee & The Rivieras. The band had limited success until he renamed them Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels. Under his direction, they scored No. 11 on Top 100 hits, most notably Crewe's powerful and muscular arrangements of their 1966 cover of the song "Devil with a Blue Dress On", the act's highest-charting single which peaked No. 4, as well as "Sock It to Me, Baby!", a No. 6 hit in 1967, and "Jenny Take a Ride", which reached No. 10 in 1965.

Another often-recorded song from the 1965 album by the Toys is "Can't Get Enough of You Baby". The single, written and produced by the Linzer-Randell couple, was also recorded by the rock group ? and the Mysterians from Bay City, Michigan, best known for their 1966 hit "96 Tears". "Can't Get Enough of You Baby" has enjoyed subsequent reinterpretations by The Colourfield and Smash Mouth, among many others.

Crewe's record label scored another hit with Norma Tanega's off-beat, folksy "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog". Crewe also helped bring success to the Epic Records band The Tremeloes with their hit cover of "Silence Is Golden", a song originally written for and recorded by The Four Seasons.

Bob Crewe himself (recording as The Bob Crewe Generation) released a version of Sid Ramin's 1967 instrumental "Music to Watch Girls By" (originally composed as a Diet Pepsi commercial jingle) on DynoVoice.

In the mid-1970s, Crewe and Sir Monti Rock III formed the disco club favorites Disco-Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes, best known for their 1975 hits "Get Dancin'" and "I Wanna Dance Wit' Choo (Doo Dat Dance)". the play has gone on to become an international hit, with Crewe credited as the show's lyricist. He used his proceeds from the show to start a foundation supporting gay rights, people with AIDS, and bringing music and art to children in deprived communities.

Personal life While Crewe was portrayed as openly gay in the Jersey Boys stage musical and film, his brother Dan Crewe told an interviewer that his brother was discreet about his sexuality, particularly during the time he was working with The Four Seasons. "Whenever he met someone, he would go into what I always called his John Wayne mode, this extreme machoism", Dan Crewe told The New York Times.

Crewe died in the nursing home on September 11, 2014, at the age of 83. He had been in declining health for several years following a fall.

Selected U.S. singles (written and/or produced by)

US peak chart position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart follows the song title. Only singles that reached a position of No. 30 or higher on the Hot 100 are listed here.

1957: "Silhouettes", The Rays, No. 3 1957: "Silhouettes", The Diamonds, No. 10 1958: "La Dee Dah", Billy & Lillie, No. 9 1958: "Sweet Talk", sung by Crewe 1959: "Lucky Ladybug", Billy & Lillie, No. 14 1962: "Sherry", The Four Seasons, No. 1 1962: "Big Girls Don't Cry", The Four Seasons, No. 1 1963: "Walk Like a Man", The Four Seasons, No. 1 1964: "Dawn (Go Away)", The Four Seasons, No. 3 1964: "Ronnie", The Four Seasons, No. 6 1964: "Navy Blue", Diane Renay, No. 6 1964: "Rag Doll", The Four Seasons, No. 1 1964: "Save It For Me", The Four Seasons, No. 10 1964: "Big Man in Town", The Four Seasons, No. 20 1965: "Bye, Bye, Baby (Baby, Goodbye)", The Four Seasons, No. 12 ("Bye Bye Baby" on initial release) 1965: "Let's Hang On!", The Four Seasons, No. 3 1965: "A Lover's Concerto", The Toys, No. 2 1965: "Silhouettes", Herman's Hermits, No. 5 1965: "Girl Come Running", The Four Seasons, No. 30 1965: "Jenny Take A Ride", Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, No. 10 1966: "Devil With A Blue Dress On", Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, No. 4 1966: "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine", The Walker Bros., No. 13 1967: "Sock It To Me, Baby", Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, No. 6 1967: "Music To Watch Girls By", The Bob Crewe Generation, No. 15 1967: "Silence Is Golden", The Tremeloes, No. 11 1967: "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You", Frankie Valli, No. 2 1967: "I Make a Fool of Myself", Frankie Valli, No. 18 1967: "To Give (The Reason I Live)", Frankie Valli, No. 29 1969: "Jean", Oliver, No. 2 1974: "Lady Marmalade", LaBelle, No. 1 1974: "Get Dancin'", Disco Tex & His Sex-O-Lettes, No. 10 1975: "My Eyes Adored You", Frankie Valli, No. 1 1975: "Swearin' To God", Frankie Valli, No. 6 1975: "I Wanna Dance Wit' Choo (Doo Dat Dance)", Disco Tex & His Sex-O-Lettes, No. 23 1975: "The Proud One", The Osmonds, No. 22 2001: "Lady Marmalade", Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, and Pink, No. 1

Recording discography Kicks, Warwick W-2009 (1960, out of print) Crazy In The Heart, Warwick W-2034 (1961, out of print) All The Song Hits of the Four Seasons, Philips 600150 (1964, out of print) Bob Crewe Plays the Four Seasons' hits, Philips 600238 (1967, out of print) Music To Watch Girls By, DynoVoice 9003 (1967, out of print) Music To Watch Birds By, DynoVoice 1902 [U.K.] (1967, out of print) Barbarella (Original Soundtrack Recording), originally published by Famous Music Corporation (1968, out of print), re-released by Soundtrack Classics SCL 1411 (2004) Let Me Touch You, CGC 1000 (1969, out of print) Street Talk, Elektra Records 7E-1083 (1976, out of print) Motivation, Elektra Records 7E-1103 (1977, out of print) The Best of The Bob Crewe Generation, Varèse Vintage 302 066 703 2 (Feb 2006)