Frankie Valli (Solo) – Can’t Take My Eyes Off You (Official Audio)
“Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” was written in 1967 by lyricist and producer Bob Crewe and Four Seasons keyboards player Bob Gaudio for Frankie Valli, the group’s singer. Lyrically, it is an uncomplicated but extravagant declaration of love. Musically, it is built around three melodies composed by Gaudio.
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Widely covered
Valli’s version reached number two in the US charts and a recording by Andy Williams reached number five in the UK charts the following year. (More than 30 years later, Williams would re-record it as a duet with Denise van Outen.)
It has been covered in many different styles, and by the turn of the century was the fifth most played song on US radio and TV. Barry Manilow, Engelbert Humperdinck, Shirley Bassey and Gloria Gaynor have sung it.
A disco version by the Boys Town Gang reached number four in the UK in 1982 and influenced the Pet Shop Boys’ impish 1991 medley of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” and the “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” chorus.
A heavily pregnant Lauryn Hill lay on the floor on her back to record her hip hop-style version, which featured as a hidden track on her acclaimed 1998 album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
Continuing the Welsh connection, a Manic Street Preachers cover appears on the rarities’ compilation album Lipstick Traces and, during the Welsh band’s millennium New Year’s Eve concert at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, singer James Dean Bradfield performed an acoustic version of the first song after midnight. It has also had a rich film life.
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The late Heath Ledger winningly sings it to woo Julia Stiles’s character in the romcom 10 Things I Hate About You. In Bridget Jones’s Diary, it’s playing at the party at which Bridget first meets Mark Darcy. The original Frankie Valli version is in Drew Goddard’s cult neo-noir thriller Bad Times at the El Royale.
Poignantly, the song is now also particularly associated with the former footballer and Wales manager, Gary Speed, who died in 2011 at the age of 42. The Stereophonics’ Kelly Jones recorded an acoustic version as a tribute, which was played at Speed’s funeral.
“The lyrics are all about devotion,” says Morgan, now managing director of a video production company. “It resonated really strongly when Gary died because he was deeply loved. It was just perfect. I have been astonished at the way it has been really embraced by everyone. That’s the power of music.”