Four Seasons' Bob Crewe Dead At 82

TheBigA · Sep 12, 2014

Personally, I always liked Bob Gaudio's songs more. But Bob Crewe certainly leaves a huge body of work.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-crewe-four-seasons-songwriter-dead-20140912

FRR · Sep 25, 2014

Never heard a thing about this on the news. Funny how these folks tend to just be forgotten as time moves on. Guess we are too busy worrying about what Lady Gag Gag or Kim K. is wearing.

landtuna · Sep 25, 2014

Crewe was a teenage heartthrob in the 50's? I never heard of him until he was part of the Four Seasons. He certainly wasn't a heartthrob like Rick Nelson to whom he was compared.

LKellerIII · Nov 17, 2014

FRR said:
Never heard a thing about this on the news. Funny how these folks tend to just be forgotten as time moves on. Guess we are too busy worrying about what Lady Gag Gag or Kim K. is wearing.

Though Crewe is a notable footnote in the music business, he was hardly ever a big name star. I was a Top 40 radio and rock music fiend in the 60s, and I don't think I knew his name until decades later, reading about him on the internet. The 4 Seasons' "star" was Frankie Valli, not Bob Crewe. The behind the scenes people (songwriters, producers) rarely found fame in those days, though they do more lately in this information age.

Silkie · Nov 17, 2014

Notable footnotes are occasionally found to have written lots of hit songs for bands that went to the top 40, including #1 for other than those with whom we may be familiar, but enough about footnotes from 1957 till about 2001 or so.

From 1967: http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...&mid=C3828754B7BBFFA3A146C3828754B7BBFFA3A146

JeffM · Nov 17, 2014

LKellerIII said:
Though Crewe is a notable footnote in the music business, he was hardly ever a big name star. I was a Top 40 radio and rock music fiend in the 60s, and I don't think I knew his name until decades later, reading about him on the internet. The 4 Seasons' "star" was Frankie Valli, not Bob Crewe. The behind the scenes people (songwriters, producers) rarely found fame in those days, though they do more lately in this information age.

He did have a "one-shot" instrumental hit with "Music To Watch Girls By," credited as The Bob Crewe Generation. The tune was written by Sid Ramin, originally for a Diet Pepsi commercial.

vchimpanzee · Nov 18, 2014

JeffM said:
He did have a "one-shot" instrumental hit with "Music To Watch Girls By," credited as The Bob Crewe Generation. The tune was written by Sid Ramin, originally for a Diet Pepsi commercial.

I remember that Pepsi commercial. Andy Williams had a hit in England with a version of it in recent years. i think it was because of its use in a commercial.

Silkie · Nov 18, 2014

Bob Crewe had lots of number 1 hits, although they were performed by various other artists for whom he wrote them...including a very early one, with Silhouettes, by The Rays.

JeffM · Nov 18, 2014

Silkie said:
Bob Crewe had lots of number 1 hits, although they were performed by various other artists for whom he wrote them...including a very early one, with Silhouettes, by The Rays.

I think we need to differentiate here between hits as a performer and hits as a songwriter or producer. Jimmy Webb or Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote dozens of hits, but did not perform them. George Martin or Snuff Garrett produced countless hit records, but were neither composers nor performers. Bob Crewe was responsible for many hits as a songwriter and/or producer, but "Music To Watch Girls By" was his only hit as a performer (orchestra leader.)

And of course there are any number of singer-songwriters who generally do not produce their own records (Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Elton John) and those who "do it all", from Brian Wilson to Barry Gibb to Pharrell Williams.