Big Girls Don't Cry (Four Seasons song)

"Big Girls Don't Cry" is a song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio and originally recorded by The Four Seasons. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 17, 1962, and, like its predecessor "Sherry", spent five weeks in the top position. The song also made the top ten of Billboard's Rhythm and Blues survey.

According to Gaudio, he was dozing off while watching the John Payne/Rhonda Fleming/Ronald Reagan movie Tennessee's Partner (1955) when he heard Payne's character slap Fleming in the face. After the slap, Fleming's character replied, "Big Girls Don't Cry." Gaudio wrote the line on a scrap of paper, fell asleep, and wrote the song the next morning.^[1]^[2]

Like "Sherry", "Big Girls Don't Cry" is sung mostly in falsetto. The similarity in style was not a coincidence: the two songs were recorded in the same recording session. With "Big Girls Don't Cry", the Four Seasons became the first rock-era act to hit the top spot on the Hot 100 with their first two chart entries (their first single, "Bermuda"/"Spanish Lace", did not appear on any Billboard chart in 1961).

[edit] Cover versions

On the children's television show Sesame Street, the song is reworded about the Big Bird character, with the words changed to "Big Birds Don't Fly."

"Big Girls Don't Cry" was recently covered by Massachusetts girl group IQ in 2006.

Edith Massey did a rare punk rock version of this song.

Preceded by "He's a Rebel" by The Crystals	Billboard Hot 100 number one single November 17, 1962	Succeeded by "Telstar" by The Tornados

[edit] References

^ Joe Sasfy, liner notes, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, "The Rock 'N' Roll Era" (Time-Life Records, 1987)
^ Jersey Boys Playbill with discussion of history of hits