Dawn (Go Away)

"Dawn (Go Away)" is a song written by Bob Gaudio and Sandy Linzer and recorded by The Four Seasons in late 1963 as the Four Seasons Partnership (Gaudio and lead vocalist Frankie Valli) were involved in a royalty dispute with Vee-Jay Records. As the lawsuit was making its way through the American judiciary system in the latter half of the year, the group recorded "Dawn" and a handful of other songs and withheld the master tapes from Vee-Jay, which then claimed breach of contract. The dispute would not be settled until 1965, a year after the Four Seasons officially left Vee-Jay.

In January 1964, Atlantic Records rejected "Dawn". The group signed with Philips Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records, shortly thereafter. "Dawn (Go Away)" was released in February 1964, just as Beatlemania was making inroads into the United States. It took only four weeks for "Dawn" to climb the Billboard Hot 100 chart to the #3 - and was prevented from going higher by the then-omnipresent "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" (which turned out to be the top two singles for the 1964, according to Billboard). "Dawn" stayed at #3 for three weeks, until it was pushed out of the spot (and the Top Five) by three other Beatles singles ("Twist and Shout", "Please Please Me", and "Can't Buy Me Love").

The single version (with a two-line sung introduction) was not recorded in true stereo. Early "stereo" album releases were rechanneled (with the high and low frequencies on one channel and the midrange on the other); later stereo issues, from the Edizione d'Oro greatest hits album onward, offer a different take of the recording, beginning with a short drum intro, featuring a louder drum backing and slightly different vocals. Both versions are two minutes, ten seconds long.

"Dawn (Go Away)" was the only Philips single crediting the Four Seasons that did not have the notation "featuring the 'sound' of Frankie Valli".