"Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is a 1967 song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, and first recorded and released as a single by Gaudio's Four Seasons bandmate Frankie Valli. The song was among his biggest hits, earning a gold record and reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a week, making it Valli's biggest solo hit until he hit No. 1 in 1975 with "My Eyes Adored You". Gaudio describes the song as "the one that almost got away" until Windsor, Ontario, radio station CKLW (a station also serving the Detroit metro on the American side of the border) intervened. In 1967, the record's producers urged Paul Drew, program director at the legendary station, to consider the tune for rotation. For much of the 1960s and 1970s, CKLW was credited with launching hit records via its powerful signal, blanketing the Great Lakes region. Drew did not warm to the song at first, but accepted an invitation to hear it live at the Roostertail, where Valli was performing a weeklong stint with the Four Seasons. Drew liked what he heard and added the song to his station's playlist. "The switchboards lit up, and the rest, as they say, is history", Gaudio recalled. Valli recalled in 2014 that "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" was the first step in the fulfillment of his goal to sing music that did not require him to use falsetto: "I didn't want to sing like that my whole life. Once we established the sound, the plan was that eventually I would do solo [records] and some things I really wanted to do. I was very lucky to make the transition to 'My Eyes Adored You' and 'Swearin' to God', which had none of that." Valli also recalled that the record had been mothballed by The Four Seasons' record company for a year because of their fear that The Four Seasons (who had already lost Nick Massi in 1965) were breaking up, to which Valli insisted that he had no intentions of ever leaving The Four Seasons. "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" has been recorded in many other arrangements, many of which have charted in different countries.

Credits

The song was written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio. Melodic elements bear a similarity to passages from the Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia section of the 1956 ballet Spartacus (Suite No. 2) by Aram Khachaturian. The original recording, from an arrangement by Gaudio and Artie Schroeck, was made at A & R Studio 2 (formerly Columbia Studio A), at 799 7th Avenue in New York City, with Crewe producing and Phil Ramone engineering.

Reception

Billboard described the single as "strong rhythm ballad material from the pen of Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio with an exceptional Valli vocal combined with an exciting Artie Schroeck arrangement." Cash Box called the single a "smooth, gentle, softly spoken romancer".

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Boys Town Gang version

In 1982, San Francisco-based post-disco band Boys Town Gang released a dance version of the song which reached the top spot in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain and number four in the United Kingdom. This version was also successful in Japan, receiving a gold digital certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) in 2011.

Track listings

7-inch single 7-inch single

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Lauryn Hill version

Lauryn Hill's version of the song was recorded in 1997, while Hill was eight months pregnant with her first child. It was first featured in the movie Conspiracy Theory (1997). While the song was not featured on the soundtrack, a radio jockey at KMEL in San Francisco put the song on a CD and began playing it; more radio stations followed suit, causing a domino effect around the U.S., ultimately leading the song to peak at number two on the Rhythmic Top 40 chart, despite Hill's label's not releasing the song as a single. Due to the popularity of the song it was added as a hidden track on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. This version was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1999, becoming the first hidden track to ever receive a Grammy nomination. Consequence of Sound named it the best hidden track of all time. In 2014, VH1 also named it the best hidden track of all time. Academy Award–winning actor Forest Whitaker was inspired to name his daughter True, after hearing Hill's version of the song.

Charts

Certifications

Other cover versions

The song has been recorded by many artists. Among the most notable examples are the following: