Some hits arrive on the high of the charts just like the final hyperlink in a sequence response. “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” was written by Bob Gaudio of the 4 Seasons with the group’s producer Bob Crewe. They supposed it for the Righteous Brothers, however it by no means reached them as a result of 4 Seasons frontman Frankie Valli heard it when he was passing Crewe’s workplace, and claimed it for himself. It was launched as a single, and as a derivative from the Seasons’ huge success, in Valli’s identify in 1965.
Unusually, for the entire group’s momentum, Frankie’s model of the epic ballad did not make the nationwide US charts. “We never did send it to the Righteous Brothers,” stated Gaudio in an interview with this author, “and I’m sorry that Frankie’s version didn’t become a major success. It was Top 5 in a number of local markets, Boston, Hartford, Philadelphia, but we suspected that the record company didn’t want it to become a success because they were afraid that Frankie might leave the group.”
As was typically the case in these days, that left the sector open for a well-made, if opportunistic, cowl. “Lo and behold,” stated Gaudio, “eight months later and on the same label, Smash Records in the US, the Walker Brothers released it with a similar arrangement, but a faster tempo, and that was No.1 in England. I thought it was fabulous, but I preferred it at our tempo.”
Take heed to uDiscover Music’s Walker Brothers Greatest Of playlist.
The Walker Brothers’ model, their follow-up to the 1965 hit “My Ship Is Coming In,” was produced by Johnny Franz and Ivor Raymonde. In March 1966, in solely its third chart week within the UK, it changed Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’’’ at No.1. Gaudio and Crewe’s disappointment that Valli’s model didn’t make the grade was tempered by the truth that the quilt stayed there for 4 weeks, additionally reaching No.13 within the US.
“The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” is on No Regrets — The Better of Scott Walker and the Walker Brothers 1965-1976.
