THE NIGHT, written by Bob Gaudio and Al Ruzicka
By the early 1970s The Four Seasons hits had dried up and the group signed to Motown with disastrous results.
Even with the team of songwriter/producers Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio with lead singer Frankie Valli intact, the first album, Chameleon, tanked after it was released by the Motown subsidiary label MoWest.
The release of a follow-up LP was canceled, but this song THE NIGHT from the album found an audience in the UK when it was adopted by the British NORTHERN SOUL scene.
The song is considered a "Northern Soul" classic due to its heavy bass production and strong beat, as well as the fact that it did not succeed commercially.
Originally released as a single only in Germany and the Netherlands, MoWest capitalized on the song's newfound popularity by releasing "The Night" as a single in the UK in 1975, where it went to #7 on the UK Singles Chart.
Bob Gaudio wrote this song with Al Ruzicka, who was added to the group as a keyboard player in 1972 and left later that year. The song finds Frankie Valli asking a girl to resist the charms of her Lothario.
In 1975, around the same time this song charted in the UK, Frankie Valli was enjoying chart success in the US with "My Eyes Adored You" (#1 in March) and "Swearin' To God" (#6 in July). This prompted Bob Gaudio to form a new version of the band around Valli, which signed a deal with Warner-Curb Records and released an album that year called "Who Loves You."
Frankie Valli cited this song as an example of one that should have been a hit, but failed because of poor promotion. "There are some songs that were on albums that I felt could have been hits but record companies at the time didn't agree," Valli explained. "A good example is when we recorded an album for Motown Records and it was put out and nothing really happened. They really didn't promote it, and promotion is a very, very important part of it."
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