My Eyes Adored You

"My Eyes Adored You" is one of the most poignant songs about unrequited love. Valli sings about a girl he loved since his school days, but never attained. She was close to him, but she may just as well have been a million miles away.

This was written by Kenny Nolan and Bob Crewe, the team that gave us "Lady Marmalade," which replaced this song at #1 on March 29, 1975.

While this was credited to just Frankie Valli, his Four Seasons bandmates sang on it with him. They recorded the song for Motown Records, which they joined in 1970 on the promise that label boss Berry Gordy would personally look after them. That didn't happen: Gordy got preoccupied working on the film Lady Sings The Blues, starring Motown great Diana Ross. The group released an album on Motown called Chameleon in 1972 that was critically acclaimed but sold poorly. The group was one of the biggest hitmakers of the early and mid-'60s, but hadn't cracked the Top 40 since 1967. With their foray to Motown a bust, it looked like they were done, but when their contract with the label ended in 1973, Valli, his bandmate Bob Gaudio, and the song's co-writer Bob Crewe purchased the masters to "My Eyes Adored You" for $4000 and shopped it to other record companies. They finally found a taker in the Private Stock Record label, which released it in 1974 with the artist credited as Frankie Valli. It rose to #1 in America and revived Valli's career. With his voice back in the spotlight the Four Seasons made a group comeback a year later with "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)," which went to #1 in 1976.