Dawn (Go Away) | |
Type: | single |
Artist: | the Four Seasons |
Album: | Dawn (Go Away) and 11 Other Great Songs |
B-Side: | No Surfin' Today (from the album Born To Wander) |
Released: | January 1964 |
Recorded: | November 1963 |
Genre: | Pop |
Length: | 2:10 |
Label: | Philips |
Producer: | Bob Crewe |
Prev Title: | Peanuts |
Prev Year: | 1963 |
Next Title: | Stay |
Next Year: | 1964 |
"Dawn (Go Away)" is a song written by Bob Gaudio and Sandy Linzer and recorded by the Four Seasons in November 1963.[1] The song hit No. 3 in the early part of 1964. According to Billboard, it was the 25th biggest hit single of the year, placing behind "Rag Doll", another Four Seasons hit, which was No. 24.[2]
It was recorded as the Four Seasons were involved in a royalty dispute with Vee-Jay Records. As the lawsuit proceeded, 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 was not settled until 1965, a year after the Four Seasons officially left Vee-Jay.
The group signed with Philips Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records, shortly thereafter. "Dawn (Go Away)" was released in January 1964. It took four weeks to climb the Billboard Hot 100 chart to No. 3 on February 29, 1964,[3] prevented from going higher by the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You", which became the top two singles of 1964. "Dawn" remained at No. 3 for three weeks, then dropped to make way for two further Beatles singles ("Twist and Shout" and "Please Please Me"). During its six-week run in the Top Ten, only Beatles hits ranked above it in the chart.[4]
Cash Box said that the song "is delivered with that stompin', falsetto-highlighted money-making touch of the Four Seasons" and praised the arrangement and conducting by Charles Calello.[5]
Originally written as a folk song, arranger Charles Calello sped it up and, at Valli's suggestion, added a galloping rhythm guitar borrowed from Kai Winding's version of "More". Drummer Buddy Saltzman accented the recording with bombastic around-the-kit fills and ghost notes without using any cymbals.[6]
The single version, with a two-line sung introduction, was never 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, include different takes of the recording. One begins with a short drum intro, featuring a louder and more frantic drum backing by Saltzman, and slightly different vocals. Both versions are listed as 2 minutes 11 seconds long, but the stereo "Dawn" is 2 minutes 30 seconds, and the mono version with the "Pretty as midsummer's morn. They called her Dawn" intro is 2 minutes 45 seconds.[7]
"Dawn (Go Away)" was the only Philips single crediting the Four Seasons that did not have the notation "featuring the 'sound' of Frankie Valli".