You're the Apple of My Eye
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"You're the Apple of My Eye" is a song written by Otis Blackwell and initially recorded and released as a single in 1956 by The Four Lovers, the precursor to The Four Seasons. Recorded after they were denied the opportunity to record another Blackwell song, "Don't Be Cruel", "You're the Apple of My Eye" was The Four Lovers' first exposure to U.S. national publicity, reaching the #62 position on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning the quartet an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. One of two Four Lovers singles issued by RCA Victor simultaneously, it was the quartet's only foray onto the Hot 100 before the formation of The Four Seasons five years later.
The Four Lovers (1956 personnel: Frankie Valli, Nick and Tommy DeVito, and Hank Majewski) was the eventual result of Valli joining The Variety Trio in 1954 to form The Variatones (which briefly included mutual friends on a part-time basis). The group performed at various New Jersey clubs and lounges and established a reputation for its musical versatility, incorporating country music, pop music, doo wop, Broadway standards, rhythm and blues, and an occasional foray into Italian love songs.
An RCA Records executive saw a Four Lovers performance and was impressed with the presentation enough to recommend the quartet to the company's artists and repertoire department. They were signed to the RCA Victor label for a series of records to be released in 1956 and 1957. In May 1956, "You're the Apple of My Eye"/"The Girl of My Dreams" and "Lovey Dovey"/"Please Don't Love Me" were released simultaneously by RCA. The four sides were recorded in a single April session (with two other songs that were released as a single in January 1957).
Legacy
The song was featured in the jukebox musical: Jersey Boys as well as the film version.
"You're the Apple of My Eye"/"The Girl of My Dreams"
| "You're the Apple of My Eye" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Four Lovers | ||||
| B-side | "The Girl of My Dreams" | |||
| Released | May 1956 | |||
| Recorded | April 1956 | |||
| Genre | Doo-wop, Rock | |||
| Length | 2:11 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor Records | |||
| Songwriter | Otis Blackwell | |||
| Producer | Otis Blackwell | |||
| The Four Lovers singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
RCA Victor 47-6518. "You're the Apple of My Eye" was a last-minute substitution for another song that Frankie Valli and the group was preparing to do in the recording session, "Don't Be Cruel". Accounts differ as to the precise mechanism behind their not recording the Otis Blackwell song. Some sources indicate that The Four Lovers were told not to record the song as Elvis Presley expressed a desire to record the song himself; other sources indicate that Blackwell himself requested that the Four Lovers not record the song so he could "shop around" for a bigger act (and a better royalty deal) for the song (and succeeded when Presley's manager approached Blackwell with the idea of Presley recording "Don't Be Cruel").
Blackwell later apologized for "taking the song away from" The Four Lovers and offered a different original composition for the quartet to record. Produced by Blackwell, "You're the Apple of My Eye" was composed as a "traditional" rhythm-and-blues song, but the Four Lovers gave it more of a rock'n'roll interpretation (some music critics referred to it as so "over the top" as to be close in style to burlesque).
The single was the group's first attempt into national publicity, with sales and airplay sufficient for the record to enter the Hot 100 and to generate enough interest for Ed Sullivan to invite the group onto his weekly television program. "Apple of My Eye" was the only Four Lovers Single to achieve chart status as the other six successive singles sank without a trace in 1956 and 1957.
After the Four Lovers became The Four Seasons in 1961, "You're the Apple of My Eye" was re-recorded (as "Apple of My Eye") for the Sherry and 11 Others album (1962). The re-recording was released as a single in October 1964 and appeared briefly on the Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 record chart.
The B-side of The Four Lovers single, "The Girl of My Dreams", is a cover of a song composed by Maxwell Davis, Joe Josea, Jules Taub, and Sam Ling. Jessie Belvin and Eugene Church recorded and released a recording of the song in 1956 as The Cliques.
| "Honey Love" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Four Lovers | ||||
| B-side | "Please Don't Leave Me" | |||
| Released | May 1956 | |||
| Recorded | April 1956 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 2:31 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor Records | |||
| Songwriter | Clyde McPhatter-Gerald Wexler | |||
| Producer | Otis Blackwell | |||
| The Four Lovers singles chronology | ||||
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