Throwback Thursday: "Big Girls Don't Cry" The Four Seasons

The massive Broadway success of jukebox musical Jersey Boys has given a second life to the legacy of the Four Seasons, Frankie Valli's pop vocal quartet, which ran up a string of hit singles in the 1960s. Among their five #1's was "Big Girls Don't Cry," a doo-wop riff on a line from the 1956 film noir Slightly Scarlet. The short song revolves around the events of a break-up, told in chaste and slightly nonsensical detail, but it's really all about the famous titular refrain. Five decades later, the burst of falsetto harmonies that anchors "Big Girls" remains just as splendid and satisfying as ever. B

50 years ago this week, "Big Girls Don't Cry" was the #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100.