“December 2008 (Oh What A Night)”

Day 199

Two years ago today I had the awesome opportunity to see a cool, Tony award-winning musical with my mom. The musical: Jersey Boys, which was about the evolution of one of the most popular groups of the 1960s - Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Anyway, it ended up being a surprise gift from my mom; little did she know that I had actually been wanting to see this musical.

Almost a year and half earlier I happened to see one the musical numbers from Jersey Boys performed on TV. It was a rousing, energetic number set to the song “Who Loves You” and it was incredible to watch. I enjoyed it so much that I went out and bought the soundtrack soon after. The soundtrack mainly consisted of classic Four Seasons songs (like “Walk Like A Man” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry”) and I really enjoyed the new versions.

This would be the second time my mom and I went to the Buell Theatre in Denver; our first time there was when we saw Spamalot, which had been a very stressful experience because we were 15 minutes late and thought we’d miss the show. This time around Mom and I made sure to leave extra early; consequently, we had lots of time to kill before show time, but at least we weren’t worried about missing any of the show.

Right as we were getting ready to take our seats we noticed a warning sign posted at the entrance that conveyed the message that this particular show contained “authentic New Jersey language.” Just what did that mean? Mom and I soon found out that the language would be peppered with lots of profanity, namely lots of f-bombs. How embarrassing! And yet Mom and I managed to tune out the language and focus on the music, which was perfect!

I liked the fact that I knew the songs before seeing the musical; when a song would be performed I would find myself tapping my feet to the beat and mouthing the words. Speaking of the lyrics there is a little joke between me and my mom over one particular Four Seasons song: “December 1963 (Oh What A Night)” - a #1 Hit for the Four Seasons in 1976. The first line of the song goes like this:

Oh what a night

Late December

Back in ‘63

Now, Mom will swear up and down that the lyric is actually “Late September back in ‘65.” Nothing could convince her otherwise, until she saw it with her own eyes, when she saw how it appeared in the program. And then it was performed during the show, loud and clear!

But enough about that: the bottom line is that I had a blast! “Oh what a night” indeed!!