Bob Gaudio

Gaudio is a member of the Songwriters' Hall of Fame. Artists that have joined Harris on the road for these dates include Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Bruce Cockburn, Steve Earle, Joan Baez, Patty Griffin and Nanci Griffith. He lured Neil Diamond to Nashville to record the album "Tennessee Moon." In recent years Gaudio has focused on musical theater, writing the music for the 2001 London production of "Peggy Sue Got Married." Gaudio was instrumental in mounting "Jersey Boys," a musical play based on the lives of The Four Seasons, which is running at the La Jolla (California) Playhouse through January 2, 2005 and is headed for Broadway. The tour also benefits the VVAF's work to raise America's awareness of the global landmine crisis. In the 1990s Gaudio moved to Nashville and produced recordings for Canadian country artist George Fox, among others. All proceeds from the tours support the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation's (VVAF) efforts to assist innocent victims of conflicts around the world. He produced the movie soundtrack albums for Diamond's "The Jazz Singer" and "The Little Shop of Horrors.". Since 1999, Harris has been organizing an annual benefit tour called Concerts for a Landmine Free World.

In particular, he produced six complete albums for Neil Diamond. In 2002, Harris joined many of the same artists on the road for the Down From The Mountain Tour. In addition to his work for the Seasons and Sinatra, he wrote and/or produced for Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Barry Manilow and Roberta Flack. A documentary/concert film was also released about the making of the soundtrack, which is entitled Down From The Mountain. Gaudio had stopped touring with the Seasons in 1971 so that he could focus on writing and producing. The same year she joined an all star group of traditional country, folk and blues artists for the T-Bone Burnett produced soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The original Four Seasons were inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame in 1990. In 2000, Harris guested on Alternative country singer Ryan Adams' solo debut Heartbreaker.

The songs became big hits for a reconstituted discofied version of the Four Seasons (Valli was the only original left). Also, in 1998, Tara MacLean eventually recorded the cover of the Emmylou Harris christmas single Light of the Stable. Later in the 1970s Gaudio wrote "Who Loves You" and "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)" with his future wife Judy Parker. In 1998, Harris released Spyboy, backed with a new band which included Nashville producer and songwriter Buddy Miller. Gaudio and Holmes also wrote and produced Frank Sinatra's 1970 album "Watertown.". An experimental album for Harris to say the least, the record included Harris' rendition of the Neil Young penned title track, Julie Miller's "All My Tears", Jimi Hendrix's "May This Be Love" and Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl." U2's Larry Mullen, Jr showed up to play drums for the project. and Ace in the U.K. In 1995, Harris released Wrecking Ball, produced by Daniel Lanois, best known for his work with U2, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Dylan.

Appreciation of "The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette" has grown over the years, and it was released on CD (minus the newspaper cover) in the 1990s by Rhino in the U.S. They recorded a Grammy-winning live album at the Ryman Auditorium that led to the 8 million dollars restoration of the facility into a premium concert and event venue. The album was a commercial failure and marked the end of the Four Seasons' first period of success, but the album's quirky newspaper-style cover influenced the covers of subsequent albums by Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull, and John Lennon. In the early 1990s, she dissolved The Hot Band in favour of a carefully selected group of acoustic musicians she named The Nash Ramblers. With lyricist Jake Holmes, Gaudio sought to join the trend toward more socially conscious pop music by writing and producing the album "The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette," released by the Four Seasons in 1969. In 1980, she recorded "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again" with rock legend Roy Orbison for which they would win the Grammy Award for best vocal duo. Gaudio-Crewe compositions also became major hits for other artists, including the Tremeloes ("Silence is Golden") and the Walker Brothers ("The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore"). About ten years later, Harris would team up once again with Parton and Ronstadt for the album Trio.

Together with producer Bob Crewe, Gaudio wrote a string of subsequent '60s hits for the Seasons, including "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," 'Ronnie," "Save It For Me," "Bye Bye Baby" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (the first big success under Valli's name as a "solo artist"). In the mid-1970s, Harris began to work on albums for other major artists including Young, Rondstadt and Bob Dylan. Gaudio played keyboards and wrote the Seasons' first hit, "Sherry," in 1962. A Christmas single, "Light of the Stable," was released shortly after which featured backing vocals from singers Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Neil Young. He shot to musical fame at the age of 15 as a member of the Royal Teens when he wrote the hit "Short Shorts." For years afterward he seemed destined to be a one-hit wonder until he met Frankie Valli, Tommy DeVito, and Nick Massi, all from Newark, New Jersey, forming the group that became the Four Seasons. The album included a number of cover songs, including The Beatles' "For No One," and Harris's first hit single, The Louvin Brothers' "If I Could Only Win Your Love." She created The Hot Band, a groups of studio and touring musicians that included Elvis Presley band alumni Glen D. Hardin and James Burton. Bob Gaudio (born November 17, 1942) is an American singer and songwriter from the Bronx, New York. He produced her debut album, released in 1975 on Reprise Records, entitled Pieces of the Sky.

Eventually, her path crossed with Canadian producer and future husband Brian Ahern (with whom she had another daughter, Meghann). Parsons was found dead in his hotel room on September 19, 1973, from an overdose of drugs including alcohol. Harris toured as a member of Parsons' "Fallen Angels" band, and in 1973, Harris returned to the studio with Parsons to record Grievous Angel. Instead, in 1972, Hillman ended up recommending her to Parsons, who was looking for a female vocalist to work with on his first solo album.

Hillman was so impressed by Harris that he briefly considered asking her to join the band. One night, in 1971, members of the country group the Flying Burrito Brothers happened to be in the audience, including former Byrds member Chris Hillman, who took over the band after the departure of its founder Gram Parsons. Harris soon returned to performing, as part of a trio with local musicians Gerry Mule and Tom Guidera. Harris, who lived for a brief time on her own with her newborn daughter Hallie in Nashville, Tennessee, was forced, after struggling financially, to move back in with her parents, who were now living in Washington, D.C..

Around that same time, Harris' marriage to Slocum began to fall apart and the couple were soon divorced. After the album's release, Harris' record label declared bankruptcy. Harris married fellow songwriter Tom Slocum in 1969, and recorded her first album the following year, Gliding Bird. It was around that time that Harris began to study music seriously, heavily influenced by artists like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

Harris graduated high school as class valedictorian and won a dramatic scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is a country music singer, songwriter and musician from Birmingham, Alabama, USA. ISBN 067941567X. In The Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music, Nicholas Dawidoff, Vintage Books, 1998.