Editing The Four Seasons (band) (section)

===1961–1963: Rise===
The Four Seasons signed as artists to Crewe's production company, and they released their first Crewe-produced single under their new name in 1961 ("[[Bermuda (song)|Bermuda]]"/"Spanish Lace" on [[Gone Records]]); the non-charting record would be their only record for Gone, which was itself gone by July 1962 when [[Morris Levy]] bought and dissolved the label.<ref>"Roulette Unveils Billing Plan; Absorbs Gone and End Records." ''Billboard Music Week''. July 7, 1962. p. 22</ref> The band continued working with producer Bob Crewe as background vocalists and sometimes leads under different names, for productions on Crewe's own Topix label. As a follow-up, Bob Gaudio wrote a song that, after some discussion between Crewe and Gaudio, was titled "Sherry". After the song was recorded, Crewe and the members of the band solicited record labels to release it. It was Frankie Valli who spoke with [[Randy Wood (music executive)|Randy Wood]], West Coast sales manager for [[Vee-Jay Records]] (not [[Randy Wood (record producer)|the founder]] of [[Dot Records]]) who, in turn, suggested the release of "Sherry" to the decision-makers at Vee-Jay. "Sherry" made enough of an impression that Crewe was able to sign a deal between his production company and Vee-Jay for its release. They were the first white artists to sign with Vee-Jay.<ref>''[[Goldmine (magazine)|Goldmine]]''. Issue 60. May 1981.</ref>

In 1962, the band released their first album, featuring the single "[[Sherry (song)|Sherry]]", which drew the attention of [[WPOP]] in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], known for launching new hit songs; WPOP disc jockey [[Joey Reynolds]] heavily promoted the record.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2002-11-10 |title=JOEY ALL NIGHT |url=https://www.courant.com/2002/11/10/joey-all-night/ |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=Hartford Courant |language=en-US}}</ref> "Sherry" gave the Four Seasons their first #1 song. Under the guidance of Bob Crewe, the Four Seasons followed up "Sherry" with several [[music recording sales certification|million-selling]] singles, generally composed by Crewe and Gaudio, including "[[Big Girls Don't Cry (The Four Seasons song)|Big Girls Don't Cry]]" (their second #1 hit), "[[Walk Like a Man (The Four Seasons song)|Walk Like a Man]]" (their third #1), "[[Candy Girl (The Four Seasons song)|Candy Girl]]" (written by [[Larry Santos]]), "[[Ain't That a Shame]]", and several others. Also, they released a Christmas album in December 1962 and charted with a unique rendition of "[[Santa Claus Is Coming to Town]]".

From 1962 to early 1964, [[the Beach Boys]] were the only band to match the Four Seasons in record sales in the United States, and their first three Vee-Jay non-holiday single releases (i.e., ignoring their version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town") marked the first time that a rock band hit #1 on the ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' singles charts with three consecutive entries.

In 1962, they were invited to perform their hit "[[Big Girls Don't Cry (The Four Seasons song)|Big Girls Don't Cry]]" on the show ''[[American Bandstand]].''