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Song Stories

“Sherry”

The Four Seasons | 1962

The Four Seasons' plea to "Sherry" to come out tonight rocketed to Number One when it gave the group their first hit in 1962, highlighted by Frankie Valli's stratospherically high and shrill falsetto vocals. Four Seasons keyboardist Bob Gaudio wrote it in just 15 minutes as he was leaving for a rehearsal. "I drove down to rehearsal humming it, trying to keep it in my mind," he remembered. "I had no intention of keeping the lyrics. To my surprise, everybody liked the lyrics, so we didn't change anything."

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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