Bob Crewe, songwriter who worked with the Four Seasons, dies at 83

Bob Crewe, a singer, songwriter and producer who helped write "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and other top 10 hits for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in the 1960s as well as the risque pop-disco favorite "Lady Marmalade," died Thursday in Scarborough, Maine. He was 83.

The cause was complications from a fall, said his brother Daniel Crewe. A longtime Los Angeles resident, Bob Crewe moved to Maine about four years ago.

Crewe, a 1995 inductee in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, entered the music business in the 1950s initially as a singer. With his blonde teen idol looks and buoyant voice, Crewe enjoyed a modicum of success with a jazzy, Bobby Darin-esque version of "The Whiffenpoof Song" in 1961.

He would become far better known for his work as a writer and producer, molding groups that became the Four Seasons and Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels.

In 2005, Crewe was featured as a character in the Tony Award-winning musical and commercial juggernaut "Jersey Boys," about the origins of the Four Seasons.

His association with the Four Seasons began in 1960 when the Jersey-born Crewe was scouting for a backup band to perform on his demos and singles. He hired a group called the Four Lovers, which included Valli and keyboardist Bob Gaudio.

The vocal group was soon rechristened the Four Seasons. "We were auditioning at a nightclub in a bowling alley" in Union, New Jersey, Valli once said. "I looked up at the sign and said, 'What a great name for a group -- the Four Seasons.' "

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In 1967, Crewe produced and co-wrote with Gaudio "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," which became a hit single for Valli.

Crewe grew up in Belleville, New Jersey. He attended the Parsons School of Design in New York City for a year with an ambition to work as an architect, but he left to concentrate on a music career.

Daniel Crewe, who had long been involved in his brother's music production businesses, is his only immediate survivor.

They formed the Bob Crewe Foundation in 2009 to fund fellowships, scholarships, training and mentorships for aspiring artists and musicians. Bob Crewe, who was gay, also wanted the foundation to fund AIDS research and support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.