Songwriter Bob Crewe dies at 83

[PeteC]

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Los Angeles - Singer, songwriter and producer Bob Crewe, who gave the world of oldies music the songs Big Girls Don't Cry and Rag Doll, has died at the age of 83, according media reports Friday.
Crewe died Thursday in Scarborough, Maine, Crewe’s brother Daniel confirmed to Rolling Stone Magazine.

Crewe died of complications from a fall, the Washington Post reported.

New Jersey-born Crewe entered the music industry in the early ’50s when he started writing songs with Frank Slay. Among their best-known songs were Silhouettes and Daddy Cool, for The Rays, and Lah Dee Dah for Billy and Lillie.

In the 1960s he produced, and co-wrote with Bob Gaudio, a string of Top 10 singles for Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.

Hits co-written by Crewe include Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like a Man, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Lady Marmalade and Bye, Bye, Baby.

"Bob Crewe’s lyrics have meant so much, to so many, for so long, it is hard to imagine they will ever be forgotten," said Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio in statement posted online.

Other Crewe and Gaudio successes include The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine, for The Walker Brothers, and Silence Is Golden by The Tremeloes.

In 1995 Crewe was inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Crewe’s work can currently be heard in the Tony-Award-Winning Broadway musical Jersey Boys, telling the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.