05/07/2026
One of the most covered songs in history - "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" - was reportedly written by a gay man staring at his lover in bed. He took that secret to his grave.
Bob Crewe was the creative force behind virtually every Four Seasons hit - "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," "Rag Doll," "Lady Marmalade" - and one of the most successful songwriter-producers in pop history. He was also gay, at a time when that could end a career overnight.
So he hid it behind what his own brother described as "extreme machismo," loving in secret while writing songs that became the soundtrack to millions of other people's love stories.
The story behind "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" - that Crewe wrote the lyrics gazing at his boyfriend one morning - circulated quietly in gay circles for years before Jersey Boys finally brought his story into the open.
BMI later named it one of the Top 10 songs of the entire 20th century, with 6 million radio airplays. It has been recorded by everyone from Lauryn Hill to the Supremes. And the man who wrote it could never explain what actually inspired it.
When Jersey Boys became a Broadway phenomenon, Crewe used his royalties to fund a foundation supporting gay rights and people with AIDS. He died in 2014. His brother has said that if Bob had been born a generation later, those decades of hiding - and the self-loathing that came with them - might never have happened.
