"The Proud One" is a 1966 song written by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe and originally performed by Frankie Valli as part of his debut solo album, The 4 Seasons Present Frankie Valli Solo. A minor hit for Valli, it became a top-40 hit (and easy listening chart-topper) for The Osmonds with their 1975 cover version of the record.
Frankie Valli version Background "The Proud One" was the first single released in an effort to relaunch Valli's solo career as a side project from The 4 Seasons. (Valli had briefly been a solo artist in the 1950s, most successfully with the minor hit "My Mother's Eyes," before joining The Four Lovers, the group Valli fronted before the formation of The 4 Seasons.) Valli and Gaudio had originally planned on releasing "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" as the lead-off single from the new project, but reluctance on the part of the Seasons' label Philips Records (stemming from concerns about the band's stability after Nick Massi's 1965 resignation) prompted them to release "The Proud One," a record more in line with the Seasons' established stylings and sound, as the lead-off single.
Chart performance Valli's version, which featured the Seasons on instrumental backing but not vocals, peaked at #68 in the U.S.Frankie Valli, "The Proud One" Chart Position Retrieved February 21, 2015 and #64 in Canada.
Reception Billboard claimed that "the electric sound of Valli is used to perfection in this powerful ballad, stating that the "easy-go dance beat [is] effective." Cash Box said that it is a "powerhouse" and that "the Valli sound holds the moving, teen-oriented tale of love together and the sweeping arrangement adds a must spin again quality to it."
The Osmonds cover The Osmonds recorded the song and released it in the spring of 1975. It was their final appearance in the US Top 40, peaking at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, and their only number one on the Easy Listening chart, where it spent one week at number one in September 1975. The song also reached number one in Ireland.
Chart history
Weekly charts Chart (1975)PeakpositionCanada RPM Top Singles25Canada RPM Adult Contemporary RPM Adult Contemporary, September 27, 19754Irish Singles ChartIrishcharts.ie (Retrieved August 25, 2008)1New Zealand (RIANZ)New Zealand Top 40 Singles, 18 August 197517UK Singles ChartUK Singles Chart Official Charts (Retrieved August 1, 2008)5US Billboard Easy ListeningBillboard [ allmusic.com] (Retrieved August 25, 2008)1US Cash Box Top 10033
Year-end charts Chart (1975)RankCanada RPM Top Singles Bac-lac.gc.ca190UK 75US Billboard Easy ListeningTop 50 Adult Contemporary Hits of 197546US (Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual)174
See also List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1975 (U.S.)
References
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