According to the co-writer and longtime group member Bob Gaudio, the song's lyrics were originally set in 1933 with the title "December 5th, 1933," and celebrated the repeal of Prohibition, but the lyrics were changed at the urgings of Frankie Valli and lyricist Parker to reposition the song as a nostalgic remembrance of a young man's first affair with a woman, and, more specifically, Gaudio's courtship with his wife, Judy Parker.
Composition
The song is an up-tempo, piano-led dance song with a distinct and easily recognizable opening drum and then piano riff. It is written in 4/4 and in the key of D-flat major. It was originally recorded in the more common C major, but the studio recording made the song sound slightly higher in pitch. The main riff contains a basic ascending chord progression of Db-Ebm-Fm-Gb-Ab. The solo occurring about halfway into the duration of the track has the distinction of being in the Dorain mode. The iconic "what a night" lyric is repeated 10 times throughout, yet the songs title is only sung once at the beginning. While the song's piano/bass/drums/guitar/keyboard arrangement is fairly typical of pop songs of the period, there is an unusual introduction of the bass guitar midway through a stanza in the 10th bar of the song's first verse.
Reception
The single was released in December 1975 and hit number one on the UK Singles Chart on February 21, 1976. It repeated the feat on the US Billboard Hot 100 on March 13, 1976, remaining in the top spot for three weeks and one week on Cash Box. Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song for 1976. On April 10 the same year, it topped the RPM National Top Singles Chart in Canada. It was the final Four Seasons' song to reach number one, although Valli would have one final chart-topper as a solo act in 1978 with the theme song to the film Grease. Billboard said that it has "the flavor and fun of '60s rock with a disco feel," and praised the production and the lead and harmony vocals as well."
In 1988, Dutch DJ and producer Ben Liebrand remixed the song and re-released it as a single. In 1993, Curb Records, who released the original version of the song, picked up the 1988 remix and released it to the U.S. market. The 1993 re-release spent 27 weeks on the Hot 100. The peak position of the remix version was #14. Adding together the two 27-week chart runs for the 1975 original single and the remixed version gave the song the longest tenure ever on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart up to that time.
"''Cette année-là''"
In 1976, Claude François released an album called :fr:Le Vagabond |Le vagabond that features the French version of the song known as ":fr:Cette année-là|Cette année-là". French-born singer/rapper Yannick covered the song in 2000 as the number one hitCes soirées-là. More recently in 2016, M. Pokora released a tribute album for Claude François called My way which includes his own cover of "Cette année-là".
Music video
A music video was produced to accompany the original 1975 release. The video used the edited single version, which had a Phaser effect during Frankie's vocals, not heard on any other version of the song.
British pop/dance act Clock released a dance cover of "Oh What a Night" in 1996. It peaked at number 13 in Ireland, number 12 in Scotland and number 13 in the UK.
