The Four Seasons achieved the unusual feat of taking a popularmusicalstyle,doowop,thatwasindeclinetothepointofbeingnearlymoribundandreinventing it, their chief tools being lead singerFrankie Valli's falsetto and the songwriting ability of group memberBob Gaudio, who penned the number-one hit that led to the release of this debut album, "Sherry," as well as its number-one follow-up, also included here, "Big Girls Don't Cry" (co-written with producer Bob Crewe). Together,Valli,Gaudio, andCrewewould revolutionize the group vocal sound on the East Coast, just asThe Beach Boyswere doing on the West Coast, and take it into the post-Beatlesera. Like most albums of its time, Sherry & 11 Others consists largely of the hit(s) plus filler: the title is apt. The arrangements of standards like "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" and "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" are especially ripe. But The Seasons' takes on such recent hits as "Never On Sunday" and "Oh! Carol" make the songs their own and make this album more than a throwaway. And, perhaps as a joke, they covered "You're the Apple of My Eye," which had been a chart single for them under the name "The Four Loves" in 1956.