Роберт Крю: Автор и продюсер американской поп-музыки

American singer songwriter and record producer (1930–2014)

Robert Stanley Crewe (November 12, 1930 – September 11, 2014) was an American songwriter, dancer, singer, manager, and record producer. Crewe co wrote and produced a string of Top 10 singles with Bob Gaudio for the Four Seasons. As a songwriter, his most successful songs include "Silhouettes" (co written with Frank Slay); "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", "Rag Doll", "Silence Is Golden", "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and "Bye, Bye, Baby" (all co written with Gaudio); "Let's Hang On!" (written with Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell); and "My Eyes Adored You" and "Lady Marmalade" (both co written with Kenny Nolan). He also had hit recordings with the Rays, Diane Renay, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Freddy Cannon, Lesley Gore, Oliver, Michael Jackson, Bobby Darin, Roberta Flack, Peabo Bryson, Patti LaBelle, Barry Manilow, and his own Bob Crewe Generation.

Born in Newark in 1930 and raised in Belleville, New Jersey, Crewe demonstrated an early and apparent gift for both art and music. Although lacking in formal musical training, he gravitated to learning from many of the great 19th and 20th century classical romantic composers as well as giants of jazz and swing, including Stan Kenton, Harry James, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey. He studied for almost a year at Parsons School of Design in New York City with the intention of eventually pursuing a career in architecture. Crewe and Slay's 1957 recording session with the Rays for XYZ (picked up nationally by Cameo Records) produced two major hit songs. "Daddy Cool" was the B side of the Rays' "Silhouettes" single. Written and produced by Crewe and Slay at the same 1957 session, it achieved considerable note. Both "Daddy Cool" and "Silhouettes" were covered the same year by the Canadian group the Diamonds, whose version of "Daddy Cool" reached No. 10 on the Billboard charts. In 1961, Guy "Daddy Cool" Darrell released another single version on the Warwick label, and in 1977, the UK band Darts made the song their first ever studio recording, scoring a No. 6 hit. Crewe and Slay built on their success by signing a deal with new, Philadelphia based Swan Records. Sessions with Billy and Lillie (singers Billy Ford and Lillie Bryant) produced the 1958 hit "Lah Dee Dah", which reached the No. 9 position on the Billboard Hot 100; the following year, Billy and Lillie's recording of "Lucky Ladybug" hit No. 14. Crewe and Slay also wrote two Top 10 hits "Tallahassee Lassie" and "Okefenokee" for Swan's rising star Freddy Cannon. Crewe also began to score his own hits, "Sweetie Pie" (US No. 111, 1959) and "The Whiffenpoof Song" (No. 96, 1960).

As a solo singer, Crewe recorded a pair of albums in 1961, one of which included a Ralph Burns produced swing version of Yale University's signature "The Whiffenpoof Song". In the mid 1970s, Crewe and Sir Monti Rock III formed the disco club favorites Disco Tex and the Sex O Lettes, best known for their 1975 successes "Get Dancin'" and "I Wanna Dance Wit' Choo (Doo Dat Dance)". the play has gone on to become an international hit, with Crewe credited as the show's lyricist. He used his proceeds from the show to start a foundation supporting gay rights, people with AIDS, and bringing music and art to children in deprived communities.

While Crewe was portrayed as openly gay in the Jersey Boys stage musical and film, his brother Dan Crewe told an interviewer that his brother was discreet about his sexuality, particularly during the time he was working with the Four Seasons. "Whenever he met someone, he would go into what I always called his John Wayne mode, this extreme machoism," Dan Crewe told The New York Times. Crewe died in the nursing home on September 11, 2014, at the age of 83. He had been in declining health for several years following a fall.