Back in December of last year I was at one of my schools Christmas party’s (stick with me here as it is relevant!) playing ‘pass the parcel’ when my friend James started up just the first few bars from the chorus of ‘Can’t take my eyes off you’ and amazingly it became a big sing-a-long, added atmosphere to the game and was repeated many times throughout the night. Later that night we were talking about the song and I said it was by Andy Williams which it is but I didn’t know that his wasn’t actually the original. That is by Franki Valli.

Fast forward a few months and I am in a standing bar in Shibuya on a Saturday night. James turns up and we get the idea in our head to try and get the catchy chorus bit chanted by as many as possible. Its cringeworthy stuff not that we care and unbelievably a fair few join in. I’m drunk but incredibly James doesn’t drink at all! Its not too dis-similar to a feature on Scott Mills’ Radio One show where him and his mate Chris try to get the ‘Home & Away’ theme tune sung in very public places. Our version is not so brave as we are relying on the crowds being drunk!

Since then the song has never been too far away from head which is not always so good. As a result I looked at the lyrics and realised how quite simple they were and how the final word of all the lines are easy rhyming words using the /aɪ/, /eə/, /ʌ/, /u:/ and /i:/ sounds. I have been playing this song across many of my classes over the last few weeks and I’ve gotta say that I am still not tired of hearing it.

The song will probably be put bed now as James (pictured below in the white shirt) had his leaving party on Saturday night which inevitably included one last rendition of this classic.