This was written by the prolific songwriters Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio and produced by Crewe. The pair wrote many of the hits for The Four Seasons (Gaudio was a member of the group), and composed this one for lead singer Frankie Valli as a solo release. Valli's version was issued in 1965 and only managed a meager chart placement of #128, despite the phenomenal success of The Four Seasons.

The next year, The Walker Brothers covered the song using an arrangement that clearly resembled Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" technique. This version was a huge hit, going to #1 in the UK and making #13 in America.

In the UK this is regarded as a death song, supposedly because of an incident in the mid 1960s concerning Ronnie Kray. The story goes that the legendary London gangster, armed with a 9mm Mauser, strolled into the Blind Beggar pub in London's East End to shoot and kill rival gangster George Cornell. This song was playing on the jukebox at the time and a stray bullet hit the machine, forcing the record to repeat the line "The sun ain't gonna shine, anymore, anymore, anymore…" as Cornell lay dying just a few feet away.

I was in England in 1966 when this song came out and it was a huge hit over there!