About The Song
I’m not enough of a music historian to know who the first group to borrow that “Be My Baby” intro was, but it may very well have been Frankie Valli’s Four Seasons, whose “Rag Doll” came out 10 months after “Be My Baby.” The opening of “Rag Doll” isn’t exactly the same as that of “Be My Baby”; the snare doesn’t come in until after the vocals. But it’s a pretty clear sign that the American groups who were getting to #1 in that early Beatles era weren’t necessarily chasing the Beatles. They were chasing Phil Spector, who was revolutionizing pop music in ways that had nothing to do with the Beatles, his own future Let It Be collaborators.
The Four Seasons’ version of the Phil Spector sound worked wonders for the group. The early Four Seasons hits were based entirely around the party trick of Valli’s strangled-balls falsetto, a sound that I will always find deeply vexing. But magical things happened when the group started recording music with thicker, lusher textures. First, there was “Walk Like A Man,” where the group discovered a newfound propulsion and swagger. And then there’s “Rag Doll,” a pop-music symphony that’s easily my favorite Four Seasons hit.
Lyrically, “Rag Doll” is about as simple as it gets. Bob Gaudio, the Four Seasons member who co-wrote the song, has said that it was inspired by a little girl in tattered clothes who ran up to scrub his car at a stoplight and about the look of astonishment that she gave him when he handed her a five-dollar bill. And so the song is about a poor girl, sung from the perspective of the boy who loves her but who’s too cowardly to do anything about it: “I’d change her sad rags into glad rags if I could / My folks won’t let me cuz they say that she’s no good.” There’s no happy ending; apparently, the guy just accepts his parents’ class discrimination and moves on.
But the point of the song isn’t the lyrics. It’s that gorgeous arrangement, which deploys Valli’s falsetto sparingly, and to great effect. The Four Seasons’ voices pile up in layers, doing things that go beyond doo-wop and into some blissed-out dream-state. Tambourines and chimes and tremolo guitar, all slathered in echo, reverberate throughout the mix. It’s a perfect little pop-music creation and a sign of the ridiculously quick advances in studio-pop technique at the moment. Pretty soon, a whole lot more pop music would sound something like this.
Video
Lyrics
Ooh, ooh
Ah, Rag doll ooh, ooh
Rag doll, ooh
When she was just a kid her clothes were hand-me-downs
They always laughed at her when she came into town
Called her Rag Doll
Little Rag Doll
Such a pretty face
Should be dressed in lace
Ooh, ooh
Ah, Rag doll ooh, ooh
Rag doll, ooh
I’d change her sad rags into glad rags if I could
My folks won’t let me cause they say that she’s no good
She’s a rag doll
Such a rag doll
Though I love her so
I can’t let her know
Ooh ooh
Ah, Rag doll
I love you just they way you are
Oh, Rag Doll, ooh
Oh, Rag Doll, ooh