Chords + Lyrics | December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!)
Intro
| N.C | N.C |
||: Db Ebm7 Db/F Gb | Gb Db/Ab Ab7sus2 Ab11 Ab7sus2 :||
Verse 1
||: Db Ebm7 Db/F Gb | Gb Db/Ab Ab7sus2 Ab11 Ab7sus2 :||
Oh, what a night. Late December back in ’63.
What a very special time for me, as I remember, what a night.
Oh, what a night, you know I didn’t even know her name.
But I was never gonna be the same, what a lady, what a night.
Bridge 1
| Ebm7 | Gb | Bbm7 | Ab6 |
Oh, I, I got a funny feeling when she walked in the room.
| Ebm7 | Gb | Ab6 Ab Ab6 Ab | Ab6 Ab |
And my, as I recall it ended much too soon.
Chorus 1
||: Db Ebm7 Db/F Gb | Gb Db/Ab Ab7sus2 Ab11 Ab7sus2 :||
Oh what a night, hypnotizing’, mesmerizing me.
She was everything I dreamed she’d be. Sweet surrender, what a night.
Instrumental 1
||: Bbm7 | Bbm7 Eb :||
Bridge 2
| Ebm7 | Db/F |
I felt a rush like a rollin’ ball of thunder.
| Gbmaj7 | Ab (Ab6) |
Spinning my head around and taking my body under. Oh, what a night.
Instrumental 2
||: Db Ebm7 Db/F Gb | Gb Db/Ab Ab7sus2 Ab11 Ab7sus2 :|| x4
Bridge 3 (as bridge 1)
Oh, I, got a funny feelin’ when she walked in the room.
And my, as I recall it ended much too soon. Oh, what a night.
Chorus 2
Why’d it take so long to see the light?
Seemed so wrong, but now it seems so right. What a lady, what a night.
Instrumental 3
||: Bbm7 | Bbm7 Eb :||
Bridge 4 (as bridge 2)
Oh I, felt a rush like a rollin’ ball of thunder.
Spinnin’ my head around and takin’ my body under. Oh, what a night.
Outro
||: Db Ebm7 Db/F Gb | Gb Db/Ab Ab7sus2 Ab11 Ab7sus2 :||
Do-do-do, do-do-do. Do-do-do-do, oh what a night.
Do-do-do, do-do-do. Do-do-do-do-do-do, oh what a night.
Do-do-do, do-do-do. Do-do-do-do-do-do, oh what a night.
Do-do-do, do-do-do. Do-do-do-do-do-do, oh what a night.
December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!) Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!). I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, horns, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Should you want to play along with the original recording instead, you need to tune your guitar sharp to 442Hz. In the backing tracks, I’ve done this job for you by tuning it to 440Hz.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
You should definitely study this remarkable song in-depth, only comparable to the band’s other monster hit Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, in great detail.
The chords are pretty complex in both tunes, to say the least!
So complex, that you may be looking at the chords for the intro/verse and think, I’m just going to leave that for the piano player…
After all, the guitar only plays a Db major pentatonic lick as the piano plays seemingly all the chords in the world!
Intro/Verse/Chorus
||: Db Ebm7 Db/F Gb | Gb Db/Ab Ab7sus2 Ab11 Ab7sus2 :||
Intimidating at first, but at least it’s only two bars repeated forever, and if you play all those chords on just strings 2-4, ignoring the bass notes, it’s actually pretty easy to do it on the guitar, if you have the TAB that is (see further down this guitar lesson).
Bridge
The bridge is easier, starting on chord II and going down to chord I. but as the bass note is the 3rd, it feels like it’s going up, very clever! Gbmaj7 and Ab are chords IV – V, like this:
| Ebm7 (II) | Db/F (I/3) | Gbmaj7 (IV) | Ab (V) Ab6 |
Here’s a chord chart which will be very helpful, once you’ve studied the TAB.
December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!) Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
My main aim here was to make it as simple as possible as the chords are so intimidating. This meant that the chart didn’t actually show the structure, I had to write that using text.
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!) chord chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!) iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key or maybe alter my layout!
December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!) | TAB
You may be looking at the chords for the intro and verse and think, “Those look like piano chords to me, you can’t play that on the guitar!” And you’d be right – it is piano chords, and it would be (almost) impossible.
The guitar only plays a Db major pentatonic lick as the piano runs through seemingly all the chords in the world.
However, if you play all those chords on just strings 2–4, ignoring the bass notes, it’s actually pretty easy. Let’s look at why:
- Db, Db/F, and Db/Ab (A shape) are the same chord.
- Ebm7 (Am shape) and Gb (C shape) are the same chord.
- Ab7sus2 and Ab11 (G shapes) are only different by one note.
What you’ll end up with is four chord shapes – although you do need a bass player at hand!
Here’s some TAB explaining a way to combine all these chords, including that guitar lick:
With this TAB idea, the chords, lyrics and backing tracks for December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!), you should now be able to work out how to play this brilliant tune!
The Four Seasons got Frankie Valli to take a step back
Frankie Valli got removed from lead vocal duties when The Four Seasons recorded their smash hit December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!).
Instead, the group’s drummer, Gerry Polci, took over and, I must say, did a remarkably great job.
The high falsetto part for “And I felt a rush…” is not Frankie either, that’s the bass player, Don Ciccone. But Frankie wasn’t completely left out, he sang BV’s, and the bridge section.
A top twenty hit the world over in 1975, December 1963 (Oh What A Night) sold over a million copies in the U.S. and is still played on the radio and by DJs today.
December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night!) Chords: Continue Learning
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