December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!) | Chords + Lyrics
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 2
| Ebm7 | Gb | Bbm7 | Ab6 |
Oh, I, got a funny feelin’ when she walked in the room.
| Ebm7 | Gb | Ab6 Ab Ab6 Ab | Ab6 Ab |
And my, as I recall it ended much too soon. Oh, what a night.
Chorus 2
||: Db Ebm7 Db/F Gb | Gb Db/Ab Ab7sus2 Ab11 Ab7sus2 :||
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 3
| Ebm7 | Db/F |
Oh I, felt a rush like a rollin’ ball of thunder.
| Gbmaj7 | Ab6 |
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’s chords, progressions, and TAB
You may be looking at the chords for the intro/verse and think “those look like piano chords to me, you can’t play that on the guitar!” And you’d be right, it would be (almost) impossible.
The guitar only plays a Db Major Pentatonic lick as the piano plays 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.
- Db, Db/F, and Db/Ab (A shape) are the same chords.
- Ebm7 (Am shape) and Gb (C shape) are the same chords.
- Ab7sus2 and Ab11 (G shapes) are only different by one note.
So what you end up with is four chord shapes, although you do need a bass player as well!
Let’s find a way to combine all these chords, with that guitar lick, here’s some TAB explaining this.

With this TAB idea, the chords, and lyrics for December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!) above, you should hopefully be able to work out how to play this awesome tune.
The Four Seasons 2nd biggest hit
Franki 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 did a remarkably great job.
The high falsetto part for “And I felt a rush…” is not Franki either, that’s the bass player, Don Ciccone.
But Franki wasn’t completely left out, he sang BV’s, and the bridge section.
You should study this remarkable song, 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!
December 1963 chords | Related pages
December 1963 – 5 similar tunes
- Build Me Up Buttercup chords
- Can’t Take My Eyes Off You chords
- I Can’t Help Myself chords
- Love Train chords
- Young Hearts chords
Franki Valli and the Four Seasons
The hugely successful musical Jersey Boys is based on the tunes by Franki Valli and the Four Seasons.
Hits include Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Silence Is Golden, Working My Way Back, December, 63 (Oh What a Night!), and Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,
Franki Valli and the Four Seasons tunes.