American record producer and songwriter
Judy Parker Gaudio (September 1938—September 14, 2017)[1] was a record producer and songwriter who is best known for her collaborations with and marriage to fellow producer and songwriter Bob Gaudio.
Born to a family in Michigan, Parker began her career as an actress and model, spending four years in Rome, Italy.[2] She began dating Gaudio in 1973 while his band, The Four Seasons, was signed to Motown Records, where she was employed.[1] Gaudio at the time had recently divorced his first wife, Brit Gaudio. Parker and Gaudio began their songwriting collaboration with the LP Who Loves You.[3] One of the songs on the album, "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)," was based on an early encounter between the two.[4] (According to the Four Seasons biopic Jersey Boys, where this encounter is fictionalized as a Christmas party in Chicago, Nick Massi introduced Gaudio to Parker, though she is not mentioned again until Gaudio mentions having a wife in his closing monologue.[5]) Her style of writing was a marked departure from the Four Seasons' established sound, prompting Seasons bassist Joe Long to resign.[6] Gaudio and Parker continued writing songs together for subsequent Four Seasons and Frankie Valli albums into the early 1980s; they would marry in 1981.[1]
Parker died September 14, 2017 of a respiratory infection.[1][2]
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