Beggin'


"Beggin" is a song composed by Bob Gaudio and Peggy Farina and first released as a single by American band the Four Seasons in 1967. Initially charting at number 16 on the US Billboard chart, the song became popular in the Northern soul scene in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. It has been covered multiple times, with versions by Norwegian hip-hop duo Madcon and Italian rock band Måneskin topping music charts in Europe and beyond. The Four Seasons' version was remixed in 2007 by French DJ Pilooski and re-released as a single, reaching number 32 on the UK Singles Chart, commercially outperforming the band's original release in the UK.

Original version

Keyboardist-songwriter Bob Gaudio had not written a Four Seasons single since 1965's "Girl Come Running", although he had written or co-written almost every hit for the band up to then.
"Beggin, the second single from the Four Seasons' New Gold Hits album in 1967, marked Gaudio's "return" as the Seasons' songwriter, with a combination of Frankie Valli's impassioned soul singing and the band's more contemporary instrumentation. It was also the first Seasons single since "Dawn (Go Away)" on which Gaudio collaborated with a lyricist other than producer Bob Crewe, as lyrics were contributed by Peggy Farina.
The song, backed with "Dody" as a B-side, reached number 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100, continuing the group's string of Billboard top-20 hits. However, it was overshadowed by Valli's "solo" recording of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", a Gaudio-Crewe composition, which rose to number two. It was the last Gaudio composition for the Four Seasons to chart in the top 20 until 1975's "Who Loves You".
The song is included in Act Two of the Broadway musical about the Four Seasons, Jersey Boys, in which the Seasons beg mob boss Gyp DeCarlo to help them bail fellow band member Tommy DeVito out of his gambling debts. The Jersey Boys version featuring Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Ryan Molloy and John Lloyd Young was released on the Jersey Boys in 2014. The song was used as the main theme of an ad campaign for Adidas, celebrating the company's 60th anniversary.
Retrospectively, the song has been highly regarded by music critics as a strong example of the Four Seasons' vocal and arrangement abilities. Donald A. Guarisco, writing for AllMusic, described the song as "one of their finest entries" in the genre of the soul ballad, and also commended the song's "funky groove" and "Phil Spector-styled production". Chris DeVille, writing for Stereogum, characterized the song as featuring a "contagiously upbeat drum part", and suggested that its sound was an early predecessor to hip-hop music.

Pilooski remix

In 2007, French disc jockey Pilooski re-edited and released his version of the Four Seasons song. This version reached number 32 in the UK and number one on the UK Dance Chart. It is the first single from the album Beggin': The Ultimate Collection. The Pilooski re-edit does not include any new instrumentation or vocals but is purely a manipulation and remix of the original Four Seasons recording, using echo and phase-polarisation.

Madcon version

In 2007, the same year as the Pilooski remix, Norwegian hip-hop duo Madcon released a new version of the song with tweaked lyrics and added rap verses. Madcon's version of the song is a total re-recording, with all instruments performed by production team 3Elementz and all vocals by Madcon. This version reached number one on Norway's VG-lista chart for 12 nonconsecutive weeks and received the "Hit of the Year" Spellemannprisen award.
The single also became popular throughout Europe; in France, the Netherlands, and the Wallonia region of Belgium, it peaked at number one. It reached number five in the United Kingdom and number seven in Germany. Overall, "Beggin was Europe's 11th-most-successful single of 2008. The music video features Yosef Wolde-Mariam and Tshawe Baqwa in a mix of Blaxploitation scenes and dozing off while playing Halo 3 and was directed by Christian Holm-Glad.
Following the success of [|Måneskin's cover] in 2021, Madcon's version saw a rise in popularity. As a result, the duo teamed up with Canadian DJ Frank Walker for a remix released on July 16, 2021.

Track listings

French CD single
  1. "Beggin – 3:38
  2. "Beggin – 3:38
German maxi-CD single
  1. "Beggin – 3:38
  2. "Beggin – 4:11
  3. "Beggin – 5:41
  4. "Beggin – 3:09
  5. "Beggin – 3:41
Digital download
  1. "Beggin – 3:38
Digital download – Frank Walker remix
  1. "Beggin – 3:14

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position
Moldova Airplay 83

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Belgium 71
CIS Airplay 196
Europe 48
France 81
Hungary 5
Netherlands 4
Netherlands 9
Spain 30
UK Singles 167

Chart Position
Hungary 88

Måneskin cover

Italian rock band Måneskin performed a cover of the song during the eleventh season of X Factor Italia, where the group was coached by Manuel Agnelli. A studio version of the song later appeared on their debut extended play Chosen, released in 2017.
Their cover largely follows the structure of the Madcon version, including the rap verse.
Although it was not released as a single, it peaked at number 39 on the Italian Singles Chart and in 2018 received a gold certification by FIMI in their native country.
Following the band's Eurovision victory in late May 2021, the song alongside the band's other releases started appearing on music charts across Europe and beyond; viral success for the song on video sharing service TikTok soon followed. "Beggin reached number one on the weekly charts in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Switzerland, the top five in Australia, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden, and the top ten in Canada, Denmark, India, Philippines, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Other cover versions

  • The Four Seasons' original version did not chart in the United Kingdom. Instead, psychedelic pop band Timebox had a minor hit with their Michael Aldred production of the song, peaking at number 38 in 1968.
  • In 1967 Italian singer Riki Maiocchi performed his cover, "Prega".
  • Also in 1967, a Spanish version was released under the title "Ruega" by the band "Duo Inter".
  • French singer and composer Claude François sung the French version "Reste" in 1968.
  • In 1974, Dutch band Shocking Blue included a cover version of the song on their album Good Times.
  • In 2008, British-Irish girl band the Saturdays, inspired by both Pilooski and Madcon, recorded their own version as a B-side for their single "Issues", a single from their debut studio album Chasing Lights, and performed a live acoustic version on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge as well as on their The Work Tour in 2009.
  • Turkish türkü singer Ferhat Güzel parodied the song, dubbed "Begüm " - literally "Begüm ", for Okan Bayülgen's TV show Disko Kralı.
  • It was sung by Michael Sarver, Megan Joy, Scott MacIntyre, Lil Rounds, Anoop Desai and Matt Giraud at the end of the first half of the American Idol Tour.
  • Turkish band Dolapdere Big Gang covered the song on their 2010 album Art-ist. French singer-guitarist Aymeric Savignat covered the song on the compilation album La Musique de Paris Dernière Vol.7.
  • In 2012, vocal harmony group District3 performed the song as part of a mash-up with Chris Brown's "Turn Up the Music" on The X Factor UK.
  • Swedish singer Magnus Carlson, usually the front man of Weeping Willows, has covered the song twice, first in a version with lyrics translated into Swedish in 2003, and later a version with the original lyrics in 2018.
  • Yuqi of South Korean girl group (G)I-DLE released a cover version of Beggin' on YouTube in September 2022.
  • The Four Seasons re-recorded the record in 2024 as an instrumental as a bonus track on the re-release of their 2008 children's album Jersey Babys. The new record was supervised by Gaudio and arranged by modern-era Four Seasons bandleader Robby Robinson, without Valli's direct involvement.
  • South Korean boy group VERIVERY released a variation of the song as "RED " in December 2025.

Samples

  • In 2011, the rapper Logic sampled the Madcon version on his song Beggin, which is in his debut mixtape Young Sinatra.
  • Coincidentally, another artist named Logic sampled "Beggin'" in his 2007 song "Begging You".
  • The Yeah Yeah Yeahs borrowed a piano riff and a piece of lyric from the song in their own composition "Burnin'."

Uses in the media