"Dawn (Go Away)" is a song written by Bob Gaudio and Sandy Linzer and recorded by The Four Seasons in early January 1964 as the Four Seasons were involved in a royalty dispute with Vee-Jay Records. As the lawsuit was making its way through the American judiciary system, the group recorded "Dawn" and a handful of other songs and withheld the master tapes from Vee-Jay, which then claimed breach of contract. The dispute would not be settled until 1965, a year after the Four Seasons officially left Vee-Jay.

Later that month, Atlantic Records rejected "Dawn". The group signed with Philips Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records, shortly thereafter. "Dawn (Go Away)" was released even later that month. It took only four weeks for "Dawn" to climb the Billboard Hot 100 chart to #3 on February 29, 1964 - and was prevented from going higher by the then-omnipresent "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" (which turned out to be the top two singles for 1964, according to Billboard). "Dawn" remained at #3 for three weeks, then dropped to make way for two further Beatles singles ("Twist and Shout" and "Please Please Me"). During its entire six-week run in the Top Ten only Beatles hits ranked above it in the chart.

Originally written as a folk song, arranger Charles Calello sped it up and at Valli's suggestion added a galloping rhythm guitar borrowed from Kai Windings version of "More". Drummer Buddy Saltzman accented the recording with bombastic around the kit fills and ghost notes while never using a cymbal once.

The single version (with a two-line sung introduction) was never recorded in true stereo. Early "stereo" album releases were rechanneled (with the high and low frequencies on one channel and the midrange on the other); later stereo issues, from the Edizione d'Oro greatest hits album onward, offer different takes of the recording, One begins with a short drum intro, featuring a louder perhaps even more frantic drum backing by legendary session drummer Buddy Saltzman, and slightly different vocals. Both versions state they are two minutes, eleven seconds long--neither is. The stereo Dawn is two minutes, thirty seconds. The mono Dawn with the "Pretty as midsummer's morn. They called her Dawn" intro is two minutes 45 seconds.

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