Frankie Valli Romancing The '60s (2007)

The Four Seasons is an American vocal quartet formed in 1960 in Newark, New Jersey. Since 1970, they have also been known at times as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.The Four Seasons are one of the best-selling musical groups of all time, having sold an estimated 175 million records worldwide.The band evolved out of a previous band called The Four Lovers, with Frankie Valli as the lead singer, Bob Gaudio on keyboards and tenor vocals, Tommy DeVito on lead guitar and baritone vocals, and Nick Massi on bass guitar and bass vocals. On nearly all of their 1960s hits, they were credited as The 4 Seasons. The band had two distinct lineups that achieved widespread success: the original featuring Valli, Gaudio, DeVito, and Massi (with that success continuing after Joe Long succeeded Massi in 1965) that recorded hits throughout the 1960s, and a 1970s quintet (sometimes billed as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons) consisting of Valli, Lee Shapiro, Gerry Polci, Don Ciccone, and John Paiva, with Gaudio and Long providing studio support.

The Four Seasons is an American vocal quartet formed in 1960 in Newark, New Jersey. Since 1970, they have also been known at times as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.The Four Seasons are one of the best-selling musical groups of all time, having sold an estimated 175 million records worldwide.The band evolved out of a previous band called The Four Lovers, with Frankie Valli as the lead singer, Bob Gaudio on keyboards and tenor vocals, Tommy DeVito on lead guitar and baritone vocals, and Nick Massi on bass guitar and bass vocals. On nearly all of their 1960s hits, they were credited as The 4 Seasons. The band had two distinct lineups that achieved widespread success: the original featuring Valli, Gaudio, DeVito, and Massi (with that success continuing after Joe Long succeeded Massi in 1965) that recorded hits throughout the 1960s, and a 1970s quintet (sometimes billed as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons) consisting of Valli, Lee Shapiro, Gerry Polci, Don Ciccone, and John Paiva, with Gaudio and Long providing studio support.

In the wake of the success of Jersey Boys, the theatrical production based on the Four Seasons' lives, Rhino issued this impressive three-CD, 76-track box set, which also includes a DVD of a dozen film clips from 1962-1975. It's never been hard to find a Four Seasons best-of that includes all their big hits (which are all here as well), but for those who want a bigger collection of the group's material, this fills the bill well. The usual intelligence Rhino brings to such large career retrospectives is in force here, the songs including numerous low-charting singles that usually don't make the cut for best-of anthologies; various LP-only tracks, and B-sides; Frankie Valli solo efforts; singles they released under the pseudonym of the Wonder Who?; and much more material from their post-1967 era than is found on most compilations. In fact, most of the really popular stuff is on disc one and the first half of disc two, though the box runs all the way through their comeback hits in the mid-'70s and a few stray releases from subsequent decades.

This is a compilation of Franki Valli & The 4 Seasons' hits, including "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Sherry", and "December, 1963 (Oh What A Night)". Although they were one of the very biggest rock & roll groups of the 1960s, the Four Seasons – unlike, say, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, or the Byrds – don't excite virtually automatic respect from listeners and critics. A big factor is their most distinguishing trademark, the high falsetto vocals of their lead singer, Frankie Valli. Many also found their material – romantic tunes with tightly arranged group harmonies that updated doo wop ethos into the '60s – a little too clean-cut. Whatever your feelings about the group, though, there's no denying their considerable importance.

The Four Seasons, featuring the remarkable and unmistakeable voice of Frankie Valli, were one of the most popular and successful groups of the 1960s on both sides of the Atlantic, and one of the few American groups to withstand the onslaught of the British Invasion to carry their chart career through into the 1970s. When they had their first big hit as The Four Seasons in 1961 with “Sherry”, they were by no means new to the pop scene and both Frankie Valli and the group had paid their dues for the best part of a decade, honing their skills in a variety of guises on an equally bewildering array of record labels. This great-value 58-track 2-CD set features most of Frankie Valli’s early recordings, both solo and with various groups before they became The Four Seasons in 1960, and then presents their early successes under that name. It comprises selected A & B sides as Frankie Valley, Frankie Valley & The Travellers, The Four Lovers, Frankie Valli & The Romans, The Village Voices, Billy Dixon & The Topics, Johnny Halo, Hal Miller and The Rays, and The Four Seasons for the Corona, Mercury RCA, Epic, Okeh, Cindy, Decca, Topix, Gone and Vee-Jay labels. It also features the tracks from The Four Lovers album “Joyride” and the Four Seasons album “Sherry &11 Others”. Quite apart from setting the scene for the rest of their career as the Four Seasons, this collection of doowop and rock ‘n’ roll from the era when Frankie and his colleagues were exploring the potential of their talent, is hugely entertaining and offers a real insight into what lay behind The Four Seasons’ success.

"Valli" was the 6th solo LP album by Frankie Valli of The Four Seasons, released by Private Stock under catalog number PS 2017 as a stereo recording in 1976. The LP yielded one hit single, "We're All Alone." It reached #78 U.S. Billboard, #74 Cash Box and #73 in Canada. Despite the single’s moderate success, the album failed to make the charts.

"Closeup" is singer Frankie Valli again finding the magic without his Four Seasons, this time in the '70s with two big hits in two different genres. The album is very, very good, and in a roundabout way is a great example of why Clive Davis worked wonders with Bell Records when he turned it into Arista. Former Bell president Larry Uttal had it all in this project, and it should have been much, much bigger - it should have been the album to firmly establish Private Stock Records as a major player. But for all the incredible cast members and all the artistry here Jim Keltner on drums, Bobbye Hall on conga, Clydie King and Patti Austin on backing vocals (seven years before Austin's own number one hit).

2007 collection of those infamous novelty 'answer songs' that would be rush-released once a particular hit rose to the top of the charts. Bertelle Dache's 'Not Just Tomorrow, But Always', a riposte to the Shirelles' smash 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow', is among the sought-after highlights of the set. Others include Gerri Granger's sinewy 'Just Tell Him Jane Said Hello' in the wake of Elvis' 'Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello', Tracey Dey's 'Jerry (I'm Your Sherry)', which features a couple of the 4 Seasons on background vocals and Jody Miller's Grammy award winning 'Queen of the House', which became a smash to rival 'King of the Road'. Even wackier than the original is 'They Took You Away - I'm Glad, I'm Glad' by Josephine, a timely 'answer' to They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!' by Napoleon XIV. Many of the titles on this extremely potent and novel compilation appear on CD for the first time and all are sourced from the best master tapes. It is the only comprehensive answer song compilation on the market and we have given it our best attention.