That 'Four Seasons' Sound

The Four Seasons 'Lost' Recordings Updated Version

As we see in the stage show ‘Jersey Boys’ The Four Seasons were signed up as ‘backing artists’ by producer Bob Crewe under what has been described as ‘a personal services contract’.

In 1960 the then Four Lovers, four New Jersey guys - 2 of whom had a shady background - were going no-where and it looked like it would stay that way. Their backing work with Crewe has largely gone un-noticed and unknown and although much of it is pretty poor pop music by 1960s high chart standard (and their subsequent ‘Four Seasons’ catalogue), it is still never the less historically interesting. Through our research over the years we have been able to compile a sessionograpy that logs in time their efforts in this respect along with some of the other side projects they undertook.

We have all read lists of songs that (perhaps) ‘featured’ the group on backing vocals as shown in Jersey Boys (on ‘Trance’ and ‘I Still Care’) but this is the first time a fully comprehensive collation of these efforts has been attempted and published.

The sessionography appears at our special web-site and can be downloaded here. (revision 5)

 

After the RCA contract of the Four Lovers in 1956 and 57 they did attempt to find a new identity as ‘Frankie Tyler’ and ‘Frankie Vally(e) and The Romans with 45s that didn’t find success. Changing line-ups which included Charlie Calello (who contributed the excellent ‘Comme Si Bella’) continued until they embarked on their contract with Bob Crewe in 1960. This initially saw them work as The Village Voices, Turner Di Sentri (Bob Gaudio on piano) and Billy Dixon and The Topics (incorrectly portrayed in Jersey Boys as a singer other than Frankie Valli) on 45s that they always tried to forget during their hey-dey. Understandable perhaps when you hear them but by this time Bob Gaudio was developing his song-writing skills and this would be the big platform for the group’s eventual success. The group line-up had settled to Valli-Gaudio-DeVito-Massi and their name was changing by the session.

Backing efforts for other artists continued throughout 1960 and 1961 including what appears to be an effort with Freddie Cannon, with Hal Miller and The Rays and Danny and The Juniors. Many 45s show clear vocals that obviously include Frankie Valli’s falsetto to ‘sweeten’ the mix but some necessarily sound like them on backing. However we have included all tracks ‘alleged’ as having their involvement. Many have appeared on CD re-mastered for the first time from vinyl in our ‘Seasons’ Connections series and a quick search on You Tube for the titles listed will enable readers to sample the sound of much of  the listing.

1962 saw them appear as the Four Seasons for the first time (Dec 1961 – ‘Bermuda/Spanish Lace’) before they appeared again as the Topics in May.

With the success of ‘Sherry’ in August 1962 we might have expected the group’s work as backing vocalists to end but Crewe had them under contract and many backing tracks had been laid down before their first #1 hit and kept in the can by Crewe. Their appearance on the mid 1963 45s by Hedy Sontag (‘Anymore’) and Cholie Maye(‘Cry For Me’ – the first appearance of the ‘Jersey Boys’ Bob Gaudio ‘sign-up’ song) are illustrative of their work but the actual recording dates remains questionable.

Crewe’s ‘services’ contract ran out in 1963 but it remains unclear how much backing work they actually recorded after their success as the Four Seasons in August 1962. However there is no doubting that Valli and Gaudio embarked upon side projects to develop their own production skills and Wade Flemons 1963 outing on ‘Watch Over Her’(penned by Valli and Gaudio) is a clear example of these side projects.

Even as 1963 closes and they had left Vee-Jay we find them recording as Larry and The Legends(‘Don’t Pick On My Baby’) the day before they recorded ‘Dawn’ at Atlantic Studios.(19^th and 20^th November)

Data from the Atlantic Larry Santos sessions allows us to hear them appearing on ‘Someday’ and ‘True’ whilst the archive shows several recordings unreleased and (we presume) lost in an Atlantic archive fire.

But even more surprising is their involvement as late as 1964 on the Four-Evers local NYC/Philly hit ‘Be My Girl’ and as Scott Oberle (‘Cupid’s Poison Dart/You’re My Dream Girl’)

It is not until 1965 that we finally run out of sessions with them appearing as producers or backing vocalists and by then Nicky was about to leave the group. Joe Long has commented that they never did any side projects after he joined the group and that was when Bob Gaudio appears to have taken over the production of the group with Bob Crewe accepting a less dominant involvement. However Frankie Valli’s solo sessions studio shots show Crewe still dictatorial in the studio as late as 1967.

  

Above: Crewe takes Valli through the harmony on the session for ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ – Photo courtesy of George Schowerer

There are as many questions, as illuminating possibilities, presented by this sessionography but memories are dim and these 45s so old that little more can be accurately established. Our thanks go out to Tom Cramlington for his original research, to Mike Miller for collecting and sharing so many of these 45s and to Russ McClelland for researching the 45 issue dates that enables us to log and appreciate the timeline.

New additions and corrections have rolled in since our first publication including Bernadette Carroll confirming that The Four Seasons DIDN’T back her on ‘Nicky’ (a long believed rumour) but was in fact The Four Winds.

But check out this Freddie Cannon 45 as we can clearly hear Frankie’s falsetto in harmony with the rest of the PRE-FOUR SEASONS.

We will continue to research and edit the information which remains an important window on the background work of an historic group and their ‘lost’ recordings.

Next time we’ll have the Philips catalogue fully documented

Casey Chameleon

 

 

We Owe Stuart Miller A Lot -Story of a Bootleg

The collapse of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons as a hit-making group started in 1967 and lasted several years. But strangely by 1971 whilst out of contract with Philips, the few dedicated followers of the group in the UK and USA had formed fan clubs.

The failure of singles like ‘Electric Stories’ (Philips 40557) and the concept album ‘Genuine Imitation Life Gazette’ are striking examples of this era. By 1970 very few copies of the group’s 45s were being issued and none in the UK although one unique British release would occur - become lost and would eventually re-surface for fan club members thanks to Stuart Miller - the early 1970s UK fan club President who recently passed away.

 

The 1973 Bootleg LP(A Much Camp and High Falsetto production) is famous amongst long-standing Four Seasons fans and we pay tribute to Stuart’s efforts here.

The history of bootlegs is even documented in Wikipedia which highlights the importance of the medium. It says….” Most artists have made little effort to pursue legal action about bootleg recordings, viewing such "rarities trading" as harmless provided that it is not being done for profit. The benefits of interfering with such trading are fairly minimal compared to the potential ill-will generated against the artist, as the illicit works are generally circulated among the artist's most loyal fans, which have the most interest. Most record companies also have not shown an interest in pursuing or prosecuting small-scale bootleggers, but this could change at any time.”

This album is now available on released CD sets so anyone seeking to hear this material today can hear it (see our CD discography). But in 1973 the titles were mysteries to most of us and a friend’s music cassette tape copy was our only hope of obtaining it. It is still illegal today to copy such recordings, which perhaps shows the ridiculous state of copyright law. Stuart at least agreed with me on that subject .

John Hornsby has a copy of the album and told us….” The material that follows is a transcription from the liner notes to the bootleg L.P. produced by Stu Miller for the U.K. 4 Seasons Appreciation Society.  The original pages on which these notes appeared have deteriorated significantly over the past 40 years, and I have done my best to fill in the gaps where the words are simply not legible.  I have also made minor corrections in spelling along the way.

I first became aware of the existence of this L.P. a few years after it was produced, but not until 2009 did I ever even see a copy of it.  The copy I now own is the gracious gift of Ray Nichol, who presented it to me at our gathering in Raleigh, North Carolina.  As a fan from the southern United States, I can affirm that Stu’s analysis of the rarity of the later Philips releases is exactly as he describes.  It was virtually impossible to obtain the vinyl 45 rpm records. 

I never met nor corresponded with Stu, but I know that we early fans benefited from his love and dedication to this music.  May he rest in peace. Johnny Hornsby  Mandeville, LA  USA November, 2011 “

The album included the following tracks….

Side 1

1.Where Are My Dreams (Sandy Linzer)  Five Arts Music.  A Crewe/Gaudio production.

2.Lay Me Down (Crewe/Callelo)  Saturday Music/Seasons Four.  A Crewe/Gaudio production.

3.Heartaches and Raindrops (Petrillo/Cifelli)  4 Seasons Music Corp.  A Crewe/Gaudio production.

4.You’ve Got Your Troubles (Cook/Greenaway)  Mills Music.  A Crewe/Gaudio production.

5.Dream of Kings (Gaudio/Holmes)  Seasons Four Music/Montage.  Produced by Bob Gaudio.

6.Sunday Kind of Love (Belle/Nye/Prima/Rhodes)

7.Singles Game (Brown/Bloodworth)  Saturday Music.  A Crewe/Gaudio production.

Side 2

1.The Stranger (Sherman) Sheldon Music.

2.Honey Love  (McPhatter/Wexler)

3.Jambalaya  (Williams)  Acuff Rose Music.

4.Lovey Dovey  (Harrison/Carroll)  Roosevelt Music

5.Apple of My Eye (Blackwell)  Shalimar Music.

6.Whatever You Say (Gaudio) Kinney Music.  A Bob Gaudio production.

7.Sleeping Man (Gaudio) Kinney Music.  A Bob Gaudio production.

8.Theme to the Joey Reynolds radio show  (Gaudio).

Thanks to John Hornsby and Jon Pingree we are able to bring you Stuart’s full notes from the album sleeve. 

“Pressure of time demands that these notes be written before I have actually received the finished product from the factory, but if the original tapes were anything to go on the quality of this L.P. will be quite good.  As you all know by now, the original idea was to produce a “Live” recording and although this fell through on account of the quality of the original tapes, there are still hopes that sometime in the future we will go ahead on that score.  This L.P. was decided on as a substitute for the original idea because when the bulk of the orders initially received in lieu of the Live album were received mainly from UK members, the track listing here was constructed primarily with them in mind.  There is only one person that I know of in this country who can boast of already having every single song here and that’s not myself but Diddy Dave Quick.  At this point, a brief history of the tracks would be pertinent.

          Unlike side 2, none of the tracks on side 1 were ever released outside the United States.  Tracks 1-5 were recorded during the group’s last 1 ½ years with Philips.  “Lay Me Down” and “Heartaches and Raindrops” came out towards the end of 1970 and achieved little in the way of success.  A surprisingly short time later, “Where Are My Dreams” surfaced only to follow the same path.  “You’ve Got Your Troubles”/”Dream of Kings” also came out in 1970.  The flip was originally intended as the theme tune to the film of the same name starring Anthony Quinn.  For some reason this never came about and neither has the film ever been shown in the U.K.  What makes these five tracks so interesting is their rarity which is due to the state of the group's relationship with Philips at the time.  Nothing was going right between them when these were recorded with the result that Philips weren’t so hot in pushing the group’s products.  Consequently few copies were pressed and as such, despite their relatively young age they quickly achieved a rarity value.

          The story behind “A Sunday Kind of Love” is a strange one.  It initially appeared on the first few thousand U.S. copies of the “Entertain You” L. P.  But at that time, “Toy Soldier” was out and as soon as that began to move, Philips took “A Sunday Kind of Love” off and replaced it with “Soldier.”  “Love” was never again to appear on the Philips label at all (although it was recently resurrected on Pickwick’s “Brotherhood of Man” L. P.) and was one of those selected band cuts such as “Ain’t That a Shame” and “Little Boy” which the company chose never to make capital out of.

          “The Singles Game” appeared in 1969 as the flip to “And That Reminds Me”, the Seasons only cut for Bob Crewe’s “Crewe” label.  The record was a minor hit for them and was interesting because of the highly coloured pictured sleeve in which it was packaged - depicting the group in way-out clothes.  The reason for the one-off switch to the Crewe label was because their contract with Philips had just expired and negotiations for a new one were taking a long time.  A single was needed and so this was the result.

          The picture of the 4 Seasons on the sleeve was taken about the time tracks 1-5 and no.7 on side 1 were recorded and features the line up as it was then and as it has been since.  Left to right: Tom Devito, Joe Long, Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio.

Of the fifteen tracks on this album, the only two ever to be definitely released here are contained on the second side. (There is the possibility that some 4 Lovers material was issued in Britain but this is far from certain at the moment).  

Tracks 1-5  on side 2 were recorded by the 4 Lovers between 1956 and 1958.  They all of course feature Frankie singing although this was not always the case with the Lovers.  There’s not an awful lot to say about them.  Only one was ever a hit—“Apple of My Eye”—but they are of interest from an historical point of view in that they demonstrate the group’s early influences and background.  As singles on today’s market they are practically impossible to find or buy because of their high collector’s value.  The photo of the Lovers on the front depicts the group that cut the tracks here.  Left to right: Frankie Valli, Nick Devito, Hank Majewski, Tom Devito.

          Side 2 -Tracks 6 and 7 came out as a single in this country only on the Warner Bros. label.  Most of you will remember the facts behind this.  It was at the start of the group’s early 1971 tour and they were without a record company here.  They needed a follow up to “You’re Ready Now” so they signed another one-off deal with W.B.  No one was happy with the result but the company, after losing the tapes, managed to find them again in time for the group’s second tour later that year.  The record achieved absolutely no success at all.  Few copies were pressed and those quickly disappeared so that the record is now impossible to obtain.  The lead guitar heard on both cuts is played by Bob Grim who briefly stepped in as a replacement for Tom Devito.

          The last track, no. 8, was recorded for American dee jay Joey Reynolds when he was on a radio station in Philadelphia.  Although it was meant as a theme tune, it was pressed and made available free  of charge to anyone who cared to write into the station.  The year of publication is uncertain but it must be beween ’66 and ’68.  Notice that it uses as the musical backing the cut off the “Bob Crewe Plays the Hits of the 4 Seasons” album.

Credits 

I have to thank two people without whose help this L.P. would not have been possible.  Firstly my sincere appreciation goes to John Riley who developed the photos that are to be found on the sleeve.  And thanks must also go to the Sultan of Walworth, Dave Quick, who filled in the gaps in my record collection to make this selection possible, and who also was brave enough to accompany me in my car ON THE MOTORWAY to John Riley’s house in Manchester.                 

Hope you enjoy this album

Stu Miller (signature)

President, 4 Seasons Appreciation Society

©  1973,  Much Camp and High Falsetto productions.  World copyright exists on all material contained herein.  Written permission must be obtained in order to reproduce any part by sending a written request accompanied by an exceedingly large cheque to me.  You know, I’ve received a large number of letters from people demanding to know why I always insist upon spoiling things like this by adding ridiculous copyright clauses at the end.  It could be because I have a very low regard for copyrights as a whole (witness this L.P.) but also because I’m an extremely silly person who is absolutely besotted by the idea of seeing his highly suspect views and opinions in print.  Add to this also the fact that I’ve still got to find some way of filling up another third of a sheet.

IMPORTANT

THIS L.P. IS IN NO WAY MEANT TO BE TAKEN TO BE A SANCTIONED RECORDING BY THE FOUR SEASONS OR THEIR RECORD COMPANY TAMLA MOTOWN.  IT IS IN NO WAY MEANT TO BE INDICATIVE OF THE QUALITY OF ANY NORMAL SEASONS/MOTOWN ALBUM.  IT HAS BEEN MADE WITHOUT THE PERMISSIN OF BOTH THE AFOREMENTIONED PARTIES.

Thanks Stuart: your efforts made many of us Four Seasons fans for the rest of our life as well as allowing us to hear these otherwise ‘lost tracks’

Casey Chameleon

 

 

 

A Distinct Lack of Storyline - Biographies and the Four Seasons

(Revised 10th Dec 2011)

Biographies are an amazingly difficult thing to find when it comes to the Four Seasons. It has always been that way. Since compiling Newsletters during the 1970s it was always a case of very little detail and a lot of evasive PR.

But suspicions arose during their successful revival years when we researched the back stories for ‘The Rise and Fall Of The NEW Four Seasons’.

This is a quote…..” Rex Woodard again…”On 13 July convicted felon and “stoolie” Gerald Zeimanowitz testified before a US Senate Sub Committee that the Four Seasons were connected with the Mafia.  Allegedly, according to Zeimanowitz, mobster Angelo “Gyp” DeCarlo of New Jersey owned a “piece” of the band.  DeCarlo had been imprisoned in 1970 but pardoned by President Nixon in 1972. Zeimanowitz, however, really had his facts mixed up judging from his testimony, and probably confused the Four Seasons with another act (Valli, when asked about the charge kept his humour:  He just wanted to know why his career was going so lousy despite these so-called friends in influential positions!).” Valli was very sensitive to this news and was concerned it would alienate his fans if found to be true. Now he admits involvement in the ‘Jersey Boys’ book and the association seems of little harm although it may be ‘fictionalised’ in the stage show.”

 We also know Bob Crewe and the Four Seasons had a rocky relationship and friction was something Bob had to deal with. We heard that at one stage Bob Crewe threatened the group that he would sack them and get a new line-up. It has been a well hidden fact but evidence of it can be found here as Artie Wayne comments on this on his blog in an article recollecting his meetings with Bob Crewe

http://artiewayne.wordpress.com/2007/06/02/brief-encounters-with-bob-crewe/

 And we know that friction led to Sandy Linzer and Denny Randal walking away and eventually in litigation with Bob Crewe which effectively ended their working relationship as Four Seasons writers. This left Crewe and Gaudio without a background team by mid 1966. 

How this happened and how they recovered will appear in Chapter 1 of ‘The Rise and Fall of The NEW Four Seasons’ in our e-book soon.

 But this only demonstrates that we have half of the story and we need the people who were there to elaborate and let us fully understand the difficulties of making and selling 81 million plus records.

And an example of how we know so little background came in recently from song writer Larry Russell-Browne……” In your article reviewing my dear friend and teacher Bob Crewe's credits, one other amazingly talented and highly successful artist, was left out:Oliver. Crewe produced 2 chart smashes with a singer who has an obvious speech impediment. After ‘Good Morning Starshine’ had sold a million records, Crewe was trying to figure out what single to release next. I implored him to put out the song ‘JEAN’, which he did with spectacular success. This earned me a hefty raise at the time. Crewe had faith in my ability to spot a hit record and in the final analysis, I proved him right. When I attended the Grammy's, I took him as my guest. He was brimming with pride when they announced my song ‘TIE A YELLOW RIBBON ROUND THE OLE OAK TREE’ as one of the nominee's for song of the year. Needless to say we lost to my dear friend Charlie Fox and his classic tune ‘KILLING ME SOFTLY’.

L.Russell Brown”

Many thanks….great story Larry.

One biography will surface soon and that is by Charlie Calello, who has frequently been very open about the back story to the Four Seasons. Bob Crewe also (reputedly) has a biography writer but Tommy De Vito’s draft, (some say was used for the Jersey Boys script) has been the subject of litigation for some years with Rex Woodard’s wife over the late Four Seasons historian’s draft.

But factually Tommy had mob connections from the early days. We recently collected two songs from the Variatones recorded in 1955. Check out this link to hear  ‘I’ll Always Love You, Dear’  which features an Italian singer, Bill Cecere backed by the Variatones. The story here we were told is that the Variatones (Valli, T.DeVito, N.DeVito, Majewski) did these sides backing Bill but “before the songs could get an official release the mob murdered Cecere and stuffed him into the trunk of a car”. Instrumentaly, these songs feature Tommy DeVito’s distinctive style in the 50s and are not dissimilar to the ‘Joyride’ album. The other song was ‘Jealous Heart’. This story has been challenged (see Comments below) so we can't verify it or otherwise account for the track or its origins. For a better perspective on the mob’s involvement with entertainers like Valli and DeVito check out ‘Frank Sinatra and The Mob’ to realise how the real stories have been suppressed re music makers involvement and why Frankie Valli rightly has kept his distance from them.

But hopefully we’ll have Charlie Calello’s bio focusing on ‘making music’ (which is our primary focus) soon and hopefully our work with Rare Rockin’ Records of Australia will result in the release of a CD project next year featuring the best of Charlie Calello’s (non-Four Seasons) arrangements. Tentatively titled ‘Arranged For You: From Doo-Wop To Northern Soul’, it is planned to feature the best of his diverse arrangements and productions. More re this soon.

Casey Chameleon

 

 

Will ’Northern Soul’ surpass ‘Jersey Boys’ The Movie.?

It may seem a ridiculous question to some Americans reading this but the hold of Northern Soul in the UK psyche MAY be stronger than that of the Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons stage show which will soon become a movie.

A forthcoming MOVIE about the UK’s unique dance club ‘craze’ is coming, and Guardian writer Bob Stanley has been in at auditions. The reasons perhaps why this MOVIE will take audiences by storm is that in many ways it will celebrate American music BUT in a uniquely British way. It is the music America rejected!!

Just as importantly as Stanley comments re the films creator Elaine Constantine…”For Constantine, though, Northern Soul was about comradeship. "So few people understand what it's all about unless they've been involved in the scene," she says. "When I've tried to explain to people how incredible the music is and how great it is to dance to en masse, when you know everyone in the room is going through the same experience emotionally as you ... it's hard to sum up in words alone. I knew a film would give anyone the experience almost firsthand."

Those of us who experienced the scene (or it’s pre 1970 gestation in Northern underground clubs) a listen to the music and a video of the dances captivates the mind and the heart.

And amongst the core tracks are two featuring Frankie Valli which have made him ‘iconic’ on the music scene. ‘You’re Ready Now’ and ‘The Night’

By comparison ‘Jersey Boys’ on the big screen is going to have to change a lot to avoid being a sanitized presentation of ‘a story’ loosely based on the Four Seasons rise to fame laced around a phenomenal music catalogue.

It will be an interesting battle if they both come to the ‘big screen’ at the same time.

Bob Stanley’s report (Read the whole article here) makes it clear that this film has the capability of creating ‘new generations’ of Northern Soul fans. ‘Jersey Boys’ by comparison could be seen as a blatant ‘cashing-in’ on the success of the show. That’s OK commercially……..as far as The Partnership is concerned….but what will be the legacy this film leaves us. One thing that is apparent from this article by Stanley is that ‘spiritually connecting to the music’ is what ‘Northern Soul’ will do for a lot of people.

Both Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio have commented on how surprised they were (and probably remain) at their UK success on this music scene. They have never really connected with it in my opinion. The 1970 and 1971 tours made an attempt though and created the cult following we represent today. But it is the way the ‘music’ (yes…their music) connects at an emotional and crowd level that has made the songs ‘anthems’ of the scene. The success of ‘Beggin’ on the European club scene was just an extension of this phenomena.

Let’s hope the ‘Jersey Boys’ MOVIE doesn’t slip into a ‘Grease’ like style which portrays the 1960s (and the Gerry Polci led Seasons of The 70s) music scene in a distorted presentation of reality. ‘Northern Soul’ THE MOVIE we are sure will do justice to the scene….the dancers ….and most of all THE MUSIC.

And of course we still have Gerry and the guys performing as the ‘Hitmen’ if we need a reality check. So guys get to the UK soon!!

Casey Chameleon