That 'Four Seasons' Sound

Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons Sessionography Part 4

The start of the Four Seasons career at Philips was a major step up from their ‘novelty’ falsetto sound as a Vee-Jay doo-wop group to become a ‘major league’ pop group. They would battle it out with the Beatles to become the top selling male pop group of the mid-sixties and become a respected and loved live performing group at a time the Beatles abandoned touring for the studio.

Examining and questioning the details of Valli and The Seasons recordings at Philips by reviewing our Part 4 sessionography raises as many questions as it reveals in terms of the timeline and their approach to hit making via 45s and albums. This blog note only scratches the surface of who did what and how things happened, but what it does do is gather the timeline and the sequence of recording (in fact challenging some of the dates) and maybe will make the listening to their recordings a little more understandable and enjoyable.

November 1963, as they pursued their law suit against the soon to be defunct Vee-Jay label, saw their first milestone recording which would launch their new sound and hits....but not at Philips studios as they prepared to sign contracts, but at Atlantic Studios. Charlie Calello had his biggest part to date in arranging the song...”We recorded "Dawn (Go Away)" at Atlantic studios. That was our first opportunity to work on 8 track. It was an extreme luxury to have the bass and drums on their own track. It was amazing. “

It was the first time the group had also (fully) used studio musicians to do all the instrumentation.

Strangely the original full mix never survived in STEREO. Well that is what all vinyl and CD issues since reveal. The only STEREO mix that appears to exist, does not have the slow intro...”Pretty as a mid-summer morn....they call her 'Dawn'” and the 'straight in' version in glorious STEREO only ever appeared on the 'Edizione D'Oro' hits collection in 1968 and has never appeared since. It may not exist on Master tape but is at least preserved in our Vinyl Masters library.

Amazingly, the day before this session which Charlie Calello recalls involved 5 songs (?), the group had recorded with Larry Santos as Larry and the Legends on 'Don't Pick On My Baby'(along with -it is rumoured - several other presumed lost recordings).

The master numbers show only 'Dawn' and 'No Surfin' Today' as The Four Seasons at Atlantic for this session with several tracks following in January 1965 at Stea-PHILIPS which would make up the 'Born To Wander' folk styled album once they had signed for the label.

With 'Dawn' a major hit , February sessions in 1964 targeted the next hit and an album. Although the 'Dawn (Go Away) and 11 Other Great Songs' vinyl album shows Bob Crewe as producer, arranger and conductor, this was not possible as Bob had no formal music training...the musical production of Bob Gaudio featured highly and the arranging and conducting was by Charlie Calello.

Whilst all of these recordings may survive in both MONO (we hope) and STEREO (see ACE 2fer CD issues) only 'Ronnie' failed to ever appear in STEREO and no master appears to exist in this format ( a pseudo STEREO version appears on 'Edizione D'Oro'). Surprisingly, it seems likely no STEREO master was ever cut.

April saw the group arranging the classics 'Rag Doll/Silence is Golden' and the subsequent Number 1 in June 1964 called for another set of tracks for the songs inevitable album. Recruiting Denny Randell as arranger/conductor and Sandy Linzer as writer reduced the workload on Bob Gaudio for the June and July sessions and with another Top Ten hit (Nr 10) in 'Save It For Me' the group had hit their 'Golden Era'. MONO and STEREO versions tended to be similar/or the same mixes but Bob Crewe had a habit of taking the MONO masters to Bell Studios after completion and overdubbing or adding echo to get the radio sound he needed. This would apply for the recordings in the latter half of the 60s so checking the versions on CD and vinyl is well worth the research.

September's session to record 'Big Man In Town/Little Angel' must have been a big test as to their ability to match 'Rag Doll's success but it's Nr 20 peak must have been a big disapointment given the quality of the production .

In an attempt to get a top ten hit sound again the group changed studios for their November 1964 session of 'Bye Bye Baby(Baby Goodbye)'. Charles Calello recalls...”The reason we changed studios was that for some reason the records started to have distortion in them and we went from there to a place called Olmstead.” Between Olmstead, Stea-PHILIPS and (we believe) Atlantic Studios  they recorded their 1965 sessions before Charlie left as arranger after a brief spell as a Four Season.

Efforts in the studio were constant through 1965 as they really pushed the hits 'machine' churning out 'manufactured pop' as Charlie describes it – very much like the Motown label.

The Nr 12 hit of Bye Bye Baby....was followed by the disappointing 'Toy Soldier' in February 1965 (reaching Nr 64) after January LP tracks sessions and another surprisingly small hit with the complex arrangement of 'Girl Come Running' in April 1965(Nr 30).

Valli himself embarked on a side project to test the possibility of  a solo artist career in June 65 with 'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore' (possibly at Atlantic’s 8 track studio) as Nick Massi decided to leave the group. Was his departure a reaction or was Valli’s new direction a contributor? Going solo would continue on the agenda throughout and beyond 1965.

Before he did leave, according to Charlie Callello, Nickie contributed to the ill-fated Dylan /Bacharach/David sessions back at Stea-PHILIPS. With the situation critical the group had to find a replacement member quickly for their road act and Charlie Calello stepped in for 4 months as he played bass and had sung on most of the hits which he had arranged and conducted too. 

It was a critical time and the sessionography shows the timeline of the tracks during this period of change. All of the remaining team of writers and arrangers with producer Bob Crewe were needed and the close of the year would see them achieve once again major hits with 'Let's Hang On' (recorded in August 65 – a Nr 3 Hit) and 'Working My Way Back To You' (November 1965 – a Nr 9 hit)

1966 was a difficult time for the group and they almost lost their way..

We will re-visit and expand on this period and what happened next in Chapter 1 of 'The Rise and Fall of the New Four Seasons' soon.

We are still researching 1967 to 1970 and with sound engineer George Schowerer hoping to establish which of the sessions were recorded on the new 16 track machines at Mirasound Studios.  Charlie Calello left and returned but just ‘when’ we have now been able to establish. Charlie Calello had left in December 1965 but 3 tracks arranged by him would appear in early 1967 (as ‘B’ sides) posing the probability that these were left over from 1965 sessions. (He can hear himself singing on ‘Dody’ – released Feb 1967). Charlie eventually returned for ‘I Make A Fool Of Myself’ in June 1967. He worked on many sessions during 1967 through to 1970 after his exclusive producer role at Columbia in 1966. He even played piano on ‘Genuine imitation Life Gazette’ LP.

This sessionography also contains reference to the ‘unique’ STEREO mixes Bob Crewe prepared and issued in 1968 on the ‘Edizione D’Oro’ 2 LP compilation of hits. By then the studios had the latest technology and STEREO sound was reaching a previously unheard standard with 16 track recording on the latest sessions. His review of the surviving masters brought several alternative versions in a superb STEREO sound stage, but surprisingly NONE of these vinyl masters appear to have survived or appeared again on CD. At least we have these digitally preserved. There is lot’s more research to come including our review and preservation of all the 45 MONO mixes in our archive in 24 bit 96Khz sound (ie better than CD quality) and then maybe the STEREO versions of the recordings in the sessionography. It is a fact that much of the 4 track recordings mixed to STEREO during 1965 at the STEA-Philips studio are poorer quality (‘ping-pong’) STEREO which can’t be easily corrected with no multi-track masters surviving…..but with advances in STEREO processing by computer a better re-mixed sound stage may eventually be possible.

Once the recording moved to Mirasound in 1966 the sound quality improved immensely as we will consider in our forthcoming ‘Mirasound Studios’ story. Why Gaudio and Valli haven’t researched and fully archived all of their MONO and STEREO versions remains a mystery.? This sessionography shows the asset base they have (or may have?). But with little money to be made from it on CD as their music and audience ages, we will have to take the lead in preserving the best recorded quality available from mint vinyl.

But for now enjoy studying Part 4 of our Sessionography here (version 5) or check out the other Parts.(here)

 

CD Discography Up-date and a 'Surprise' find!

It sometimes gets to be a bore when a record company re-issues a collection of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons work without any apparent recognition of what the fan base might want……but sometimes the most un-inspiring collection of ‘mis-matched’ tracks can reveal something new.

 

This is the case with the mastering on Working My Way Back To You (2011) - Audio CD by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons Rhino BGJXT8

This CD which appeared in the UK in February 2011 had largely been ignored by us as it didn’t appear to contain anything new. As part of our CD Discography update our music detective and sound engineer Eliot Ness decided to take a closer listen. And he was surprised at the sound content.

Up to recent times we have all hung onto the fact that the original vinyl and the early CD re-issues was what captured the ‘original’ sound of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. After all Bob Crewe, Bob Gaudio and the group set out the ‘sound’ in their original mixes and changing that surely amounts to ‘heresy’ and a distortion of the ‘truth’??. Well that may be some peoples opinion and is valid to some extent….but when a sound engineer is aware of today’s technology and production techniques and takes the time to bring the best out of the productions in a re-issue, then it makes the result an interesting listen.

 

That is what our ‘Sound Guy’ Eliot found and he was so impressed he did a comparison with the compilation re-issues since 2000 that represent the ‘modern sound’ of our fave artist(s). If you have this collection we feel sure you’ll find the detailed review by Eliot Ness (click here) a great compliment to your listening again to this CD.

The CD’s Mastering Engineer Nick Watson of www.fluidmastering.com is happy that we found this collection had some benefit for fans…..”I have to say it comes as a pleasant surprise to find that there are people out there appreciating the sound quality on a release like this, which must be just the latest in a long line of re-issues of the same material on CD.”

 

“I'm very pleased to know that you enjoyed the CD and think it compares well against others. However, it is not an album that I would necessarily make reference to in our promotion or website. I had sources of unknown origin that had previously been mastered (maybe several times), that were digital and didn't sound very good, and I had little time. Of course I wanted to get the best out of the material that I could, but I don't think the end result comes close to how good it would have sounded if I had had the opportunity to re-master this stuff from analog tapes! Then, we would have been talking about a dramatically better-sounding CD”

Of course we find in today’s CD market with the price of CD’s so low and the profit margins so meager compared to a decade or two ago that a job like this comes in with a tight budget, and we can be pretty sure that if  Nick hadn’t been commissioned to do the job, then it would have been done by another rival studio that would have maybe simply normalized the levels but not done much else - whereas it is clear from Eliot’s analysis that time was spent eq-ing where necessary and fixing faults wherever they were significant (in most cases)

It is very likely that the sources where simply 16/44 mastered files sent by Rhino UK, and there is no way of knowing where each file originated from, except to say that they would have been from CDs in their catalogue. It is a very annoying development in today's record business, that record companies now have their catalogues archived as digital files which can be ordered up from a database (which of course saves the cost of proper archiving). This means that from the point of view of a mastering engineer, his options, and the information he has to go on when choosing the best sources, are severely limited.

It is clear from Eliot’s review that , in the case of the Four Seasons files used here, that much of what Nick had to do was about *Un-doing* some extreme and unmusical EQ and even compression that was evident in the source files. Many were (- to our ears in recent CD compilations -) too heavily EQd and heavily compressed. Correcting this to make them sound more 'natural' is what Eliot found in his review. Some have had some quite radical treatment which whilst overall gives a good set doesn’t work in every case. Perhaps this is due to the source material being beyond ‘repair’.

With regard to ‘flaws’ in tracks, Nick could recall only a little of this CD as many projects have come by him since….”All I can say is that if a flaw can be removed without compromising the recording, and it seems worth the effort, and isn't part of the original recording but is a result of later damage, then I'll probably remove it. Sometimes I'm surprised on mastered material that flaws haven't been taken out - but I guess mastering engineers who don't have restoration experience don't look for those things or don't have the tools to deal with them.”

We suspect that like many ‘corporate’ record company re-issues, the client wanted to send some files and receive back ASAP a double CD compilation, with minimum fuss. So from their point of view, that's what they got. However we as fans see it as a situation where the mastering engineer is working with some important and classic material under non-ideal circumstances!

We have to count ourselves fortunate that this mastering engineering recognized the importance of these tracks historically and responded with a very listenable collection. Obviously the visit by Frankie and TV promotion took sales into the top 20 CD’s at the time(11^th place on the chart in May 2011) and the popularity of ‘Jersey Boys’ clearly helped.

The ‘modern sound’ of this CD may not include mixes that appeal to all long-standing fans but perhaps the sound is compatible with the stage show production approach.( i.e. maybe ‘louder’ and more ‘up-front’) The fact is that it continues to keep the group sound and profile available to today’s audience. To check out the whole back catalogue of CD issues visit our ‘mega’ CD discography at http://www.seasonally.co.uk/CDDiscog.htm

We’ve added more detailed reviews of the sound quality (click on the pictures with a colour code - ‘Green’ represents the best sounding) and check back in your collection to find the good, the bad and the plain ‘ugly’

This collection hits the ‘Green’ button!!

Some would say that this collection is still a ‘mismatch’ of tracks and we need a serious set of re-issue projects. So in case anyone in ‘high places’ wants to know what the fans want - here it is

• A collection of original 1960s 45  masters all re-mastered properly
• Sets of ALL of the STEREO masters for the 1960s albums to replace the ACE /Curb collections/Collectors Choice collections with flaws and missing tracks corrected
• The researching, re-mastering and issue of the large number of unreleased tracks at Philips, Motown and Warner Bros.

Now is that too much to ask????

Casey Chameleon

Updated Sound Logs

• RHINO(UK)BGJXT8
• Comparison Chart(xls file)
• RHINOR2-70974
• RHINOR2-71490
• CURBD2-77713
• ACECDCHD620

 

Frankie Valli - Unreleased

When you follow a 77 year old vocalist nearing the end of his career you don’t expect new singles and ambitious projects. But Four Season Frankie Valli has just stunned his fans by allowing the issue of a terrific song from a project in 2007 recorded at his home studio.

On ‘All Or Nothing At All’, Artie Shroek has done an arrangement of an accapela styled vocal backing with Valli singing lead and it has just appeared on You Tube.

Not available anywhere else this version of Frank Sinatra’s break through record from 1943 (actually recorded in 1939) is surprisingly good for three reasons. Firstly the arrangement of a Hi-Los type harmony background allows Valli to singer against a vocal background group sound once again. He has always sounded best in this vocal setting. Artie and his son have done a superb backing vocal.

Secondly Frankie’s vocal styling is excellent given the vocal range he now has at 77. It is reminiscent of his Solo/Timeless album work back in the late 60s.

Finally it is such a great song and works perfectly in this arrangement.

This song has a long history. A Sinatra fan filled in this background….” The three (important) studio recordings of this song epitomize the three stages in Sinatra's singing persona: The Harry James cut (1939) is Sinatra the Crooner, singing for a predominantly female audience; the Don Costa cut (1962) is Sinatra, the Sadder-But-Wiser-Guy singing for a predominantly male audience; the Nelson Riddle cut (1966) is Sinatra the Swinger, singing for ALL audiences, everywhere, for all time.”

Valli’s version provides a strong alternative appreciation in an appealing style. The best we have heard from Frankie in a long time. Thanks Artie for sharing this.

Here is Sinatra’s original.

More please say the fans and we will monitor developments and reactions to this track.

This comes amidst the news from our Motown research that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons have 31 ‘listed’ unreleased Masters in the 60000 series (60516 to 62217 and a total of 56 listed from research to date)which are confirmed on records as on 16 track tape in the Universal Motown vaults. We are reasonably confident that the tapes still exist. There are 11 mix-down on 2 track stereo tapes containing unheard recordings of some of these and many that may need mixing. This news also gives a new slant on the groups departure from Motown.

In March 1974 Valli did a (final)session of 3 tracks with Bob Gaudio which it now seems was destined for a NEW album(according to records). Tapes P5084 and 85 contain a number of stereo mix-downs from the 16 track masters designated for the new album. Records indicate this may have been for the listed, but we know, unreleased album ‘Inside Out’ MW788.

Tracks mixed down include…

My Eyes Adored You

Whatever You Want

You Can’t Hold On

Love Isn’t Here

Hickory

Lovers

Hymn to Her

Sun Country

The Night

Touch the Raincild

Inside You

Now we know that Motown had been promising the group an album release for over 12 months (since Feb 1973) and with the end of their contract and their unwillingness to believe Motown and to sign up re this album, their departure left the album shelved on stereo master tapes. Songs like the unheard ‘Whatever You Want’ and ‘You Can’t Hold On’ were all slated to appear but a year later when the group was riding high from their success at Warner Curb, only a few made it onto the hastily released ‘Inside You’ album MW852 (assembled on Tapes 5536 and 5537)

We will keep pressing Valli/Gaudio and Universal re an historic release for this unheard and unreleased material and hope to speak with Frankie re this situation in June…….. but for now enjoy Frankie from 2007 and look out for our forthcoming story of how Bob Crewe saved Frankie Valli’s solo career in 1973 and 1974 when he joined Motown as a writer/producer.

Casey Chameleon

The Four Seasons MONO Archive - GONE Records

The Four Seasons Sound Archive started with us going back to 1961 and searching out their first 45 when as the then Four Lovers they got another chance to record with Crewe under yet another name. And once again they tried for a hit

As we reported in The Rise To Fame Of The Four Seasons……”Crewe leased one of their masters to George Goldner's Gone Records; by then, they were calling themselves The Four Seasons. Somehow with his music industry network of friends he was able to engineer a recording session in November 1961, for George Goldner's Gone label, and the 2 sides ‘Bermuda’ and ‘Spanish Lace’ were released on Gone #5122 by the end of the year. Our Billboard review picks these up in the 3rd February 1962 edition with an ad and a spotlight single review. The choice of material is a mystery as Linda Scott already had a pop version of ‘Bermuda’ ("The Bell Sisters" #7 pop hit in 1952) out and receiving heavy publicity in Billboard. The Seasons ‘doom laden’ performance gave no clue as to their potential whilst ‘Spanish Lace’(a song Bob Gaudio had already done in 1961 as an instrumental under the name Turner Di Sentri) was more of the material that they had served up in previous years…competent if uninspiring doo-wop.”

 

Rex Woodard says in Billboard in 1981…”Massi remembers how Crewe came to record the first Four Seasons record, ‘Bermuda’:” He did things right on the spot. One day we were fooling around in the studio and he hears us singing ‘Bermuda’. He comes in and say..” Let’s record it”..”Wow! I said. We’re not ready; we’re not even doing it right!.” He recorded it anyway and released it.”

"The first success I had with The Four Seasons . . . was a record called 'Bermuda',” Crewe recalled in later years. "It was a minor hit out of Philadelphia, but . . . nothing was really happening beyond Philly.” The single fails to chart and they begin playing at the Martell Sea Breeze Resort in Point Pleasant Beach in New Jersey as The Four Seasons or perhaps The Four Lovers.

Rex Woodard said…”Despite fascinating tales to the contrary, the “Four Seasons” identity came about pretty much at random for this particular record. When this flopped the name was indefinitely discarded.”

‘Bermuda’ proved to be a punchy ‘bass-laden’ stomp much different from the light and romantic version by Linda Scott which achieved more success in the charts at the time. 

A version of the Seasons attempt at the song has turned up on CD in STEREO on Spotlight on Gone Records – Collectables’ but it lacks the bass and punch of the 45 which is our selection for the archive. At 7 seconds in on the MONO 45 version there is a Spanish Guitar over dub that does not appear on the STEREO version. About that place on the STEREO version is a slight echo of the guitar in the background like it was on a separate track of the tape but not used. The STEREO version somehow losses the impact of the 45 but does show the detail in the instrumentation. A definite collectable.

The flip-side ‘Spanish Lace’ a Crewe composition was typical of their Four Lovers sound at that time.

It’s MONO CD appearance on the ‘The Gone Story’ on UK Westside(a now defunct label) is in an alternative version(Take1) lacking the strong instrumental background of the 45 but the STEREO version on ‘Spotlight on Gone Records – Collectables’ is much better and an essential collectors item.

The 45 would be re-released in October 1962 after the success of ‘Sherry’ and ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ but without chart success. Billboard of 20^th October 1962 included this review….which seems to regard ‘Spanish Lace’ as the A-side.

The songs would also appear again on vinyl in 1963. Paul Urbahns tells us the story…”Guest Star 1481, contains many tracks by The Barons but ‘Spanish Lace’ is there along with ‘Bermuda’. The only two Four Seasons songs on this 4 Seasons album.

Guest Star was a promotionally priced label manufactured by Synthetic Plastics of Newark NJ. The category of promotionally priced albums means they generally sold for $1 (one dollar) or less. The purpose was department, food and discount stores could advertise these albums....with well know stars names... so folks would come to the stores to look at the albums, and while there they would purchase something else, perhaps pillows, sheets or something.

Guest Star really used a bait and switch attitude when it came to

these albums, but based on their price (a dollar or less) they were actually good value. I say bait and switch because the cover would show a well known and popular artist, like Louis Armstrong or Al Hirt and only have two or three songs by that artist. The rest would be filler by some other artist or custom recordings by some unknown session singers. The Louis Armstrong album, had two songs by Louis Armstrong accompanied by Duke Ellington..the rest of the album was a studio singer credited as Jimmy Shore doing a bad Louis Armstrong impersonation. If you look at it as a two song album for $1 it’s pretty good value as single as that time cost about the same they had two songs and were mono.

Guest Star had issued an album called "Oh Julie" by the Crescendos in 1962 with 8 songs (Guest Star GS- 1453)  Normally these promotionally priced albums had 10 songs. But apparently that was all they could find.

Info on this group is here with cover and label shots of the GS album.

http://www.colorradio.com/crescendos.htm

A year later when the 4 Seasons were popular Guest wanted to put out an album. A fairly nice drawing of the group was prepared and they licensed the two Gone songs from Roulette (who owned the Gone catalog),

Two songs don't make an album so they took the 8 song Crescendos album and added the two Four Seasons and they had a new 4 Seasons album. Since the other 8 songs had been issued on another album, still being sold in the same bins as the Four Seasons album, they renamed the Crescendos "The Barons" but they are the same recordings.

Now in addition to the two 4 Seasons Gone songs in excellent quality, you also get the Crescendos hit "Oh Julie" all on one album for a dollar or less. Not very honest..but good value. This album sold recently on ebay for over $10

The MONO and STEREO versions are stored in separate archives but whilst we are building a MONO Archive from vinyl we will feature details of different versions including MONO and STEREO as we have above.

Next Time…The early Vee-Jay hits, A’s and B’s and different versions

 

 

The Search For The Masters

Casey’s back ……..and I am once again delving into the Four Seasons catalogue to find lost gems and back-stories.

When you have been collecting music on records and CD’s for nearly 50 years you would think that firstly, you own them and secondly, that over the years the sound of those original 60s records would have improved, given that the original tapes have been digitally re-mastered.

As I have commented before today, in 2011 ‘improvement’ is not the case when it comes to CD releases and, when it comes to the Four Seasons catalogue. Tests carried out on our CD discography published on our web site have shown the recent deteriorating quality of the digital masters since their first appearance on the new sound medium in 1988. The Pleasurize Music Foundation continues to battle to get CD quality back to the levels of the sound quality we got from our old vinyl.(apparently with some success as their web site shows).

So can an old collector like me get my Four Seasons collection sounding as ‘original’ as possible. If the appalling re-mastering of  Jersey Beat is anything to go by, expecting Rhino and The Four Seasons Partnership to issue the original masters in good sound quality is a waste of time. ‘Sherry’ on the Jersey Beat Box Set has an (RMS) loudness level twice that of the original 45. It just isn’t the same song!!

So can I re-master my own collection. Well yes,( I have the music and the technology to do it) as long as I don’t share it ………because the Partnership still owns it.! (well maybe I can if I use one of the new sharing web sites….see more below)….. It remains amazing that in 2011 it is still illegal to share music with friends that you purchased as a teenager. I have already covered this subject at Chameleon’s blog in “‘Are You Really Serious About Music?’ Part2” and now it seems the natural progression is for music and radio web sites to enable music sharing – LEGALLY!

 

With today’s technology and the ability to digitize original vinyl at 24 bit and a sampling rate of 96khz (compared to CD at 16bit/44khz) it is we believe possible to get close to the original tape masters provided we can find clean and unworn vinyl? So what is the best source for the original masters in the absence of a definitive collection from the Partnership’s vaults. Albums or 45’s, that is the choice?

Some argue that the Partnership don’t even have copies of the original masters in some cases. We covered this briefly in the ‘Four Seasons 'Best' Mixes’. As we develop this series of articles we will delve deeper into the back-catalogue and reveal what we believe now only remains on vinyl.

Paul Urbahms gave us a reason for pursuing the 45’s as we tested digital recordings from vinyl….’Two factors that can influence this are that the 45 groove is larger (and not the microgroove used for LP’s) and the stylus is allowed to swing further left and right during the disk mastering process. Also, a 45 rotates at a faster speed which can mean better quality sound reproduction. Coupled with this is the high performance of today’s cartridges and styli. The main drawback is the quality of the original vinyl. Singles cost about 8 cents a piece to manufacture in those days and that includes  printing labels, song royalities, and pressing the records so they were made very cheaply.”

Another factor is the pressing plants used, and the individual master tapes they were supplied. Differences in the length of a second or two are commonly found on the vinyl 45s produced by East Coast and West Coast plants, when hundreds of thousands of copies were demanded. Finding the best masters will not be easy.

We argued a case for the proper re-mastering of the Four Seasons catalogue on more than one occasion and top sound engineers recognize a MONO recording can be re-mastered and sound as good or even better than a STEREO which is poorly mastered.

Steve Hoffmans says…“It’s all in the mastering. Digital is a great medium. Any CD can sound good….. It takes a good mastering engineer! : Stereo is better but it’s not about stereo vs. mono, it’s about which classic song has the best mix. If the stereo mix “nails it” it’s the mix to listen to. If the mono mix “nails it”, it’s the mix to listen to.”

And the real effort to create the ‘sound’ and capture the listener by Bob Crewe, Charlie Calello and the group was on the 45. So for our first Masters Project, the search is on to find the best MONO masters and get them to a good listening level for 2012.(exactly 50 years since the release of ‘Sherry’)

Although the initial research showed that there are differences in mastering , the ‘Golden Hits of the Four Seasons’ (VJLP 1065) has become a reference LP to compare with the 45s as Paul Urbahms says….. “it is probably the closest anyone will get to the Vee Jay mono masters unless someone has access to the master tapes.“

Well the start of my project has to be the sessionography which tracks the timeline of the recordings and their appearance on vinyl. Then I can trace back to the albums and the 45s and check which contain a best original version? Not so easy.! Often the album versions are different to the 45 and the when it comes to the stereo versions some are extreme wide ‘ping-pong’ stereo most common in the early 60s. But STEREO is another subject we will get to in time.

Our web page for the Four Seasons sessions is now able to cover the Gone and Vee-Jay appearances of the Four Seasons (see Section 3 or this direct link) and the Masters they recorded whilst at the latter doomed label. The collapse of Vee-Jay after excesses and corruption and non-payment of royalties, resulted in the legal case to recover their masters and own their music. This is part of the group’s history and the Section 3 sessionography tracks the development of the group and their sound during this period.

 ‘Sherry’, of course wasn’t their first recording as the Four Seasons, when in November 1961 they adopted the name and recorded a song they felt sure would be a hit.(according to a quote by Nick Massi) They would however appear under another name ‘Billy Dixon and The Topics’ (Lost Lullaby/Trance : Topix 45 – 6008) in January 1962 ( before Bob Gaudio’s ‘Jersey Boys’ moment of genius happened and ‘Sherry’ was born).

Then whilst ‘Sherry’ was being ‘shopped around’ from label to label for release the (again named) Four Seasons went back into the studio to record the B-side ‘I’ve Cried Before’ (according to Tommy De Vito) in preparation for a release. Never released on (legitimate) CD this has side has only appeared as a Frankie Valli solo version on ACE CD 507. Is the original 45 MONO master lost?

And then there are the alternative takes of several tracks including the ones that appear as alternative STEREO versions on Bob Crewe’s first STEREO ONLY album ‘Edizione D’Oro’ in 1968, raising questions about what has happened to the original masters. ? And very few of these STEREO versions have appeared on CD. The ACE release of this album contained many mono versions.

A clear example of a lost Master is  ‘Goodnight My Love’ (from ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry and 12 others’ – VJLP-1056) which has never appeared in STEREO on CD or since it’s early and mid 60s appearances on vinyl at Vee-Jay and Philips.

We now believe the ‘Live On Stage’ album (VJLP 1154) released in 1965 may have been recorded in 1963. Billboard reported that “the group were taking a month off touring to perfect their routine” for the Copacabana summer performances and that show was based on the ‘lounge show’ songs and performances from their Four Lovers days. This was exactly what would appear in 1965. The collection was not released at the time as they re-focused on the teen audience after the success of ‘Candy Girl’ and ‘Marlena’ . These tracks by comparison had an un-Four Seasons sound and an artificial studio audience dubbed onto the songs but amazingly the album even appeared in great STEREO. The MONO version of ‘Little Boy In Grown Up Clothes’ that appears on Jersey Beat without background audience noise for the first time on CD unfortunately has loudness levels way above the original vinyl (Vee-Jay713).

Our research shows new listeners to the group are getting a raw deal on currently available CD compilations and so back to the 45s we will go. Our references will be the USA Singles Discography and the UK Singles Discography(to check out the high quality Stateside vinyl issues)

We’ll update the blog with our finds and any alternative versions and where you can find them. And maybe we will be able to legally share the results if the new ‘8tracks.com’ web site is anything to go by . It states….“legally share your own online mixtape, a streaming playlist with eight or more tracks”

Casey Chameleon April 2011

 Part 2 with details of our finds amongst the first releases on vinyl will appear soon.

A Partnership in ‘name’ only?

What is it about the Four Seasons Partnership that makes us all feel they are ineffective and a let down. Whilst ‘Jersey Boys’ success has been acknowledged by Bob Gaudio as ‘luck’, anecdotal information has indicated that many prospective deals and promotions have failed due to bad management. Maybe it is the realisation that they are not there for our benefit shows our naivity over the ‘values’ we expected. It is quite apparant that Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli have too much to do and plan to be bothered about a few hundred ‘old’ fans complaining about their lack of well designed and mastered CD releases. And is it time for someone to defend their position and put the situation into a realistic context from their perspective.? 

The problem over the release of this poor collection of tracks on a forthcoming CD seems to be not their fault as Charles Alexander says in their defense.

“Bob and Frankie have sold, for a substantial lump sum, the rights to
the catalog to Rhino for a period of time. It's Rhino that administers
the catalog and does the releasing and licensing. In 2010, for
example, Rhino licensed 15 of the biggest hits to some outfit called
Green Hill Productions, a division of Spring Hill Music Group in
Brentwood, Tennessee, for a CD called Jersey Sound. I bet 99% of you have never seen this CD. I picked it up in a souvenir shop in Cape
May, NJ. Was this the Partnership's idea? Most certainly not. At most,
Bob and Frankie let Rhino license the CD. So please don't think that the Partnership is responsible for every collection that comes out.”

Fair comment but how does selling the rights and allowing irresponsible licensing benefit the ‘brand’ or the customer especially when the company in question Rhino are focusing mainly on ‘rock’ and appear to be in severe financial difficulty?

And in a our CD Discography of 213 CD releases, we can identify 74 devoted to ‘Greatest Hits’ compilations (ie 34%) and only a handful have a quality of mastering that could be classed as ‘good’. Why is this? 

Charles again….”But I will admit that the 4 Seasons are very different from other supergroups like Beatles, the Who, the Eagles etc. Those groups appear on one label and one label only. The output is tightly controlled. They don't license their recordings for every Tom, Dick and Harry to do their own reissues. You don't see Beatles songs in Various Artists collections. Years can go by without any new Beatle product on the market. Which is the best approach? To keep tight control of your catalog or to license it to almost all comers? When someone like PID, whoever that is, wants to put out a new collection of their Seasons favorites, and it doesn't include any tracks that have never been on CD, it just pisses most of you off…..What this group of fans want is … three Anthology collections, which consist of unreleased alternate takes and tracks and studio banter. That's what would really make all of us happy: a Four Seasons anthology, with a bunch of alternate takes and unreleased tracks.

A huge amount of work would have to go into creating such a thing. (the Beatles re-masters of 2010 took four years..ed). And while it was very profitable for the Beatles, it would not be profitable for the 4 Seasons. I'm sorry, guys, but even after Jersey Boys, there are not enough 4 Seasons fans out there who want to buy a collection of outtakes.

It would be nice if Bob and Frankie would finance such a project as a favor to the fans. But they didn't get where they are by giving away money. They've had plenty of lean times. They grew up poor. Even at the end of the sixties, after a long string of hits, they were deeply in debt because of mismanagement….., I don't see how you can expect them to do expensive projects for our benefit only. Maybe they would prefer to leave money to their grandchildren. Maybe they would prefer to support Habitat for Humanity or some other worthy charity. I don't know. It's none of my business. “ 

But this whole argument doesn’t stack up. Reliable sources have confirmed that Frankie and Bob are millionaires many times over and even with a decimal point share of JB they are still making a fortune. They could afford to document their history and do this both musically and factually to a good standard. The reality is they simply don’t care. Depressing huh! Particularly when one of their worst ever recordings in terms of sound quality , The Jersey Boys’ cast album CD is one of their biggest ever sellers.

But they should be concerned…..and their continued refusal will have implications, Long-standing fans have a lot to complain about. As Malcolm Grace a former key committee member in the early 1970s UK fan club aptly puts it..

“Its a funny thing back in 76 I resented the new 4 Seasons ie Gerry, Don, John and Lee for taking over from the group that I saw as the 4 Seasons. OK they soon became the NEW 4 Seasons but I never quite forgave the way that Joe Long (and now it seems Dimitri Callas) had been discarded. Again when another "new" Seasons turned up on tour with Frankie in the late 70s early 80s (without any explanation) I assumed that Lee and John had quit. Now the truth is unfolding I have a new respect for them.

Bob Gaudio and Frankie need to realise that if you cash in on your previous success by agreeing to a musical being produced they have to accept that it could turn into an uncontrollable monster and its obvious to me, the more "Jersey Boys" there are, the more "cashing in" there is going to be. Also when an important part of a groups history is deliberately distorted to such an extent that Jersey Boys has in relation to the Seasons 70s career, you have to be completely out of touch, don't care, or be totally conceited to believe that the fans and the people originally involved aren't going to react and do something to set the record straight, particularly considering it was such an important part of the groups career.”

And Patrick from the ValliSeasons e-group hits the spot…”It seems that the partnership is mainly concerned with money and is releasing yet another compilation on the coat-tails of the Jersey Boys fame. There is a whole new audience to tap...lots of money to be made for very little effort. Frankie and Bob don’t have to lift a finger. Their accountants will deposit the checks. And how much money is enough, what with Jersey Boys passing 1 Billion in world wide sales. ……..as for Valli, he’s almost 78. What the hell is he gonna spend it on and where does he get the time to with his unbelievable concert schedule and other appearances.”

And Bob and Frankie have always it seemed been ultra protective of us hearing their attempts to create ‘art’ via their sessions. It has been their ‘private world’.  Some would say they are simply protecting the product quality whilst others say they are hiding the creative process….And as for their high royalty charges, their policy has restricted rather than enhanced their ‘brand ‘ and financial return. Management expert Peter Drucker stated…”Profit is a function of business not its purpose”...and it is accepted by many that art is the only important creation. But in reality not all of the creative efforts of Bob and Frankie are very listenable. But who should judge this? We know that for years Bob Gaudio has suppressed excellent demos like Valli’s ‘Michael and Peter’ and we know there is a full album of his own demos of these tracks he did for Frank Sinatra. Still unheard by most…(fortunately I would say having heard it!)…but in the meantime Brian Wilson’s unfinished ‘Smile’ productions have been made available to the world making him even more ‘iconic’. …and loved by fans.

The big risk for the Four Seasons Partnership with their current policy is ‘brand damage’. A current BBC website article analyses how bad news about your ‘brand’ on the internet can cause long-standing damage.

Reputation.com's Michael Fertik says that your reputation is "everything".

“In business and in life you're a brand” Herb Tabin – Author recommends keeping abreast of what people are saying, and responding quickly "Digital reputation is now your reputation, whether you like it or not. It's now the truth about you. We didn't vote on that fact, it just turned out to be true. The standard of conviction in the court of the internet is just to believe it enough to not take a risk on you."

"Anyone can write anything about anyone, and if they know what they're doing they can be really damaging. The most damaging thing is a person with a lot of time and a lot of hate."

Fortunately at The Four Seasons UK Appreciation Society we believe we are actually protecting the Four Seasons brand by honesty and openness re the history and we have a huge respect for all of the creators of the music and believe they should all get due credit. And we have the backing of former Four Seasons. We simply want to see a change of policy and more customer focused action.

So how can/should the Four Seasons Partnership change to stop the damage being caused to their ‘brand’ due to poor release management

Firstly re-cover the masters license from Rhino due to their lack of adequate management and promotion of the catalogue.

Secondly negotiate with a long-standing stable and reputable label with a track record for developing and maximizing the quality and collectibility of catalogues whilst preserving the historical context. This will give long-term growth of return from the catalogue.

Finally, negotiate for the management of other masters ‘not owned’ to ensure their managing licensee can apply the same principle to these unreleased masters.

Getting out of the contract with Rhino may take some time but working with Motown and ACE/Kent Records is a real opportunity as the review of the forthcoming Contours CD of unreleased material shows

A true collectors company like ACE Records of London would do justice to the whole Seasons catalogue providing they enable ACE to maximize the music’s collectibility…and they take a long term view by not being too greedy.,

And with acknowledgement of the contribution of all who created 'That 'Four Seasons' Sound' fans could then feel a sense of relationship with their music and the Four Seasons Partnership would start to repair their reputation.

In the meantime we’ll dig out more unreleased tracks to prove the collectibility of the group’s history.