That 'Four Seasons' Sound

The Four Seasons at Motown - Part 2 (cont'd)

Aka ‘How Bob Crewe Saved Frankie Valli’s 'Solo' Career”

The Four Seasons period at Motown represents for many long-standing fans a ‘lost opportunity’. It was then, (with few releases and little promotion) and remains so today with a sparse and unrepresentative Anthology CD set from Hip-O-Select.

Perhaps some younger fans wonder why this should be important as they happily celebrate the original group’s music in the fictitious stage play ‘Jersey Boys’. Why is a period that produced NO hits at a fading  label so important.?(it would subsequently  lead to a UK Top Ten hit with ‘The Night’ – now being performed in concert by Frankie Valli for the first time for nearly 40 years).

Well simply put, it is important because the released music does NOT properly represent the work of the group and its producers over the period of their contract. Another distortion on the reality of their history: just like Jersey Boys. 40+ tracks remain on tape…many unheard and some on 16 track tape that remain un-mixed. This is more than their released catalogue of work at the label.

Only recently has information surfaced to indicate the extent of the work they did at the famous label and the remaining lack of interest of both Universal Motown who own the masters….and Valli and Gaudio who appear uninterested in its existence.

In our first blog note on this period ‘The Mowest Story’ (now available as a pdf file here) we described the optimism of their early activity on the Mowest label and now we extend that story to 1974 and their departure from the label. Based on recently acquired Tape Index information regarding 16 and 24 track tapes, we can see what was (and if adequately stored should still be) in the Universal Motown vaults. 

This second period is important because the group did actually fall apart, and Frankie Valli was left ill and alone at what was arguably the lowest point of his career. But the Tape Index information reveals just how hard Valli, the surviving group members and various producers, in particular, Bob Crewe worked to recover the 40 year old Valli’s career - and how the eventually succeeded.

Whilst we are still unable to hear much of this work (with so many tracks worked on remaining unreleased) it paints a fascinating prelude to the return to fame of the hugely talented vocalist and his NEW band of Four Seasons who would take the charts by storm during the mid 1970s.

Download the FULL story as a pdf here

At present the current story of their history, ‘Jersey Boys’, continues to be promoted as the definitive bio. But evidence and events this year will, we believe, lead to a more accurate perspective on both the shows sources and the group’s musical history. We have always argued that another storyline exists and should be told. But with a film script pending and so much hype tied into the ‘Jersey Boys’ image it is unclear how long that focus will persist.

It, unfortunately, remains doubtful that anyone can persuade Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio to support a CD project to research this lost period in the group’s history…and a bit of accuracy as to their music making efforts. It is more likely such a thing would eventually be a tribute to the ‘late’ Frankie Valli CD.  But as we owe Bob Crewe so much for the success of the group and Valli…….we have to pose the question. Can miracles happen?!!

Casey Chameleon

 

Motown's 'Four Seasons' Archive Preservation - Part 2 : The Mowest Story

“(Don’t you know? Ahhhhhh-hhhh-hhhh) Today that world is over. (Don’t you know? Ahhhhhh-hhhh-hhhh) You cannot live it over.(Baby, live it over) You’ve hit the bottom-side you nearly died. A chosen few can get to tomorrow, beg or borrow. You wrote the song, now you’ve got to sing along.”

A New Beginning ( B.Crewe – B.Gaudio) opening lyric to ‘Chameleon’ album (1972)

One period of the Four Seasons career that remains little known is the Mowest/Motown contract and on the 40^th anniversary of them signing, we are only just beginning to understand the story of their recordings at the label(s). Now that we have the Universal Motown Tape index we can see the work that they did (at least the info listed, although this is likely to be incomplete) and be amazed that this period generated at least 45 recordings that have not been released and in many cases not been heard since, as no research and restoration project has been launched.

 So what do we really know about how the Four Seasons came to sign with this Motown label?.

 

The fact is that the group by this time (1971) had literally fallen apart with Tommy DeVito’s departure at the end of their contract at Philips and Bob Gaudio’s pending retirement from touring.(His last tour of the UK would be in autumn of 1971) Signed up musicians fulfilled the group’s gigs and Joe Long stage managed the shows and to some extent the identity of the group as their MC. But there would be a very good reason for employing the best musicians and finding a new direction and sound.

 

[The Four Seasons line-up in 1970 for a BBC Top Of The Pops TV performance - right to left - Bob Grimm, Joe Long, Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio]

Berry Gordy the Motown President and owner was moving his operation to the West Coast and in 1971 he launched Mowest Records, which would be based in Hollywood. It is claimed that his original plan was that the Motown label would be superseded by Mowest Records once the move had been completed. However, it soon became apparent that this new label would turn out to be the home for a number of white acts. The next step in the Four Seasons Partnership’s search for a future took place in late 1971 when Ewart Abner (ex-Vice President of the now defunct Vee-Jay label)  who held an executive position at Motown and was a friend of Frankie Valli, heard that the group were looking for a label to record upon.  A speedy phone call to the Motown Corporation President, Berry Gordy, resulted in the group signing with Tamla Motown in October 1971.  They were the second white group ever to do so and were placed upon the newly formed Mowest label.

A recent article by  Greame Thompson  in the Guardian UK reveals the background to the MoWest label….”If success was purely a question of aesthetics, then Mowest could have ruled the world. The label logo certainly deserved to be stuck to the centre of any number of hit records: a generous slice of bright blue Pacific framed by a golden sunset and the equally golden California sand, it promised fine times and good living. The reality of its brief tenure, however, proved less blissful.

The existence of Mowest, one of Motown's more obscure subsidiaries, is attributable to a very American impulse to head west and prospect for gold. By the early 70s, Motown supremo Berry Gordy was already inching his Hitsville operation from Detroit to California. Motown had run a Los Angeles office since 1963, while Gordy had been living in the city since the late 60s. Mowest, a wholly west coast enterprise with its base in LA on Sunset & Vine and a studio in Romaine Street, was formed in 1971 as an expendable advance party for the final phase of Motown's westward creep.

"For Gordy it was a transitional thing," says Don Peake, a member of the legendary Wrecking Crew group of LA session players,but you may be less familiar with his work in the multicultural seven-piece Odyssey, who released their only album on Mowest. "Mowest was their first arena to test the waters out there and foster talent in the area."

During the September tour of the UK the writing of much of the what was to become the Gaudio inspired ‘Chameleon’ album took place, as Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli accepted Berry Gordy’s commitment to work closely with them and bring back the success they had achieved in the 60’s with a new sound. The deal signed with the label in the fall of 1971, following negotiations between Gordy and Valli himself, involved Gordy taking personal charge of guiding them back to the top, with his team of writers and producers, collectively known as The Corporation.(made up of Berry Gordy, Freddie Perrien, Alphonzo Mizell and Deke Richards)

In Novemebr and December the group worked extensively in the studio on a supposed Frankie Valli solo album and a group effort.. TCB Motown’s monthly newsletter in January 1972 reported….”The group has already finished recording an album with 15 tracks in all being cut at the Mowest studios in Los Angeles. It is thought that a single will be taken from these sessions”. Now we can see that the Valli solo tracks were Motown Classics which Mowest’s producers (allocated to the label by Berry Gordy) Al Cleveland, Jerry Marcellino, Mel Larson and Hal Davis produced.

Al Cleveland has a long and distinguished writing career, initially for New York artists on the Wand/Sceptre labels such as Dionne Warwick(e) and Tommy Hunt, as well as Gene Pitney before moving to Motown, where he provided songs for Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, the Marvelettes, David Ruffin, the Four Tops and Chuck Jackson before hitting the big time with a co-authorship of Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On?" and "Save the Children."

Jerry Marcellino and Mel Larson had worked with the Jackson 5 and  would have big hits with 12 year old Michael on “Rockin’ Robin” and “Little Bitty Pretty One” during 1972.

What we can now see is that the still unreleased song ‘My Heart Cries Out To You’(Tape P2060/P2082) was co-produced by Marcellino and Larson as a potential single. Steve Bailey the USA fan club President managed to get into the sessions that finished the song. He wrote on a newsletter at the time….” Frankie had already done lead vocal and musical tracks were finished. Joe(Long) and Demitri (Callas) with Mel Larsen did background tracks and then Frankie did some doubling and backgrounds. It is a fantastic song. Maybe the new single. I sure hope so." ‘Lovewell’ (Tape P2111) was also mentioned re this session.

Frankie Valli also recorded the The Four Tops ‘Baby I Need Your Loving’  with the same producers and had Al Cleveland producing the Smokey Robinson song (see also Mary Wells and The Temptations), ‘What Love Has Joined Together’ (Tape P2079) plus the Marvin Gaye song he co-wrote ‘Save The Children’(Tape P2079). Also Hal Davis recorded a stylish up tempo version of ‘Just Look What You Have Done’ (the Brenda Holloway classic) which was released as a promo Motown PR-10 (12") in Oct 1975 and was included on the ‘Inside You’ albums trawl back through the master tapes that year.

 

Bob Gaudio had in 1971 also signed a contract with Motown as song writer/producer and although he was no longer touring with the group, he remained their producer. His songs for the groups sessions Valli described as a ‘concept album’, but that was after it was complete. Gaudio says he was just writing constantly as ideas came into his head and he was not thinking in terms of a hit song. The concept came after, when he listened to the recordings and he heard ‘colours changing constantly’. The opening song ‘A New Beginning’ was in fact a year and a half old and had been penned with Bob Crewe before he and Gaudio had a major fallout. Gaudio at the time said that this was one of the ‘better things’ he and Crewe had written together. But being a ballad it was not thought strong enough for single release by a group with a reputation for up-tempo songs.

 

The ‘Chameleon’ LP [Mowest 108], which included the aptly titled ‘A New Beginning’ as the first track was a breathtaking example of West Coast pop of the early Seventies - to many an unusual excursion for the group who for so many years were the sound of New York. The album, which everyone could see had a conceptual feel, received massive critical acclaim from the music press - although artistically and musically brilliant, record buyers would need time to adjust to this sound and the promotional budgets would not accept that. When tracks like “A New Beginning” were performed in concert the fans had become so locked into the oldies style that they failed to appreciate the new direction, destroying the group’s belief in the new sound. The album Bob Gaudio said was based on a fairly ‘legit’ production approach with heavy rhythms, bass and drums, and full orchestrations using Charlie Calello, Dave Blumberg and Joe Scott as arrangers. The album was held up by technical problems at the new studio. Gaudio worked tirelessly getting the sound right.(eg De-essing Valli’s voice)

‘Love Isn’t Here/Poor Fool’ Mowest 5011F (2-72) was the first release from the album and Mowest just didn’t have the management to promote the single or the subsequent album. They didn’t have the personnel to get the radio promotion and couldn’t ‘sell’ the new sound (it just wasn’t a Motown sound). Gaudio said that “ Motown can’t go on living with the same sound…they have to diversify” in a 1972 interview. “There does come a point where even the Four Seasons (60s) sound gets to be a drag, after a while….after 42 hits… I don’t want to hear it no more…there are a lot of people who have to feel that way”, he comments. Ironically, how times and attitudes change and today 40 years on that sound is making him millions in 5 shows world wide via Jersey Boys whilst his Mowest/Motown material remains largely unheard.

Why Motown failed to see the potential of ‘The Night’ remains a mystery. A single was scheduled for release on Mowest during 1972 and was allocated to Mowest 5025 but only appeared as a white label promotional single in the USA. People commented at the time that the whole album just didn’t sound like a Four Seasons album. As Gaudio responded…’if it doesn’t sound like the Four Seasons, then who does it sound like. The harmonies are the same but there may be less of them and Frankie Valli is still Frankie Valli. He has his own sound. Certain companies can’t sell certain type products and ‘Love Isn’t Here’ was one they just weren’t ready for. But it has been a slow building process at Mowest and they have to get into the ‘white’ market because it is awfully big and they are trying desperately.”

Several songs not produced by Gaudio didn’t make the album from Tapes P2105, P2110,P 2111 and 2113 including  Oh Girl, Everything Is Gonna Be Alright(B.Moss), What It Is(Whitfield-Strong), Girl, Don't Take Your Love From Me(W.Hutch), Love Well, Loving You-That's My Thing, That's All I Want From You, Wigs and Lashes( A Miracles album track), Time Will Tell and an alternative fast version of Gaudio’s production ‘You’re A Song’ . All ended up staying in the vaults as Gaudio concentrated on his own songs with Crewe, Ruzika and with wife Brit who had been separated from Gaudio for some 18 months before their reconciliation in 1972. In March, the Seasons long time writer and producer Bob Gaudio had retired from the group and was replaced by the 20 year old Clay Jordan from LA . He began working as a Motown producer with Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Martin and Finley.

Not prepared to leave it just to Bob Gaudio, Berry Gordy continued to try to find success for Valli with other producers. Willie Hutch with ‘Thank You’ in early 1972 and a Hal Davis session resulted in a master tape (P2134) which included the unreleased Where Love Ends, I'll Make It Up To You and Stop, Look And Listen (To Your Heart) which would be a Diana Ross-Marvin Gaye release later in 1973.

The Corporation followed up by writing ‘Walk On, Don't Look Back’ (Tape P2205), specifically for Valli's high pitched vocal style. This was after release of the album ‘Chameleon’ in May 72 had created little market impact. The record, a classic case of deja vu, had everything a Four Seasons hit from eight years earlier had. Unfortunately, this was 1972, sounds had changed and already Gordy was starting to get sidelined with Diana Ross' movie career. ‘Walk On, Don't Look Back’ finally saw release in the USA on Mowest 5026 during August 1972(b/w /Sun Country). Unfortunately, there weren’t enough Four Seasons fans of this 60s sounding record in 1972……or more importantly, hearing this song on radio…to buy it in enough numbers. Gaudio remarked at the time that this release was as close to getting the Four Seasons today to do The Four Seasons back in the 60s as they could get. But personally HE couldn’t re-visit the ‘old style’

One other single was scheduled for release on Mowest during 1972 –‘The Night’; was allocated to Mowest 5025 but only appeared as a white label promotional single in the USA.  Sessions by Valli and/or the group with Hal Davis resulted in Torn Between Two Lovers (which would become a hit for Mary MacGregor in 1976) and Thank You For Yesterday both remaining unreleased. (Tape P2203). Amongst all the personnel changes efforts were made to resurrect the groups career as 1973 opened. Tracks still in the vault from these sessions include  I Will Love You Like A Man (P2225), After I'm Gone, Time Will Tell (P2206), Include Me In Your Life (recorded by Marvin and Diana) and Point Of No Return (P2304)

But although Bob Gaudio stated that he felt the relationship with Motown was “good and really together” in 1972, Mowest didn’t know what to promote as “their sound” and couldn’t see merit in these Valli session tracks. Gaudio commented  that Motown were only just realising their need to diversify and he quotes The Beatles as an example of how important this is in the way they “spread themselves” all over different music styles. He believed Motown were beginning to see their own potential with people like Marvin Gaye and The Jackson Five. But the market still identified a ‘Motown Sound’ (and still does today!). In retrospect we can see it has phases and evolved, but it remained ‘The Sound Of Young America’

Two more singles were released in the UK ‘The Night/When The Morning Comes’ (MW3002 in 10/72) and ‘Walk on,Don’t Look Back/Touch the Rainchild’ (MW3003 in 3/73) but without promotion and this would be the last we would see of the Mowest label. ‘The Night’ became an essential play (without achieving significant sales) at the Wigan Casino in Lancashire, England as the cult Northern Soul dance club scene began to gather momentum. By 1973 the releases seemed to have dried up and the group had virtually disintegrated working the oldies circuit with their sixties hits programme.

In retrospect the songs by a commercially faltering Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons constitute an unexpected purple patch in their and the history of Mowest according to the recent CD compilation ‘Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love’ – The Mowest Story 1971-1973. ’Chameleon’ represents the peak of the labels creativity thanks to Bob Gaudio and in no small part to the ‘temporarily retired’ Bob Crewe.

As Greame Thompson asks……..

 “If the music is this good, why was Mowest such a commercial failure? It lasted barely long enough to leave a trace, releasing just 10 albums and 40 singles, many of which failed to make it beyond the promo stage. Its only hit was Tom Clay's terrible spoken-word rendition of What the World Needs Now, the portentous oration intercut with socially provocative media reports.

Many of Mowest's troubles stemmed from a fraught relationship with its parent label. Dave Pell, a celebrated jazz saxophonist, producer, record executive and former president of the Grammys, was hired by Gordy to be "in charge of all Mowest's music, production and signings". At least that was the theory. In reality, "Berry was involved in everything," Pell says. "He was a strong record man and I really liked him, but I fought him every day. He hired me to change things, then stood in my way. It was like, 'What the hell did you hire me for?'"

There was, feels Pell, little impetus from above to make Mowest work. Motown's marketing men and pluggers were constantly preoccupied with Marvin Gaye, or Stevie Wonder, or extending the Jackson Five's run of hits. By comparison, Pell's ragged roster of obscurities, in-house writing talent, future stars and familiar names fallen on hard times seemed less than essential. On the rare occasions when an act did show a glimmer of commercial promise, they were swiftly spirited off to the mothership. The Commodores released their first two Motown-related singles on Mowest. When the second reached the nursery slopes of the R&B chart, Motown snapped them up for further development. "We were auditioning acts for Motown," says Pell. "Of course that was happening. 'It's too good for Mowest.' I heard that a couple of times. I felt we were secondary to Motown people, we weren't on the first team."

The label's image was also problematic. Motown was changing, but it retained a powerful core identity, whereas one of the charms of Mowest's output was its lack of any unifying aesthetic. "It was eclectic, open format, multicultural, crossing all sorts of boundaries," says the Canadian DJ Kevin Howes, who compiled Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love. "People want an identifiable style, and Mowest wasn't that bag, which may have been part of its downfall." Intrinsic to the aim of giving soul music a broader base was the idea of making the music a less overtly black proposition. This, too, alienated both audiences and artists. "Acts didn't really want to come with us because we didn't have the right image," says Pell. "And people weren't buying because they thought we'd made a vanilla Motown that didn't have the soul, the feeling, or anything else that was really Motown. Mowest didn't have an identity."

Perhaps that's why many musicians felt little personal investment in Mowest. Several were house songwriters and session players whose affiliations lay with Motown. Marilyn McLeod, who has written for Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops and Anita Baker, released one Mowest single, A Heart Is a House, as part of the Nu Page. "I wasn't signed up as a Mowest artist," she says. "I was signed up to Motown as a songwriter." Peake agrees: "I was a staff musician for Motown and I never really felt much of a distinction. While I was in Odyssey I was still making records in California with the Supremes and the Temptations."

Hamstrung by internal power struggles, identity confusion and a commercial profile somewhere south of low, Mowest lasted less than two years. By the time it folded in 1973, Pell had already gone. "I got fired for a story I won't tell," he says. "Gordy brought me into a room with 20 of his people and said: 'Here's what we're going to do, what do you think?' and I said, 'This stinks, it's a shitty way of doing things.' And I was gone, out of my office in five minutes."”

Bob Gaudio was aware of the ‘casualties’ of Berry Gordy’s new regime in LA and the resentment some felt that long-standing Motown artists were no longer there. Bob Gaudio recognized that albums where the future and ‘you couldn’t just rely on top ten hits all the time’ as he said, “albums are the thing that bring in really big, big money, and (in the past) they (Motown) never really took the time to make good albums…..they could win awards for some of the worst albums ever with B sides, C sides and even E sides on compilations” . But he believed the current issues of singles and albums in 1972 “was incredible” and “not typically in a Motown groove”. He quoted Michael Jackson’s ‘Ben’ as an example……and his attitude re the Four Seasons was uncompromising……. ”What the Four Seasons were, is not what they are and I understand it’s hard to accept but somewhere along the line they (the fans) need to stop putting down releases because they say…’It doesn’t sound like the Four Seasons that I know’…well OK it doesn’t but at some point they have to stop looking at it in that aspect….to open their ears and ask…..’Is it a good record?. Is it a hit record? Do I like the song?….forget it is The Four Seasons ….and that’s a problem….but somewhere along the line it will break through because it if you make ‘good product for long enough’  somewhere along the line somebody is gonna have to buy it…I really believe that.”

Gaudio has always been and remains a seeker of ‘commercial success’ rather than being focused on ‘artistic direction’ although he always wrote solely from ‘where his head was’ at the time. He staunchly believed ‘Chameleon’ was NOT un-commercial when you look at the ‘current charts’ of late 72 as he was interviewed by UK Fan Club President Stuart Miller. He felt that the success of artists like Gilbert O’Sullivan with songs that are surprising hits showed what was possible… “it was a commercial record….but if Frankie Valli sang it, would it be accepted?”….he asked. Fans have to move on he correctly stated….and “HE couldn’t remake ‘Sherry’!.”

But by 1973  ‘Chameleon’ had failed to generate any success. (although ‘The Night’ thanks to the Northern Soul scene would gain a Top Ten position in the UK in 1975 and generate an LP release of some of the vault tracks mentioned above…proving Gaudio’s comment about ‘good product’ to be correct). But with Mowest in 1972 – “the product was simply lost amongst the changing cultural tides and lack of promotional power” as Kevin Howes aptly says in this new CD compilation of the label.

Graham Thompson concludes…..”By 1973 Mowest had fulfilled its primary function of preparing the ground for Motown to make its permanent base in Los Angeles, which it did in 1973. In the end, Pell believes: "Motown didn't fit, out in California, I thought they were very uncomfortable." History largely backs him up, and yet had its adventurousness been enthusiastically harnessed and its output properly promoted, Mowest could well have mapped a viable route for Motown to follow. Several songs on Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love predict the popular soul trends of the near future: the sleek, orchestrated shimmer of Philly, the polished sheen of disco. The new sounds, in fact, that by the mid-70s had made Motown seem increasingly irrelevant as it became over-reliant on a handful of waning big-hitters.”

The vaults index reveals that there are at least two albums full of unreleased tracks from this period by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. A project of ‘Valli Sings Motown’ and ‘The Chameleon Sessions’ with alternative versions and unreleased tracks would we believe make a very sellable collectors CD release. All tracks characterized by Frankie Valli’s distinctive vocal style and the sleek sounds commented on above. Eventually they may see release.

Perhaps in the circumstances the Four Seasons (by then a sacked group– 25^th March 1973 - retaining only Valli and bassist Joe Long) didn’t have much of a chance at Mowest. Its internal management frailties are clear. But they were still signed to Motown and 1973 would see a return of one man who could perhaps save them By late 1972 Bob Crewe was negotiating a writing and production deal with Motown.

Casey Chameleon

Next Time – Part 3: How Bob Crewe Saved Frankie Valli’s Solo Career

Thanks to George Ingram, Ken Charmer, Stuart Miller and Frank Rovello for information re this period.

THIS ARTICLE IS DEDICATED TO FORMER FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE FOUR SEASONS UK APPRECIATION SOCIETY – STUART MILLER

Stuart sadly died in a motor cycle accident in Manchester in May 2011. He was 58, a father of 4 and a grandfather. His contribution to our society is documented here. Stuart’s crowning glory’s were a bootleg vinyl album of rare Four Seasons recordings in 1971 and a comprehensive interview with Bob Gaudio in September 1972 which is, we believe is the most ‘definitive’ portrayal of Bob’s role with the group and enabled the writing of this article. Thanks Stuart, for giving us the inspiration to keep the stories and the music in our heart’s and ears.  Sorry that you wont get to hear the ‘lost tracks’ mentioned above.

Frank Rovello has posted the full interview here

 

Motown's 'Four Seasons' Archive Preservation - Part 1

I keep getting e-mails from fans of The Four Seasons asking “what is the latest news on the unreleased tracks in the Motown vault?. Is there any chance of any of it being released?” And they keep coming even nine months after we highlighted the demos of some of these in Chameleon’s blog at the start of 2011. So this is our latest assessment.

There are we now KNOW over 40 unreleased tracks ‘named’ as existing on 16 track tape sitting in the Motown vault in we believe an air-conditioned unit in New Jersey. What is more we now know which tapes exist and what the Motown data records show “should be on the tapes”. Knowing Crewe and Gaudio’s attitude to recording it is unlikely the recording sessions are incomplete. During the Detroit period many of the backing tracks were recorded separately and at a later date the lead vocal was added. Sometimes it wasn’t…..leaving incomplete songs…sometimes another artist used the backing track. We believe that during the Four Seasons Motown 70s sessions this may only have happened with a few of the songs: The Marvin Gaye –Diana Ross Duet ‘Stop Look and Listen to Your Heart’ for which Valli is alleged to have laid down a lead vocal. (Tape P2201 Master 60950) and the Bobby Darin recording ‘I Won’t Last A Day Without You’ which Bob Crewe produced with a Four Seasons ‘style’ backing with Bobby and which is also listed as covered by Frankie Valli (Stereo Tape 3912 )

 

We are currently analyzing the tape archive data to paint a better picture of the group’s spell at the label and how their tenure there failed to produce a hit record and why only 23 out of 70 to 80 recordings have surfaced.

 As for the question “what are the chances of these being released?” . Well we believe that is not the right question.

The risk of loss of masters is high. This research paper highlights the current situation…” Record companies are engaged intensely in providing customers with an alternative to Napster that will generate income for the record industry and prevent piracy of music. The major subscription Web sites for music will probably concentrate on contemporary music and the history of rock and roll (Surowiecki 2000). The universe of musical riches promised by celestial jukeboxes is not likely to include a wide selection of historical sound recordings that represent the full breadth of recorded music. This is certain to be true if they are not preserved and documented properly. If audio recordings that do not have mass appeal are to be preserved, that responsibility will probably fall to libraries and archives. Within a partnership between archives and intellectual property owners, archives might assume responsibility for preserving less commercial music in return for the ability to share files of preserved historical recordings.

All audio preservation is expensive; it is estimated that preservation engineers' studio time required for a recording averages three times the length of the source recording. Digital preservation holds great promise but it adds significant investment costs, such as the creation and maintenance of repositories and the generation of controlling metadata. Whether for lack of foresight or funding, libraries are not creating digital mass-storage systems for audiovisual works, which are common in broadcasting archives. We face an extraordinary dilemma: at a time when a greater range of audio is available to more people than ever before, and the means are finally at hand to preserve those sounds for posterity, we stand the greatest risk of losing them. “

We recently contacted Universal Motown Vice President , Harry Weinger to make a case for the urgent ‘preservation’ of these tracks rather than focusing on their release. In an e-mail to Harry we set out our concerns.… “Gathering information on the Four Seasons at Motown over the last year has been very fruitful in us finding recordings of acetates of Bob Crewe's productions during late 1973. If you have followed our blog you will have heard these on You Tube.

This of course adds to the belief that there is a good deal of material complete or suitable for mixing to completion by Valli and the group and which has never been released. 

We understand you have accepted Bob Gaudio’s position that this material is not to be released and that is his right and stems from his membership of The Four Seasons Partnership .(notwithstanding it is not owned by him nor is it all his work, it is Valli's and they are Partners) 

In gathering information we now have combined research from 1970s sources with info from anonymous people in Motown during the 1990s and compilation of a more detailed database of the P tapes in the Universal Motown archive and of the 60000 series of master numbers has been possible. We can now see on our lists the released and unreleased tracks on their master 16 track tapes. Like many Motown artists the lists of unreleased tracks in the vault continues to be a big focus for collectors as there are potentially so many.

As a result, the picture of the Four Seasons recording career at Mowest/Motown has become much clearer and we are optimistic that there are at least 45 tracks/recordings identified from data records of what should/could be on tape which have not been released. We realise the LA tapes indexing is not good and suspect that many have not been researched since they were recorded.

Our concern re this is with regard to the fact that these tapes are not digitized or preserved in a form that enables them to be finished/mixed down from multi-track(or even if this is possible)

It is clear from your own comments in interview for previous projects, that until the tapes are properly researched and digitized it is unclear what can be salvaged. That appears to be a core problem for Universal Motown’s Tape Archive and it isn't getting any easier as economic models for the release of music make life more difficult for you the tape owners. Obviously the biggest expenditure is in locating and re-mastering tapes. This process has to be gone through, whether the end result is a CD or an on-line piece of music. Maintaining Ampex or other relevant tape machines is a cost it seems some corporations are wishing to remove and the risk of loss of this art appears real.

From our perspective, The Four Seasons are and will remain very important artists in the history of pop music and the preservation of their recording history remains a key objective of our work.

We do realise that, whilst Bob Gaudio does not want unreleased material issued at present, there is still in our opinion an important project to be considered in researching and digitizing the results of the group’s sessions at Motown. Current research has already shown the importance(and quality) of Bob Crewe's compositions with Kenny Nolan in 1973 and other songs which relate to key writers and producers.

We can all see that the commercial exploitation of the tracks in the Motown Universal tape vaults remains difficult in a music retail climate that is reducing the commercial value of past  music year on year. However, from a art perspective every year sees the artistic and cultural value of these recordings becoming more and more important, and like newly discovered paintings by recognised artists this material will have high value in time.

Our project wish is to simply target the preservation of the material for future potential use rather than them being an unknown piece of work. Fans really are interested in this information and it is hard to see why Universal Motown would not wish to reach such a position. We think it is more important to confirm the status of recordings rather than to manage expectations re a release. The latter has become less important than the former given the age of the tapes and the artists/producers.

 Like all great creative output, it is inevitable that these rare works will appreciate in value. There can be little argument that a modest investment in reviewing and preserving the 'Seasons' Motown collection today will give everyone more freedom to develop new 'products' from it in the future, as appropriate.”

What we were highlighting was that Universal Motown are the ‘curators’ of this ‘art’ and it deserves the same respect as other historical art like film/video or paintings. The risks of losing this work was brought home to us by an article from Billboard in July 1997  “Labels Strive to rectify Past Problems”. Writer Bill Holland won an ASCAP-Deems Taylor award for this stunning overview of the industry and highlights horror stories of ‘lost assets’ (ie the master tapes) and how ‘mindless companies and employees’ sometimes simply threw them away or over-taped them. We believe this happened with the original Four Seasons masters stored at Bell Studios.

 

[The Apex MM-1000 16 track console came into use from 1970 onwards]

But Universal Motown are not stupid and are fully aware of the value contained in these tapes for the wide range of artists in their archive. The success of some of the re-issue projects by them and licensing companies such as ACE has led to superb output this year alone for Tammy Terrell, Patrice Holloway and Marv Johnston helps maintain interest in the archive.

Although we haven’t yet had a reply from Harry we believe our strategy is likely to be implemented. The evidence of this is in interviews Harry gave earlier this year and in this article to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of Motown.

“NEW YORK -- It's a plain little room. The size of a small garage, maybe.

For Detroit, this is a very important 150 square feet. Housed here, on the fifth floor of an office building 500 miles from West Grand Boulevard, are the most valuable raw materials in the city's cultural history.

This is Universal Music's Motown vault, and these are Motown's original session tapes: the reels that rolled in the studio at West Grand, capturing what would become some of the most beloved sounds in popular music. These tapes are the sacred texts of Detroit music, and this is their sanctuary.

The little room is concealed behind secured doors deep in Universal's glossy Broadway headquarters. It's not a romantic-looking nook. Fluorescent lights, white walls, metal shelving.

But the contents are pure gold, and worth that much, too. Lining the shelves are hundreds of thin square boxes, many with crinkled, typewritten labels itemizing the songs inside. These reels have been on a lengthy journey -- from Detroit in the '60s to Los Angeles in the '70s to New Jersey in the '90s to Pennsylvania in the '00s to this little room in Manhattan today.

This vault is a way station for the tapes as Universal staffers do their work, creating digital archives, performing restoration work and -- most importantly -- extracting songs for an ever-churning array of Motown projects. When the reels aren't here, they're in heavily guarded, climate-controlled facilities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey with Motown's full archive of 30,000 reels.

Founder Berry Gordy Jr. says Motown's 50th anniversary is "really about celebrating the unsung heroes as well as the ones everybody knows." Years ago, those unsung heroes were fearless salesmen, patient artist trainers and other offstage personnel. Today they're the core team of six people in this office, along with staffers across the country, doing the work that keeps Motown's music thriving.

"Universal is the caretaker of the legacy, and we take that role very seriously," says Harry Weinger, vice president of Universal's catalog division. "Motown is still alive. It's not some creaky museum piece. It's real."

Down the hall from Universal's New York vault is the mastering room, a mood-lit space with a pair of leather couches and a stately console at the center. Studio A, they call it, in a tribute to Hitsville back in Detroit. Two vintage tape machines, the size of card tables, sit against a wall. They're rare, expensive and meticulously maintained. The last thing anybody wants is to see a stream of Motown tape go twisting and shredding into a real piece of history.

This is where staffers take the work of Motown's greats, transferring the old tapes into computer files for mixing and mastering. Scrutinizing the tape boxes brings little thrills. Each contains a track sheet from the original recording session, meticulously listing song titles, dates, personnel and the placement of instruments. (this is we know not correct as data re some of the tapes is very limited and often incorrect as they admit) Motown often cut several sessions on one reel. Pull a box off the shelf, and you might see "The Tears of a Clown" and "Standing in the Shadows of Love" side by side.

"We're following in someone's footsteps, and they've done beautiful work," says Weinger. "So sometimes you just want to touch the tape. You get the vibe of the session, the feel for it.".

"I always knew it would become valuable," Gordy says. "We were locked into the baby boomers early, and they followed us right down to where we are now. And now their kids, their grandkids, are getting a taste of something they loved so much."

So we believe the process of digitizing and protecting this heritage has commenced. There is no need to maintain a staff base (or sound engineers) in this day and age with projects and releases being licensed out and commercially successful (and so well done) by the likes of ACE Records. Sub-contractors (for example Sterling Sound) can undertake the preservation and digitization of ‘the assets’ and a specialist small team can over-see the process.

So what else makes us believe the Four Seasons Motown catalogue will be researched and preserved soon.? Well look what is coming in October at the 131st AES Convention (Friday, October 21, 9:00 am — 10:30 am) the subject is…..”Yesterday, Today, and Forever: The Art and Science Behind the Motown and Verve Catalog Reissues
Presenters: Kevin Reeves, Andy Skurow, Harry Weinger
The panel will discuss: What is catalog, and how are reissues conceptualized? The vault system: What is the process of finding the assets? And they will talk about how the technical engineering brings all the elements together for the final package.”

Whilst generic this will possibly focus on the above issues and how the archive team plans to go forward. Let’s hope someone asks the right question!!

Casey Chameleon

Next Time: The story of the sessions at Mowest and Motown and the chances of Valli, Gaudio, and Crewe agreeing to a release of the lost tracks 

 

 

 

Musical History Preservation

Ironically as The Beach Boys plan a mega release for November of the ‘Smile’ sessions from 1967 (see here), Four Seasons fans are forced to continue to tolerate the paucity of quality of the groups back-catalogue (it simply isn’t available on vinyl or in a re-mastered HQ sound)

 And this is so much more frustrating when we know that at least 40 unreleased tracks lie in the Motown vault and we know of around 10 tracks from the last Philips sessions and a full album of material from the ‘Helicon’ sessions still remain unreleased and unlikely to see the light of day. Equally so no biographies from key people who where part of the Four Seasons Story are emerging and there is amongst some of us a disturbing but not unsurprising ‘conspiracy theory’ as to why this is.

Perhaps the executives behind ‘Jersey Boys’ – The Show and possibly The Movie are  suppressing any attempts at an alternative story line emerging as they continue to rake in mega-profits from this production.

Having read ‘Dirty Little Secret’s of the Record Business’ and ‘Appetite For Self-Destruction’: excuse us for once again fearing the dominance of financial objectives over artistic preservation.

 In a week when we lost iconic people from the 60s music industry in Jack Ashford(of Ashford and Simpson), Jerry Leiber and Motown Matriach Esther Gordy Edwards it remains depressing that there is evidence of a lack of open-ness re the back catalogue from both the Four Seasons Partnership and Motown Universal. It continues to be a surprise why Record Companies remain so secretive about what they have and their potential projects and releases. They may argue it is about ‘managing expectations’ and the complex and costly legal and production costs of bringing original masters from the vaults today. Even Capitol issued a hasty denial when Al Jardine ‘leaked’ the news of the project for ‘Smile’ earlier this year. Surely someone somewhere cares about the true story of 60s and 70s music and that of the Four Seasons (apart from us)? For 40 years Motown Universal have hidden the history they have in their vaults and they still wont speak about it even when Frankie Valli has admitted recently that he and Bob have no ownership rights to the material and he can see no reason why a record company couldn’t release it.

 At least Capitol found a way to get the Beach Boys to acknowledge the importance of the ‘Smile’ sessions but perhaps it was the lucrative financial rewards from the spectacularly packaged box sets for collectors : and with master engineer Mark Linnet doing the re-mixing the result will be a collectors dream. Unlike the Jazz scene where an artists history is honoured, it seems things only happen in the ‘pop’ market when there is ‘big money’ to be made. And if that means promoting a fictional history, so be it!

Whatever the actions of The Four Seasons Partnership or the JB Executives, we will continue to campaign to dispel the myths of Jersey Boys and to get the truthful story out to the world. In fact much of this can be found in the Melcher Media – The Jersey Boys Book and in our series of article ‘The Rise and Fall Of The New Four Seasons”.

 OK I hear you say but “you ask four guys and you get four different stories” as the Jersey Boys script argues. Well we would rather believe Esther Gordy Edwards approach as told to us by Motown Alumni President Billy Wilson in his recollections of this great lady….”. Though few fans knew of her, historically she became one of the primary driving forces in the Motown camp. The eldest sister of Berry Gordy, Edwards worked part time with Berry Gordy in the early years of Motown's development, until in 1962 she decided to work full time with the label.  She was one of the original corporate board members of Motown Record Company along with Raynoma Gordy (Berry's second wife). She was the manager for virtually all of the Motown stars through the formation of the companies booking agency, Senior VP of Motown, and held numerous other jobs. She was also the founder of the Motown Historical Museum which she created in the 80's”…….He continues…”. "When I started moving with the alumni association she gave me so much insight on what the company was all about, I had to adjust my frame of thinking on what was true about the company and what was fiction; it was that conversation that still holds true to this day on how I look at Motown Record Company back in the day" said Billy Wilson President of the Motown Alumni Association. He went on to say ...The greatest advice she gave me was to quit reading the fiction that was put out, and ask the people that were there, then blend the stories, she said two people can be in the same room and see two different stories, the truth will come through the wash. I've held on to that advice like the gospel, and found it to be absolute; nobody could have given me better advice,”

So watch out for our research publications as the year closes as we publish our list of myths in Jersey Boys…..more on the Motown Tape vaults and the response to our plea for the digital preservation of the unreleased tapes. Plus we hope to unearth the story of how the Four Seasons nearly ended as a hit making machine in 1966. Taken from interviews with ‘the people who were there….the truth will wash through’ …believe me…and as for what is in the vaults…well if the ‘conflicted’ Beach Boys can be brought together to see the light and preserve their sessions, then maybe Bob Crewe, Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli can do a deal with Motown Universal?

 Casey Chameleon.

Check out the unreleased below:

–       16 Track Master Tape 2664

Hymn to Her

Lovers

You’ve Got to Make Your Tomorrow Tonite!

Plus…..their own master….

I Wonder Why