It seems amazing to see the Four Seasons UK Fan Club still exists in 2019!!! Well really it is now a social media fan group, but with a web site full of the data we have assembled and published. We've been posting blogs about the groups career and back story since 2006 in Casey's 'Chameleon' blogand post 2011 'That 'Four Seasons' Sound blog.And it is amazing how much we have covered. So we go again!
We've had over a year now to contemplate the arrival next year from Snapper Records of London of a 40+ box set.
Well it is one of the least important things in life, but nonetheless we've achieved somethings that wouldn't have happened perhaps if we hadn't called for a properly re-mastered and presented career set and unreleased tracks on behalf of fans. This box set is one of the results of our efforts. As with most artists who own most of their back catalogue the Partnership and Rhino/Curb/ACE etc have always been thinking of timing of projects to persuade fans to part with their hard-earned money.......just as Vee-Jay/Philips/Warner/Private Stock et al did back in the days of vinyl.
To newer fans this will maybe sound strange but some of us have dozens of albums and CD's of every Frankie Valli/Four Seasons song ever!!!!!. So to strange people like us we needed something that would show us that this Box Set may definitely be the most important release ever.
So when London based Snapper Records told us their plans for a career spanning box set based on their 'brand' and quality presentation of the Four Seasons catalogue we were understandably interested......and when they said Bob Gaudio was enthusiastic about it they got our attention. A meeting in London revealed the plans were to include in a career spanning box set 40 + albums a large portion of unreleased.....and 'what did we want included?'they asked.
Lynn Boleyn and I in unison said the 'Motown Unreleased'!
You have to remember that both Bob Gaudio and Harry Weinger of Universal Motown stated back in 2008 that there weren't any unreleased'completed'Motown tracks . And imagine our surprise when Snapper announced that Bob Gaudio 'had unreleased tracks from every decade'. And he was prepared to release them.......well what a surprise and so by then we were getting excited!!.
Over the last 10 years we have researched and demonstrated a potential 30 to 40 Motown Unreleased tracks in paper records as 16 track or Stereo versions in the NYC vault[from their 1971 to 1974 contract with the label] . So the Motown Unreleased Campaign I[Ken Charmer] started 2 and a half years ago has made all this data available and this has been shared with the Partnership and Snapper. And we have posted You Tube videos of some of these songs [from demo acetate/tape] demonstrating this fact. The aim was to show that 'yes...it did still exist....and should be preserved ...and released'.
Well whether that exercise has been completed in depth and all 16 track tapes researched we do not know but we hear that only 14 tracks have been 'approved'by Bob Gaudio. Lynn Boleyn and I are extremely disappointed and it would be easy to be negative re the current proposals for the Box Set.
In response to our disappointment Snapper's Ian Crocket responded....“I must stress that with respect , your fellow Four Seasons collectors will not be familiar with the sets we produce. Nobody is producing box sets to the size quality and standard that we do and what must not be forgotten is the amount of additional content that is included (coffee table book, signature, vinyl, memorabilia etc). In my experience when fans eventually receive their purchase through the post they are generally blown away by the weight and size which is reflected in the comments on line. Whilst the unreleased Motown is key it is not the be all and end all, and we must not lose sight that this is a career retrospective.”
So after careful consideration we agreed on the following joint statement on behalf of the fans......”It is great that Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli are on board and that Bob has already approved 14 unreleased Motown tracks for inclusion along with two live show recordings. We hope that Snapper will be encouraging Bob to agree to further unreleased Motown tracks being included and also unreleased tracks from every era where we have been informed by Bob there are also unreleased tracks. We appreciate that Ian is working hard to make this box set a huge success and the more unreleased tracks that can be included the better.’
Notwithstanding the status of the catalogue in terms of career spanning material there remains no comprehensive set available and so such a compilation may be deemed value for money for some. Since 1988 and the real advent of CD [according to my count on George Ingram's US CD discography] there have been.....
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33 plus Hits or Compilations of selected tracks on CD or Box Set
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26 individual albums or 2fer CD sets
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1 original album of new tracks
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1 album of retrospective songs[Covers]
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1 Christmas album of new recordings
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1 Classic albums Box Set[FV/Four Seasons]incomplete career wise
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1 Classic albums Box Set Frankie Valli Solo] incomplete career wise
Snapper said re this planned collection.......”I’m confident we will also have a disc of Partnership unreleased/alt takes as well as the 2 live performances [Bachelors 3 and Lucifer's] the 2 unreleased BBC tracks and the MONO vinyl, the books are also going to be very well received if previous experiences are anything to go by. Obviously we are still going to strive to make this the best Four Seasons release ever and with the content we already have I’m confident we are well on the way.”
So as we await with interest what comes together we will continue to review our research re the catalogue and in particular the Motown Period and the sessions that resulted in both superb releases and the 'unreleased' we have so long campaigned to hear. We do hope there will be more..and we get detailed feedback.....and so re the known 'unreleased' tracks completed at Motown? The campaign goes on.
Ken Charmer and Lynn Boleyn
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