By the end of 1963 the Four Seasons were in 'breach of contract'.....but back on the charts.!!
Their dispute with Vee-Jay was in the courts and their earlier material was still being released by that label.
Their decision to record again was made in summer 1964 after over a year of conflict re royalies and ownership of masters. There was a new sound coming from the group and 'Dawn' and 'No Surfin' Today' were recorded at Atlantic Studio with now legendary Sound Engineer Tom Dowd. The story of that is told in the Box Set Collectors Notes and the location of those original 8 track Masters is not known. They may still survive in Bob Crewe's Personal Archive at Crewe Studios in Maine otherwise they are lost apart from the 'underdub' STEREO version mixed on the Edizione D'Oro album.
What our research of the Four Seasons Partnership[FSP] Archive revealed is that MONO versions of these two songs as issued on 45 had made it to the relevant Master Albums and are preserved on the Safety Copy Master Tapes. This faded Tape Box shows just how long ago that was and how time and the typewriters of the times notes have almost faded with the timings and Master Matrix Nrs hand written and some titles and the album Nr. incorrect. However the ANALOGUE MASTERS are intact in both MONO and STEREO of this album and are now re-transferred to Pro-Tools in DIGITAL FORM and will be Re-Mastered for this set. This tape of their first Philips Album is Tape Box titled 'Folk-Album' and PHS200-129 [it should be marked PHM] . It would see release as 'Born To Wander' and in MONO has never before been released on CD. Dated 9th January 1964 this is clearly a copy from the Production Master as the album came out the following month.
There has never been any evidence of other 'unreleased' songs from these sessions but an acetate of 'Millie' was found as an alternative version and the story of this is in the Collectors Notes and it appears as a Bonus Track. Also appearing as a Bonus is the earliest known LIVE Recording of the Four Seasons. Taped out of the Sound Engineers Board and in Tommy DeVito's Archive comes a set of four songs from an early 1964 show shortly after this albums issue[two songs are from this album]. It captures the amazing range of Frankie Valli's vocal falsetto at that time and remains a key find of their history as a top 60s group.
The albums that followed through 1964 and 65 were all found to exist in both MONO and STEREO Safety Copy Tapes but the singles from this period are in several cases different mixes. Also several tracks were only ever MASTERED in MONO. Such examples are 'Big Man's World', 'Only Yesterday' and 'Ronnie'.
We turned to a set of Mercury Compilation Tapes which contained many of the groups single versions preserved as Safety Copies. The clear and Full Frequency and High Dynamic Range copies included the UNIQUE 45 mixes of 'Save It For Me' and 'Silence Is Golden'. The other notable finds from 1965 included 'A Sunday Kind Of Love' in both MONO and STEREO and the distinctively different MONO version of 'Girl Come Running'[which would not surface in STEREO till 1968]
The Final album of 1965 'Working My Way Back To You' did not include the 'Let's Hang On' 45 version and no albums contain the special Mix for 45 of 'Too Many Memories' and of 'Opus 17' [for Spring 1966 release]. All of these have been preserved in this set.
The FSP Archive tapes however did not contain many of Frankie Valli single releases from this period from his first 'solo' studio sessions in mid 1965 on and finding and preserving these proved to be a more difficult task. The Frankie Valli singles that survive were preserved on Polygram Compilation Tapes, but not comprehensively. As we had believed and was proved correct, 'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore' and the 'B' side 'This Is Goodbye' did not survive as MONO MASTER's and are preserved in this Box Set from high quality vinyl dubs The latter track from our research only survived on the Tape Copy marked in pen as....'Fake STEREO'..[otherwise known as PSEUDO STEREO].......and a Re-Engineered attempt to replicate TRUE STEREO at the time.
All such tracks are included as dubs where they are missing or as created on the Engineer's Tape copy and are preserved as BONUS TRACKS on the albums for this period. The Frankie Valli SOLO 45 tracks appear on the SOLO Album Disc which I will cover later. Full details will be in the Collectors Notes.
The albums for this period in the Box Set are......
DISC 5 BORN TO WANDER MONO/STEREO
Philips PHM200129/PHS600129 No. 84 [2/64]
DISC 6 DAWN GO AWAY & 11 OTHERS MONO/STEREO
Philips PHM200124/PHS600124 No.6 [3/64]
DISC 7 RAG DOLL MONO/STEREO
Philips PHM200146/PHS600146 No. 7 [7/64]
DISC 8 THE FOUR SEASONS ENTERTAIN YOU [With 'Toy Soldier]MONO/STEREO
Philips PHM200164/PHS600164 No. 77 [3/65]
DISC 10 SING BIG HITS BY BACHARACH/DAVID AND DYLAN
Philips PHM200193/PHS600193 No. 106 [11/65]
DISC 11 WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU AND MORE GREAT NEW HITS MONO/STEREO Philips PHM200201/PHS600201 No.50 [1/66]
There are 13 BONUS TRACKS across these 5 albums
Ken Charmer
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