In Season: The Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons Anthology CD

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons include: Frankie Valli (vocals); Joe Long (vocals, guitar, bass); Tommy DeVito (vocals, guitar); Bob Gaudio (vocals, keyboards); Nick Massi (vocals, bass); Demitri Callis, Bob Grim, Clay Jordan, Don Ciccone, Vince Colaiuta (guitar); Lee Shapiro, Robbie Robinson, Tim Stone (keyboards); Charles Calello (bass); Paul Wilson, Gerry Polci, Paulino Da Costa (drums).
Includes a 32 page booklet with photos and liner notes by Pat Sierchio.
Digitally remastered by Dan Hersch, Ken Perry, and Bill Inglot.
Personnel: Frankie Valli (vocals, background vocals); Tommy DeVito (vocals, guitar); Bob Gaudio (vocals, keyboards); Joe Long (vocals, bass guitar); Nick Massi (vocals); Robert Grim, Larry Lingle, Clay Jordan, John Paiva, Don Ciccone, Vinnie Colaiuta (guitar); Robbie Robinson , Tim Stone, Al Ruzicka, Jerry Corbetta, Lee Shapiro (keyboards); Chuck Wilson, Gerry Polci, Paulinho Da Costa (drums, percussion).
Audio Remasterers: Dan Hersch; Ken Perry; Bill Inglot.
Recording information: Atlantic Recording Studio, New York, NY; Broadway Recording Studios, New York, NY; Cherokee Recording Studio, Hollywood, CA; Filmways Heider Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA; House Of Music, West Orange, NJ; Indigo Ranch Recording Studio, Malibu, CA; Media Sound Studio, New York, NY; Olmsted Sound Studio, New York, NY; Record Planet, Los Angeles, CA; Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA; Red Wing Studio, Tarzana, CA; Sound Factory, Hollywood, CA; Stea-Phillips Recording Studio, New York, NY; Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA.
Photographer: Tommy DeVito.
Arrangers: Denny Randell; Joe Scott ; Hank Medress; Herb Bernstein; Hutch Davie; Lee Shapiro; Albhy Galuten; Sid Bass; Artie Schroeck; Warren Schatz; Barry Gibb; Bob Crewe; Bob Gaudio; Charles Calello.
For those who've lived under a rock for almost 50 years, this review will mean less than nothing. The rest of us have no doubt encountered -- on some television program, a commercial for a K-Tel oldies collection, or, in rarer cases, songs floating in the background on a film soundtrack -- Frankie Valli's shattering falsetto fronting his rock and doo wop band, the Four Seasons. As certainly as other artists of the period are known by their signatures -- the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Miracles, the Shirelles, Dion and the Belmonts -- the Four Seasons are instantly recognized by Valli's lead vocal and flawless three- and four-part harmony, strung with lines of blue-collar American poetry. To the people of New Jersey and other parts of America, the Four Seasons were every bit as much a part of the early pop scene as the Beatles and the Beach Boys -- and preceded both of them with an original lineup that recorded chart singles as early as 1955 and made an appearance on Ed Sullivan in 1959! Rhino Records it seems is in agreement with this premise and has undertaken a crusade to convince critics and the general public that somehow a group that sold literally millions of records has not been given enough attention. To this end they've issued this two-disc anthology and a separate disc of B-sides and other underappreciated "golden nuggets" by the classic Four Seasons lineup of Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito, and Nick Massi. Evidenced by this anthology alone, there is no disputing that the Four Seasons were very special, a singular East Coast supergroup who managed to keep rock & roll exciting and surprisingly white bread at the same time. Parents dug 'em as well as teenagers, which is probably why "critics" at the time -- there wasn't any formal rock criticism yet -- hated them. They weren't dangerous enough. The music here contains all the hits: "Sherry," "Big Girls, Don't Cry," "Stay," "Walk Like a Man," "Dawn (Go Away)," "Candy Girl," "Let's Hang on to What We've Got," and so on. Disc one alone contains 23 essential Four Seasons sides from 1962 to 1966 -- all of which charted. That's a hell of a run. The story is a complex one: they had their own writers (Gaudio, Bob Crewe