Now Available: All the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons You Could Ever Want…and More!
Remember how, when we told you about Jersey Boys: Music from the Motion Picture and Broadway Musical, we warned you that the publicity train was going to be making another stop this week? Well, consider this the blowing of the whistle, because it’s time for that additional announcement, and it’s a big one... and when we say “big,” we’re talking three new releases which, between them, feature 28 discs worth of material.
Now, is that big, or is that big?
First of all, let’s shine the spotlight on the biggest of the big: Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – The Classic Albums Box, which contains 18 albums released by the group between 1962 and 1992. We’re not going to get into a debate over the definition of the word “classic,” since hopefully we all know by now that it’s a highly relative concept, but we will tell you what albums are contained within this decidedly substantial set, which comes in a clamshell box:
• Sherry & 11 Others (1962)
• Big Girls Don’t Cry And Twelve Others (1963)
• The 4 Seasons Sing Ain’t That A Shame And 11 Others (1963)
• Folk-Nanny (1963)
• On Stage With The Four Seasons (1965)
• Dawn (Go Away) And 11 Other Great Songs (1964)
• Born To Wander (1964)
• Rag Doll (1964)
• The 4 Seasons Entertain You (1965)
• The 4 Seasons Sing Big Hits By Burt Bacharach... Hal David... Bob Dylan (1965)
• Working My Way Back To You (1966)
• New Gold Hits (1967)
• The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette (1969)
• Half & Half (1970)
• Who Loves You (1975)
• Helicon (1977)
• Streetfighter (1985)
• Hope + Glory (1992)
By now, you’ve no doubt examined the titles and noticed that Mr. Valli’s efforts without the Four Seasons are MIA, which leads us to the next set: Frankie Valli – Selected Solo Works, which features eight albums released by Valli under his own name between 1967 and 1980. Again, the set comes to you in clamshell packaging, and, yes, we’ll provide you with the albums included in this collection, too:
• The 4 Seasons Present Frankie Valli Solo (1967)
• Timeless (1968)
• Closeup (1975)
• Our Day Will Come (1975)
• Valli (1976)
• Lady Put The Light Out (1977)
• Frankie Valli...Is The Word (1978)
• Heaven Above Me (1980)
We regret to inform you that the last of the three releases is not packaged in a clamshell box, but that’s only because it’s a two-disc set. (It’d kind of be overkill, you know?) It’s still a pretty cool collection for those of you who know your Four Seasons history, though: it’s called Audio with a G: Sounds of a Jersey Boy – The Music of Bob Gaudio. Yes, Gaudio wrote a heck of a lot of songs for the Four Seasons, so you won’t be surprised to find some crossover content between this set and the others, but you’ll also find performances by others who recorded Gaudio’s material, including the Royal Teens, Jerry Butler, Chuck Jackson, Bay City Rollers, the Tremeloes, the Walker Brothers, Cher, Nancy Wilson, Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone, Diana Ross, Lene Lovich, Boys Town Gang, Roberta Flack, Ruthie Henshall, and Tim Howar. (Be honest: when was the last time you saw a compilation that included both Frank Sinatra and Lene Lovich? Surely that diversity alone makes it worth picking up.)
All three of these sets are in stores now, so if you’re a new Four Seasons fan who’s got money to burn and has been looking to dive into the group’s back catalog, look no further. Sure, there are plenty of best-of sets out there that’ll give you a Cliff’s Notes version of what Valli and the guys accomplished in their career, but if you want the whole enchilada, your destiny lies right here.
