To those non-fanatics who don't feel the need to delve into every nook and cranny, but who want more than just the deservedly overplayed oldies, the new four-disc Jersey Beat: The Music of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons (Rhino) is arguably the best package to date for this much-anthologized group. All the hits – from 1962's "Sherry" and "Big Girls Don't Cry" through to '75's "Who Loves You" and "December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)" – are included alongside Frankie's solo faves. And unlike some of the recent Collector's Choice Music two-fers, you don't get stuck listening to a lotta supper club filler like the whole of On Stage with the Four Seasons. Most of the set's extra material, the album tracks and single also-rans, is arguably as strong as the group's mighty run of hit singles.
As with the recent barrage of CCM reissues, the reason behind the release of this spiffy slab of Jersey goodness is obvious: the success of the Tony Award winning musical Jersey Boys, a show mentioned so often in the final season of The Sopranos that it practically became a running gag. Three of the discs are devoted to a chronological overview of the band's history – opening with break-out single "Sherry" to the boys' last gasp "Hope And Glory" – while the fourth is a DVD containing early TV appearances and seventies era music vids.
To my ears, the strongest of the three audio discs is the second, which opens with 1966's "Working My Way Back to You" and works its way through most of Genuine Imitation Life Gazette's better tracks, though I personally could do without some of Valli's solo material from this time. Sure, it was practically mandatory in the sixties for every male pop singer to have at least one big sing-yer-heart-out Statement of Purpose song in their repertoire – but did it have to be as icky as "To Give (The Reason I Live)"? Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes off You" remains an inarguably great track, though, even when it's not being petshopishly paired with "Where the Streets Have No Name."
Still, the late sixties Seasons produced some enjoyably quirky stuff, some of which was new to me with this set. The '68 single "Electric Stories," with its rollicking guitar fuzz and sugar-free bubble gum lyrics, is one high point, as is the kinda/sorta/psychedelic "Watch the Flowers Grow." I'm also fond of the over-the-top falsetto covers that the boys did as the Wonder Who? – and while "Don't Think Twice (It's All Right)" has long been a staple in Four Seasons collections, it's also fun to hear their equally goofy take on "Lonesome Road." This is the kinda cool musical marginalia that pure "Greatest Hits" collections just don't give ya.
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