Classic Pop Icons

In 1964, an album called “The Beatles Vs. the Four Seasons” pitted the then red-hot Beatles against probably the most successful United States singles act of the previous two years. Today the release, a cash-in by Chicago independent Vee Jay records (who had just lost the contract to the Four Seasons and were about to lose their interest in the Beatles), inspires chuckles amongst hipper-than-thou pop music fans. After all, how could the Four Seasons ever be compared with the Beatles?

The Four Seasons were nothing to laugh about though. Once upon a time, they were a real rival to the most popular group of all time – a rival that made a lasting contribution to popular culture.

The Start of the Seasons

Although you wouldn’t know it from traditional rock histories, the Seasons were ‘happening’ before and after the arrival of the Beatles. In the summer of 1962, the group exploded on the pop landscape with two massive hits— “Sherry” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry” —both of which stayed on top of the charts for five weeks. Neither the Rolling Stones nor the Beach Boys ever had a hit so big, let alone two.

The Four Seasons – “Big Girls Don’t Cry”

There wasn’t hysteria around the group the way there was around Elvis Presley in the ’50s, or the Beatles two years later, but they were probably the top single sellers in the United States in 1962 and 1963. Several of the Seasons’ hits from these years also made the R&B Top 40; something the Beatles never did.

As the Seasons played a more urban, American-based sound steeped in the vocal group tradition, many who still felt allegiance to a more ’50s-based style of rock clung to them as a standard bearer when the Beatles arrived. There’s a scene in the film “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” that makes that point, and Ed Ward mentions it as well in “The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. To the kids at Ward’s school, the idea that the Beatles could be a rival to the Seasons was the absurdity, not the reverse.

What’s more, although many American acts saw their fortunes tumble when the British Invasion started, record buyers of the mid-1960s continued to find relevance in The Four Seasons’ sound. The group scored another nine Top Ten singles over the next four or so years, and had another half-dozen records make the Top Twenty. Psychedelia and the concept album finally marked their downfall around 1967.

Later Hits and Rediscovery

Of course the Four Seasons, like the Beatles, didn’t speak just to the 1960s audience. Interest in the group has been remarkably persistent over the past four-and-a-half decades.

In the 1970s, a heavily realigned version of the group, led by Valli and produced by former member and chief songwriter Bob Gaudio, again assailed the charts with a small string of disco oriented hits, including the number one “December 1963 (Oh What a Night).” Out of almost nowhere, eighteen years later a remix of the song again crawled its way into the Top 20 and stayed in the charts for nearly a year. Although the record did not reach #1 in its second incarnation, it was as popular as a #1 hit. I remember going into nightclubs when the remix was out and the crowd would cheer when the DJs played it.

The Four Seasons – “December 1963 (Oh What a Night)”

In 2005, the public rediscovered again the music of the Four Seasons (albeit through a different interpretation) in the Broadway play Jersey Boys, while the summer of 2007 brought a #1 UK Dance hit with another remix, this time of 1967’s “Beggin”.

Yet the group gets little respect. Prominent rock critic Robert Hillburn worried that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame lowered its standards when it admitted the group in 1990. Entertainment Weekly wondered why Jersey Boys was such a hit when plays based on greater artists (read this as Beatles) failed.

To me, there is no mystery. The reason the group’s work has always spoken so well to people is because, in their prime, the Four Seasons were very, very good. This is the rub for many fans, and especially critics who believe the Beach Boys, the Stones and especially the Beatles leave the Seasons in their dust. Although those acts may measure up as greater in the overall picture, I think the Seasons were a real peer who mounted a much closer battle than most critics would lead you to believe.

Why the Skepticism?

A prime reason for the skepticism accorded to the Four Seasons is because the group mostly expressed its greatness in the singles medium, and because they hewed closer to the music’s ’50s R&B roots rather than align their fortunes to the more self-consciously artistic, conceptual style that became the vogue after Sgt Pepper. On their terms though, in their medium—the single—from 1962 to 1967 the Four Seasons were as good as anybody out there. “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Dawn (Go Away),” “Big Man in Town,” the shimmering “Rag Doll,” “Save it For Me,” “Let’s Hang On” and more than a dozen others are supreme classics, as listenable and compelling as anything to come out of the era.

One often ignored aspect of all that quality work is that, inspired by Phil Spector, the Four Seasons got sophistication long before the Beatles. In terms of production and arrangement, when the Beatles arrived, the Four Seasons’ records were far more ambitious and complicated than what the Beatles were doing in 1964. And if the Seasons owed a lot to Spector in this regard, so did the Beach Boys. Their sound separated itself from Spector in that Seasons producer Bob Crewe (aided by Gaudio and arranger Charlie Calelo) was a little more detailed, often drawing on an even broader palette than the West Coast production genius. There’s nothing in the Spector catalogue as driving as that hard rock guitar line that opens “Let’s Hang On.” A track like “Working My Way Back to You” was as unadorned as “Dawn” was booming. The Seasons even incorporated folk influences into their sound.

Working Class Themes

Like the Beach Boys, the Four Seasons brought their own lyrical themes to the table and pushed the boundaries of what the music could express.

The Seasons’ great theme was the struggle of the white working class—their limits, their sense of exclusion from the American Dream, and their quest to belong. By attempting to articulate these themes, a song like “Rag Doll” is far more ambitious than something like “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” In many ways, the class tensions that the early rock ‘n’ roll symbolized were verbalized on the best Four Seasons songs. Even the inflated machismo of “Walk Like a Man” captures the attitude of a hard-nosed class of realists. No woman (and surely no act of any man) should be enough to make a man cry. It’s his duty to understand what life has in store for him and not to blink.

The Four Seasons – “Walk Like A Man”

Perhaps it was this sense of class strictures that makes rock critics give the group short shrift. Rock ‘n’ roll is not supposed to recognize that limitations exist. If this is the case, I believe the group’s best work blows past their critics. We may lament the fact that money and class hamper our dreams, but the soaring harmonies on tracks like “Rag Doll” let us know that we do have a chance to reach a place where those things won’t matter anymore.

The Voice of Frankie Valli

What really made the Seasons special though was their singing. Nobody could sing better. Their harmonies were often intricate, original, and exciting. The vocal arrangement on a track like “Let’s Hang on” was a match for anything the Beatles did vocally. What the Four Seasons had that the Beatles didn’t have though, that really almost no other group could match, was the stunning lead voice of Frankie Valli.

Depending on whom you believe, Valli had a range of three or four octaves. Either way he could hit top notes that could almost bust glass. In his natural register, Valli’s voice wasn’t as pretty as Orbison’s or Elvis’ or Sam Cooke’s, but he had a sharp, staccato style of phrasing that had a way of telling the listener he meant business. It was also a way of telling listeners that, falsettos aside, he was a masculine man. That falsetto, though, was what made Valli truly great. Unlike many of today’s singers gifted with extraordinary instruments, Valli was extremely strategic with the use of his ultimate weapon. Often he would hold out the falsetto for an explosion on the chorus. Some great Seasons songs are sung straight.

On “Opus 17” Valli uses the falsetto only for one thrilling moment, on the song’s climax. We’ve gone the whole way with a man surrendering the love of his life to another man, and Frankie has maintained his poker face. Then, as the song starts to fade, we hear a high pitched cry, “I’lll be strong!!!” Coming so late in the song, its impact is shocking, as if Valli’s character has finally succumbed to the emotion of this moment. Then, discretely, the song ends. This is, remember, a man who will not let us see his tears.

Valli’s often shrieking falsetto is, for some, the reason for their dismissal of the group. They think it sounds too much like the ’50s or that it is too novelty based. That the tool is not used greatly anymore is no reason to dismiss it. Like many styles that fall out of favor, it may yet be resurrected. But in or out of favor, such a tool can still be a powerfully expressive instrument. Nobody really yodels anymore, but only a fool would dismiss the work of country legend Jimmie Rodgers because that was a key element of his style.

For anyone willing to step out of the machine of routine popular music, the falsetto vocal says a lot. Its use was primarily popularized in black gospel music and communicated to listeners an ethereal, out of body experience, as if the singer was possessed by greater spirits.

All About “Sherry”

In contrast to later Four Seasons songs, the lyrics for “Sherry” are the definition of primitive. The singer is trying to entice his favorite girl out for the night and is giddy with anticipation.

Coming in after a chunking intro, Valli captures our attention by crooning in his falsetto. He’s gently reveling in the thought of Sherry. Once we get to the verses though, his real intentions come to the surface. Valli swings in and out of his falsetto in an effort to control himself. The Seasons keep harping “Come out” in their more masculine voices as Valli specifically articulates the enticements. It’s clear he’s their Id. Their give and take make the final moments of the second verse and the opening of the final chorus some of the most exciting ever caught on record.

“Why don’t you come out?” the Seasons bellow. “With your red dress on” Valli answers. “Come out.” “Mmmm, you look so fine.” Valli briefly slips into trembling falsetto. “Come out.” “Move it nice and easy,” Valli slightly regains control of himself, slipping back in his normal voice. Finally, it’s more than he can take. “GIRL YOU MAKE ME LOSE MY MIND!!!” He screams in his normal register and then he lets that falsetto loose “Sheeeeeeeeeerrrry!!!!!” The Seasons have already finished saying her name twice and are into the next part of the chorus before Valli’s done. The group keeps chanting “Come, come, come out tonight” in the record’s final moments, while Valli keeps shrieking her name in his falsetto voice, as if he is no longer able to think of anything else and even less able to reduce his state of arousal. It’s a stunning moment, far more erotic and powerful than many of the more explicit records of the modern era.

The Four Seasons – “Sherry”

Even many who enjoy Valli’s dizzying vocal style don’t give the group enough respect because of their reputation as a vocal group first and foremost. While Valli’s vocal style is proof enough that a singer can be expressive solely through the way he or she sings a song, the Four Seasons were also the self-contained artistic unit so beloved by critics.

While the group made great use of studio musicians like the great drummer Buddy Saltzman, the Seasons could and did play on their hit songs. Bob Gaudio played keyboards. Tommy DeVito played the guitar and Nick Massi played bass as well as sang it. Gaudio wrote the vast majority of the group’s hits and in and out member Charlie Calello handled most of the arrangements. The Four Seasons sound came from within. It was not imposed upon the group.

Traditional Singles Artists

For all that, though, there are some legitimate criticisms to be leveled at the group, especially in comparison to the Beatles and the Beach Boys. The strongest is the fact that the group’s greatness was almost entirely contained on singles. There were great Seasons songs beyond their hits, mostly these were B-sides like “Silence is Golden” and “Cry Myself to Sleep.” There was also the fine odd album track like “Danger” and “No Surfin’ Today.” However, there are no great Four Seasons LPs outside of greatest hits collections. Further, many of the group’s LPs were kind of haphazard efforts without much thought behind the collections or even the individual songs. The relative unimportance of LPs to the Seasons in their early years can be seen in the fact that “Big Girls Don’t Cry” was repeated on two consecutive LPs in 1962. That was a reflection of their era though.

The group certainly did try when the industry mode of expression turned to LPs in the late 1960s. Efforts like 1969’s “Genuine Imitation Life Gazette” are definitely worth a listen, but well short of what they accomplished on single and what artists like the Beatles were able to achieve on LP. That the group fell short on LP, and its prime was relatively compressed, means the Seasons catalogue doesn’t quite have the depth of a Beatles or a Beach Boys. Still, it’s as deep or deeper a catalogue of great works than that of more celebrated acts like the Kinks.

Another legitimate claim against the group, in comparison to the Beatles and the Beach Boys, is that their innovations refined existing traditions rather than creating new ones. The big reason the Seasons didn’t generate hysteria was because their work did not represent a massive break with tradition. That’s no call against them. It just places them a little behind the most elite pop innovators.

Compelling, Enduring

Despite these reservations, the group was indeed one of the greats. Their work remains amongst the most compelling from one of pop’s most compelling decades. The endurance of their mass popularity is only exceeded by the Beatles, Sinatra and Presley. That they have been so often depicted as period also-rans not worthy of mention next to the brightest pop icons is a disservice to the group, its fans and the history of popular music.

The best of the Four Seasons’ work can be found on the 2-CD “Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – The Definitive Pop Collection.”

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