Frankie Valli & The Fours Seasons

Just watched the Clint Eastwood direction of the movie Jersey Boys. Good story, although a bit goofy at times. I was really interested in the songs.

I'd almost forgotten how great a singer Franki Valli was. He also had good singers around him that harmonized well, but the group would not have been a success without Valli or without their song writer.

On a personal note, I have no clue how folks harmonize. I've sung a capella for many years, and can usually reproduce a melody after first hearing. I also hear harmonies sung by others, but I have no clue how to reproduce them vocally. When I sang barbershop, this was something they had to give me a pass on; My (failed) attempt at the harmonizing audition was to sing an octave away from the other guy  :-[

Some harmony is easy, like the folk music of the 60s, but others, like barbershop, is very difficult.  You have either have the ear for it or you don't.  I sang baritone, but only in choruses, never in a quartet, as I just couldn't find the notes by myself

You're a musical hero; In barbershop, baritone had all the "leftover" notes  ;D

In September of 1962 The Four Seasons hit number one with Sherry. In November they hit number one with Big Girls Don't Cry. In January of 63 they released Walk Like a Man which also went to number one. Right around that time they played a gig at the Wagon Wheel Roller Skating Rink in Wagon Wheel California, only a few miles from my house. I used to work at these Saturday night concerts that was presented once a week. I saw an amazing amount of musical acts during 63 and 64. I think I saw the Four Seasons maybe three times in 63 and every time I was standing in the front row (no seats). The stage was about two feet high and I always stood directly under Frankie and at times I could feel the sweat.

In 63 the two biggest bands in the US were the Four Seasons and the east coast sounds, and the Beach Boys with the west coast sound. I saw both groups many times that year from the front row. Then in 64 the Beatles hit and in 65 I saw them at the Hollywood Bowl from about two hundred yards away. For some reason they would not let me stand next to the stage.

I worked at Kacy, the local rock and roll radio station. I knew all the disc jockeys. Two of them, Don Davis and Bob Richards, were hired to MC the show. They in turn hired me to carry their stereo equipment and records in to the rink and set the system up. Then tear it down at the end of the show and fix it when it started screwing up. I got in for free and I always got to meet the stars and see the show either from the front row, on the stage or behind the stage. It was a magical time in my life.

Tom said:

You're a musical hero; In barbershop, baritone had all the "leftover" notes  ;D

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Yep, if you sang the baritone part solo you wouldn't recognize the song

Ned, I used to crack up when I listened to the individual parts on the SPEBSQA training discs. They had multiple tracks laid down for each song; The four individual parts, the 'other three parts' in harmony',  and all four in harmony. As you say, the baritone part sung alone was unrecognizable.

I should have clarified that my 'failure to harmonize' referred to the spontaneous unscripted harmonizing known in barbershop circles as 'woodshedding'. To this day, I have no clue how to do that, and I listen in awe when contestants on the talent shows are put together in random groups, told to sing a song they may not have heard before, and they come out with great harmonies.

Woodshedding can come up with some really strange chords, but sometimes you hit it just right and it would give me goose bumps.  I have spent hours watching and listening to many BBS champion quartets on YouTube, I never get tired of it.  There is no better a capella form of music.

I couldn't woodshed either   But I could do barbershop arrangements.

When I sing I can harmonize automatically. I can sing along to any song I know and harmonize with it. I have no clue how I do it. All those years of playing scales must be paying off.

It was a magical time in my life.

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I can see how that would be.

Tom said:

I can see how that would be.

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I wish I would have known then what I know now. My teenage years were fabulous, I just didn't know it at the time.

Anyhow, my favorite Four Seasons moment happened near the end of one of their shows. Frankie was standing only a few feet away from me on the front of the stage (the whole stage was maybe ten by ten) and in between songs he turned to the drummer and played a second or two of air drums. I was a drummer and I could tell he was doing the intro drum rolls to Walk Like A Man. Frankie turned back towards me and two seconds later the drummer did the intro to Walk Like A Man. It was not a huge mental accomplishment on my part since Walk Like A Man was currently the number one song in the country.

WOW. I would have sold my sister to the Cossacks for opportunities like that. Actually would have sold her for much less but that's another story. The 60's were an incredible time for teenagers. Rock and roll, fast cars, the world was our oyster.