The Four Seasons

The Four Seasons are often overlooked when lists of important bands of the 1960s are made. That really shouldn't be the case. With Frankie Valli's amazing bray of a voice backed by the solid harmonies of the other Three Seasons singing simple, powerful songs with great hooks and lots of musical surprises, they were really quite special. And Bob Crewe knew how to produce records that sounded great on car radios: the drums snap, the guitars crunch, and the voices jump out of the mix. The Four Seasons had a lot of really big hit songs: "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Dawn (Go Away)," and "Working My Way Back to You." This compilation rounds up all their chart smashes from their original incarnation in the 1960s plus two tracks ("Who Loves You" and the disco-fied "December, 1963 [Oh, What a Night]") from the mid-'70s. One could question the inclusion of solo tracks by Frankie Valli on a Four Seasons compilation. "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," "My Eyes Adored You," "Swearin' to God," and "Grease" are all fine songs and hits as well, but sound out of place, as his solo style is nothing like the classic Four Seasons sound. It seems like a disservice to the group. Surely Rhino could have found a few more Four Seasons tunes to round out the disc -- maybe a song from their weird concept album, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette, or the should-have-been-a-smash "Silence Is Golden." Ignoring all that, this is still the best single-disc Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons compilation on the market (since Rhino has deleted their superior Anthology, which had more tracks and only one Frankie Valli solo number) and could easily be recommended to the casual fan. ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide