The Four Seasons Album: “New Gold Hits: Original Classics Collection Vol. 7”

Description :

The Four Seasons: Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito, Nick Massi. <p>An entertaining mishmash of a Greatest Hits album, with songs from 1965 mixed alongside songs from 1967's Summer of Love, which in pop terms is practically a lifetime. The '67 songs, not surprisingly, reflect the twin influences of Motown and the Beatles, particularly "C'mon Marianne," which features a beat lifted from the Supremes "You Can't Hurry Love," along with some tasty fuzzed-out guitar. Other highlights include an idiomatic cover of Carole King's "Will You Still Love Tomorrow" (the Seasons obviously get the song's Brill Building suburban romanticism) and, from '65, "Don't Think Twice," the group's truly hilarious falsetto Bob Dylan cover.

From the opening bars of "C'mon Marianne" to the neo-gothic like "Goodbye Girl", the Seasons were given radical directions under the evergrowing sophistication of pianist/keyboardist/composer Bob Gaudio. Gaudio and Bob Crewe had written most of the Seasons' hits from the early sixties--this collection here shows that the Seasons were willing to take a few musical chances within the "boy-from-the-wrong-side-of-society-beggin'-won'cha-give-me-a-chance-puleeeze-say-you-can-girl" formula. Gaudio's and ex-Royal Teen cohort Peggy Farina's composition "Beggin'", with its edgy electric guitar tremeloes and bass-line inspired by, say, a Wagner piece (the basswork through-out the album is well executed by the likes of Seasoners Joe Long and Charlie Callello) is the centerpiece of the collection--it paved the way for more experimental pieces like "Watch the Flowers Grow", "Saturday's Father", "Electric Stories" and the concept album "The Genuine Imitation Gazette", and Ol' Blue Eyes' pop music masterpiece "Watertown". Unlike the vinyl version of the album, this Curb Collection has replaced the cuts "I'm Gonna Change" (a Motown influenced piece of bubble gum pop) and "The Lomesome Road" (the final Wonder Who? recording) with a Wagnerian-like rendering of Carole King's "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"--talk about post-modernism, will ya?--and the Wonder Who? classic "Don't Think Twice" by Dylan. I know most of the readers are saying--"Whaaaaaat is he tawkin' about!???" This CD is fabulous, the Valli falsetto is as awesome as it always has been, and the orchestrations are of a calibre that you'd be hard pressed to find on any 90's collection. Get it and be thoroughly entertained!

As any Four Seasons fan can tell you, the group never performed a song called "Don't Think Twice (I'm Gonna Change)," or "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (Dody)." The original LP, released May 1967 on the cusp of the Summer of Love, had a great lineup of tunes that functioned like a greatest hits collection. This CD changes three tracks and gets the names of others wrong. The actual lineup of songs is as follows:

1) C'Mon Marianne

2) Let's Ride Again

3) Beggin'

4) Around & Around

5) Good-bye Girl

6) Don't Think Twice (originally released as by The Wonder Who in 10/65) (replacing I'm Gonna Change)

7) Tell It to the Rain

8) Will You Love Me Tomorrow (released in 2/68) (replacing Dody)

9) The Puppet Song

10) Bye, Bye, Baby (released in 1/65) (replacing Lonesome Road, released as a single as by The Wonder Who in 7/67)

The changes do not improve the album. When I upgrade vinyl to a CD, I want the original album as it was. In addition, the mislabeling of songs makes it impossible to know exactly what you're getting. I suggest other CD transfers of the album rather than this one.