This CD features two albums by the 4 Seasons.
was the Seasons' fourth album. It is a very good album, evidenced by the fact that five songs from the album were hits ("Candy Girl", "Stay", "Marlena", "New Mexican Rose" and "Ain't That a Shame"). Most of the other songs on the album are also pretty good. The CD adds two bonus tracks to the album, "Silver Wings" and "Starmaker", neither of which are too impressive.
Live on Stage is one of the more peculiar albums the Seasons ever released. In 1964, the Seasons left Vee Jay Records and signed with Philips Records. They thought that was the end of their association with Vee Jay, but it turned out that they owed Vee Jay one more album. So, in 1965, they presented Vee Jay with this album. Apparently, they didn't want to give Vee Jay anything that would sell too well, because this is a very uncommercial album. It is supposed to be a "live" album, but it's really not. They just overdubbed applause in between some songs they recorded in the studio. As for the songs, they don't really bear much resemblance to the 4 Seasons hits. Most of the songs are older songs from the pre-rock and roll era, and sound more like the Four Freshman than the 4 Seasons. There was only one new song written for the album, "Little Boy (In Grown Up Clothes)", which was released as a single but was not a hit. The oddest thing on the album is "How Do You Make a Hit Song?", where the Seasons argue about what it was that made "Sherry" a hit song.
So this CD features one good album and one bad album. Average the grade to "3 stars".
