The Four Seasons, featuring the remarkable and unmistakeable voice of Frankie Valli, were one of the most popular and successful groups of the 1960s on both sides of the Atlantic, and one of the few American groups to withstand the onslaught of the British Invasion to carry their chart career through into the 1970s. When they had their first big hit as The Four Seasons in 1961 with “Sherry”, they were by no means new to the pop scene and both Frankie Valli and the group had paid their dues for the best part of a decade, honing their skills in a variety of guises on an equally bewildering array of record labels. This great-value 58-track 2-CD set features most of Frankie Valli’s early recordings, both solo and with various groups before they became The Four Seasons in 1960, and then presents their early successes under that name. It comprises selected A & B sides as Frankie Valley, Frankie Valley & The Travellers, The Four Lovers, Frankie Valli & The Romans, The Village Voices, Billy Dixon & The Topics, Johnny Halo, Hal Miller and The Rays, and The Four Seasons for the Corona, Mercury RCA, Epic, Okeh, Cindy, Decca, Topix, Gone and Vee-Jay labels. It also features the tracks from The Four Lovers album “Joyride” and the Four Seasons album “Sherry & 11 Others”. Quite apart from setting the scene for the rest of their career as the Four Seasons, this collection of doowop and rock ‘n’ roll from the era when Frankie and his colleagues were exploring the potential of their talent, is hugely entertaining and offers a real insight into what lay behind The Four Seasons’ success.
