n a culture that still clings to the Horatio Alger myth, rags-to-riches stories are pretty much a dime a dozen. After all, with enough grit and determination, any child in America can grow up to be the President of the United States, a self-made millionaire, or a successful reality-show star. 

            One such success story is The Four Seasons, four working class kids who started out singing doo-wop on street corners, spent a few months behind bars for attempted burglary, and went on to become the chart-topping vocal group whose music and lives are celebrated in the mega-hit musical “Jersey Boys.” 

            During its decade-long run on Broadway, “Jersey Boys” racked up more than two billion dollars in box-office receipts, won a handful of Tony Awards, and inspired the Clint Eastwood-directed feature film of the same name. It also ensured that Frankie Valliâ€s piercing falsetto on signature songs like “Rag Doll,” “Walk Like a Man” and “Big Girls Donâ€t Cry” – all of which reached Number 1 on the ‘60s pop charts – will be ringing in our ears for decades to come.

            Subsequent forays into disco like “December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” – as well as Frankie Valli solo singles like “These Eyes Adored You” and the work of Bob Gaudio (keyboardist/backing vocalist in the Four Seasons) with Neil Diamond and Barba Streisand – have made it easy to characterize the Four Seasons†music as a throwback to some bygone era that has little or no relevance to the here and now. 

            But that would be a mistake. Ultimately, the Four Seasons†mainstream success is less revealing than the musical risks they took along the way, many of which didnâ€t pay off. 

With that in mind, here are four reasons to respect the Four Seasons:

1. The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette: This 1969 album looked and sounded nothing like what the world had come to expect from The Four Seasons. The original cover was a mock newspaper front page with the banner headline “American Crucifixion And Resurrection,” accompanied by below-the-fold stories like “Human Torch Has Misgivings” and “Tomorrowâ€s New In Brief,” with an eight-page “newspaper” insert inside. Apart from an easily overlooked “the 4 seasons edition” in the upper-right corner of the masthead, the cover gives no indication who the actual recording artist is.

The post Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons there was far more substance to the group’s music than some would assume. first appeared on River View Observer.