Search - Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, 4 Seasons :: Motown Superstars Vol 4

The Jersey Boys Visit MoWest....

yygsgsdrassil | Crossroads America | 09/02/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"...these are ultro-rare productions of FV/FS's tenure at Motown Records West, circa 1969-70.Three of the tunes here, "Love Isn't Here (Like It Used to Be)", "The Night" and a tune that should have been a hit, "Sun Country", wound up on the album "Chameleon" on the MoWest label.Most of the cuts, although produced and written and arranged by the Usual Suspects of the Four Seasons Corporation-Callelo, Crewe, Gaudio, etc.-have the unmistakable influence of the Motown bass (is it Joe Long doing Jamerson or Jamerson doing Long?) and orchestra sections. A couple of the tunes come off as Jackson Five castoffs. But, they are still fine tunes. Motown didn't do much promotion of *this* group of pop superstars and shortly after "Chameleon" they left....fortunately Bob Crewe's record company signed them up for FV/FS's 'Half and Half' sessions (beginning with a remake of "And That Reminds Me" which was made more poignant with Valli's hearing problems) and somehow instead of Crewe Records they were able to get another product on the Philips Records label, before being signed over to Private Stock (Frankie's "My Eyes Adored You") and Warner/Curb Records..."