Before The Beatles, The Four Seasons were The Beach Boys’ greatest rivals. Both groups, while most famous for their intricate multi-part harmonies, also played their own instruments and wrote their own material – both rarities in the era of Brill Building songwriters and studio musicians. While The Beach Boys were the California kids who sang [...]
Posts Tagged ‘the four seasons’
113) The Four Seasons – “Rag Doll”
Posted in 04, 1964, tagged frankie valli, the four seasons on August 6, 2010 | 3 Comments »
86) The Four Seasons – “Walk Like a Man”
Posted in 07, 1963, tagged frankie valli, the four seasons on January 17, 2010 | 2 Comments »
In the post for “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” I grappled with the problem of admiring The Four Seasons’ style while simultaneously being frustrated by how that style limited the variety of their early ’60s output. True, I still think “Big Girls Don’t Cry” is essentially “Sherry” redux. However, recent close listening of “Walk Like a [...]
81) The Four Seasons – “Big Girls Don’t Cry”
Posted in 07, 1962, tagged frankie valli, the a.v. club, the four seasons, wes anderson on January 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The most recent entry in The A.V. Club’s feature The New Cult Canon is a piece on Bottle Rocket, the first movie by director Wes Anderson. In the article, and in the comment section below it, is a discussion of whether Anderson’s distinctive voice as a filmmaker is a mark of auteurism or proof of [...]
78) The Four Seasons – “Sherry”
Posted in 07, 1962, tagged frankie valli, the four seasons on December 14, 2009 | 1 Comment »
First, you must embrace the falsetto. Don’t worry about how Frankie Valli’s voice could get so high. Don’t wonder why such a sound would even be desirable. Like the shrill keening of Chinese opera or the yodeling of the Swiss Alps, it is a vocal artifact of a foreign culture. If you are to enjoy [...]
