Some tracks by Frankie Valli are released but are so little known that they may well have been. This track is noticeable in my blogging as I have always respected the efforts of Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio and the efforts of Artie Schroeck.
Back in late 1968 after the failure Of The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette album Philips were not too keen on another release and with the 'Timeless' album falling short of expectations it is surprising in retrospect that a November 1968 produced 4 tracks....2 of which would see release. One of those I am focusing on as it seems to have been re-recorded in March 1969...as a Master1-44773 and release on 45 as the B side of Philips 40622 [A side - 'The Girl I'll Never Know']. Its lyric is a cutting commentary on cheating love as you could find and somewhat of a surprise production. Who knows why?...but it didn't make it on to the subsequent album 'Half and Half' which Philips agreed to release and the sessions, which Bob Crewe paid for.
This You Tube version is a DES extraction and Re-mix which I chose to do as the STEREO Master has not survived in the Four Seasons Partnership Archive.
This version capture the separation of instruments to complement 'probably' the most cutting of Frankie Valli's vocals directed at a 'cheating' women. A stunning performance by Frankie as is the arrangement by Artie Schroeck
In my last post I made the case for researching the 200+ unmarked tapes in the Four Seasons Partnership Storage Unit in LA…..[and we all know that there are at least 15 unreleased tracks left in the Motown Vaults] and if proof were needed that unreleased recordings still exist buried and unheard here is a song that is clearly Frankie Valli singing.
It is salvaged from a fans cassette tape and I know nothing about who or where it comes from. It was in such a poor condition being a highly distorted recording and so I discarded it into a hard disc folder. But having been asked about it during the summer I decided to see what the AI Software made of it and so I did some extractions of ‘stems’ to try to reduced the distortion.
The track below is the best I could assemble….BUT the process led me to use my ‘music detective’ brain to look for clues. It is clearly taken from an acetate due to the nature of the stylus distortion. But listening to the individual AI extracted stem two things stand out.
Firstly the background singers. It is clearly BERNADETTE CARROL, PEGGY SANTAGLIA, and DENISE FERRI and they backed Frankie Valli on the Spring 1966 sessions to record ‘You’re Ready Now’[et al].
Secondly, it sounded like an ‘Commercial’ for Yellow Pages to me and reminded me of the Cousin Brucie Theme, recorded by the group in 1965 but it is clearly a FULL song. I can’t think of any other reason for the lyric than as an ‘ad’
These points taken together make it highly likely to be recorded in Spring 1966 as an Out-Take at the sessions for ‘You’re Ready Now’. Given that a tape box found in the LA Storage, with a few words on it turned out to be the ‘Beggin/What Good Am I’ unheard and lost DEMO track from 1966 that went into the Snapper Box Set….what is the sensible deduction?.
So why not look and listen to the 200+ tapes in the storage? The possibility a decent sounding copy still resides there on tape seems to me pretty strong to me. What do you think Frankie?
Researching work for the Snapper Music Box Set began in 2018, but that was following 18+ years of deep research re the recording of the Four Seasons music by me…….and as I said in my last post it was as a result of Snapper [or really Ian Crocket one of the project consultants- talking with the now late Bob Fisher] about my research into the Motown Archive of the group’s work from 1971 to 1974. They convinced Snapper that a 44 CD Box Set of the whole Four Seasons and Frankie Valli music as a ‘Legacy’ collection would sell at £350 to ‘long-term’ collector fans world wide. A trawl of the released albums tapes plus a search for unreleased and rare LIVE recordings. The UK Fan Group still active since the 1970s agreed to support it and help as much as we could. Bob Fisher and I agreed to review all the tracks found or could access[including fan sourced material] and recommend the inclusions.
The process was based on a commitment to open up the Four Seasons Partnership’s [FSP]own Archive as well as accessing the Motown Vaults to recover the tapes in the Masters Tape Index I have been researching since 2000. But more re that ‘promise’ again in another blog.
The main sources to be used were to be the ‘original’ Album Master Tapes[in both MONO and STEREO] and Bill inglot was to do the research……..but jumping to the end…..the persistent request from Bob Fisher and I was to find other tapes with potential Unreleased Tracks. During that final push Bill Inglot uncovered several previously unreleased songs, some of which we knew about. This in Snapper’s view with just 13 tracks from the 30 Unreleased in the Motown vaults was enough to sell the set to fans.
The process was based on a commitment to open up the Four Seasons Partnership’s [FSP]own Archive as well as accessing the Motown Vaults to recover the tapes in the Masters Tape Index I have been researching since 2000. But more re that ‘promise’ again in another blog.
The main sources to be used were to be the ‘original’ Album Master Tapes[in both MONO and STEREO] and Bill inglot was to do the research……..but jumping to the end…..the persistent request from Bob Fisher and I was to find other tapes with potential Unreleased Tracks. During that final push Bill Inglot uncovered several previously unreleased songs some of which we knew about. This in Snapper’s view with just 13 tracks from the 30 Unreleased in the Motown vaults was enough to sell the set to fans.
I will work through the finds that mattered most in future blogs …...BUT this song shone out like a ‘beacon’. It is nothing more than a DEMO and the tape box was found as a result of Bill ‘pulling’ any Tape Box with ‘notes’ indicating a Four Seasons connection...or song. Obviously ‘Beggin’ was the song we knew and turned out to be the great DEMO version by Peggy Farina…...and then on the same tape Frankie Valli taking an unknown and unpublished song and blowing everyone [who hears it] away with sheer intensity and vocal skill.
From November 1966 it is just an outstanding quality vocal. It deserved to be in the Box Set. However it also revealed possibility!!!!!
What we didn’t find out till after we had to concluded the research was that there are also 200+ other tapes in the storage unit ….’unmarked’…..so none of them were listened to!!!!!!. We suddenly realised that the chance of other such unfound gems really existed even after our two years of intense transfer from tape to digital by Bill. The probability was clear…….but the FSP were not prepared to invest in further research and to pay an engineer like Bill to listen to the unmarked tapes. Snapper had paid Bill for all of his work. The FSP contributed only to the ‘final approval process’….via listening tests...as I will cover in a later blog. The ‘financial return’ was not there and neither Bob or Frankie were prepared to embark on such a project.
So if there was any track that made such investment essential in tracking your ‘legacy’…..this was it. The campaign for such research continues here and on Facebook. Soak in this excellent if ‘brief’ gem. Only those of us with a ‘passion’ to search further and to find such ‘lost music’ CARE…..that was apparent at the time and since.
Next Time: If proof were needed I will present another unheard and unreleased track discovered by fans and probably amongst the 200 Tapes.
