As a follow on to my last post I can bring you the ALTERNATE VERSION thanks to Ash Wells at Re-Imagined . Imagine if circa 2014 the Modern gentlemen[who backed Frankie Valli for so many years], decided to re-imagine this song from 1973 in a new arrangement which uses a 'Baroque' style.
Baroque music arrangements are characterized by "ornate melodies, polyphonic textures, and a strong, continuous bass line known as basso continuo. Key elements include major/minor tonality, rhythmic drive, the use of ornamentation (trills, mordents)". I am sure Charlie Calello would recognise the stylish sound of this track.
Quite ornate orchestrally with complex vocals/harmonies.
Back in the 1990s we got a tape recording of an ‘Unreleased Demo’ by The Four Seasons recorded ‘on the road in 1973. The story is well known how this came to happen and how Suzanne De Passe ‘binned’ the master tape. I posted it on You Tube 16 years ago and has 24K views. A ‘cleaned up’ version went into the Snapper Box Set in 2023. Here it is….
Well what if a group like ‘Take That’ had discovered it and decided to do a ‘cover version’?
With the power of AI and producer Ash Wells at ‘Re-Imagined OLDIES’ you can hear it today. ‘Then and Now’ presents…..
‘I Wonder Why’ – Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons - a ‘COVER’ version of the original.
Post your comments as you wish on YT or on my FB page.
We are obviously in a period when the ‘World Order’ and the rules of International Law are changing but there is another powerful emerging ‘world order’ arriving in music and it is and has impacted Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons music.
After the decades of ‘denial’ by Bob Gaudio [and Frankie Valli] that their/his and other great producers had unreleased music at Motown and elsewhere, times have changed. Even if they invested in researching tapes and lost music, it would ‘probably’ not be of the quality that we have had in our life as youngsters in the 60s or those who discovered the past music as they grew up in the 70s up to today.
The 13 tracks Bob Gaudio approved for inclusion in the Box Set were ‘stunning’ and proved what I had maintained back in 2010[that they existed on surviving tapes] The rest of a confirmed 15 tracks have yet to be heard.
Whilst I have also maintained that much of the group’s 60s output needs ‘modern’ re-mastering it has become obvious that Bob Gaudio isn’t listening and probably doesn’t want to know. I for one have moved on. I have found that today’s artist’s can match or surpass the sounds of the 60s and early 70s tracks.YES….I know that may sound amazing!!!!
It has become obvious that today’s young and emerging ‘artists’ are seeking new sounds lbut there is a NEW WAY OF LOOKING BACK that has emerged from my association with a ‘producer’ and ‘song-writer’ of today. All my life I have been hearing recorded music that is ‘re-imagined’ from earlier times.
As Greg Milner said in ‘Perfecting Sound Forever’ that recorded sound is an ‘illusion’ of a potential LIVE performance created by producers/arrangers and sound engineers using technology to process sound onto a record[and subsequently digitally on CD and streaming] that creates a feeling in the listeners head and programmes them to like a ‘sound’ or even an ‘era’. The sounds of the day be it rock’n’roll, doo-wop, pop and rock can be created by technology. Is that bad or just part of progress by sampling history?
For many of us today’s music doesn’t relate to us, as not enough of it reflects or mirrors our ‘brain’s programming.
So whilst those early 60s record productions took hours and days to perfect,,,,,what if today’s technology could equally fool our ears to say...”WOW ...that is a hit with me!!!”
The trouble is there is no medium to experience this as we did….radio is ‘dead’ and vinyl records and CD’s are out of date ‘artifacts’. Music is consumed ‘on-line’ and on You Tube.
Enter the NEW creator AI. From THEN to NOW!!!
How this happens is that AI models are fed massive datasets of 1960s songs, including specific instrumentation (twangy guitars, Motown drums, fuzz bass), vocal styles, production effects (reverb, tape saturation), and mix balance.It uses by learning its sonic patterns, and using deep learning to generate new audio that mimics those characteristics, often combining vintage instrument sounds, vocal styles (with filters/enhancers), and specific mastering techniques (like 'bright hype') for authenticity, essentially by training on '60s music to produce new tracks or enhance old demos with that retro feel.
AI can take existing (even unfinished) 60s-style tracks, isolate stems (drums, vocals, etc.), and apply vintage-style mastering (like specific EQs or tape emulation) to make them sound authentic, it applies vocal enhancers and filters to mimic the distinct, sometimes breathy or reverb-heavy, vocals of the era. It can model instrument timbres, allowing AI to generate sounds that blend qualities from vintage instruments, creating novel but period-appropriate tones.
Algorithms identify recurring patterns in rhythm, melody, harmony, and timbre that define the '60s and 70s sound. Today’s young artists and producers cannot do this ‘’conventionally’ in the studio and recreate the feel and mood such creations mimic. BUT this is the fundamental and essential process of the past…..just ‘industrialised’. Essentially, AI learns the "rules" of '60s music production from data and then applies those rules creatively, offering a powerful, accessible way to generate or enhance music with a nostalgic vintage sound.
The results will please [or not depending on our programming…...via our ears and our brains!!]
So today we have NEW groups and new albums…..the pioneer songwriters and performers are actually still needed ….lyrics and melodies are still needed…..but controlled from the keyboard and in software.
But AI can take a past track and re-imagine it.
I have recently salvaged from tape an old Frankie Valli scratchy acetate demo that has never been released and is basically lost apart from my use of AI extraction to create this version.
Well imagine if Bob Crewe took it in 1966 and asked a group like the ‘Rag Dolls’ or the ‘Calendar Girls’ to do a studio version with Charlie Calello arranging. Here is the alternative version
This re-invented version is what an Australian Record Producer – Ash Wells at Re-imagined Oldies has been able to produce. This is an amazing result and shows how the AI Music Tools are creating a new era of ‘oldies music’….but with NEW Artificially created Artists. Some people with ‘originality’ preferences or AI prejudice may reject such work.
I have toiled many hours re-creating from the original masters NEW Immersive STEREO Re-Mixes of the original Four Seasons tracks with proper STEREO RE-BALANCING when Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli have simply failed to update the ‘catalogue’ in this way. Well I have given that up and will never do another ‘Re-mix’.
I will however now support Ash and others to create new melodies, lyrics and instrumental arrangements using these new tools to ensure the sounds of the 60s and 70s are re-imagined to make us feel good as our programmed brains realise…...”this is another good example ….and what we loved back then’…….NEW Hit Sounds.
Here is a classic by the NEW star group ‘The Carousel Effect’.
This song would have been a Hit if produced in the late 60s or early 70s.
