Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

In Season: The Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons Anthology (2 CDs)/ Off Seasons: Criminally Ignored Sides from Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

(Rhino)

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons help give the lie to the cliché that pop music declined in the period between Buddy Holly’s death and the emergence of The Beatles. Their hits from 1962-64 alone include "Sherry," "Walk Like a Man," "Dawn (Go Away)" and "Big Girls Don’t Cry," and even after the British Invasion they remained stalwarts on the Top 40 charts for another decade. Valli’s falsetto lead vocals anticipated The Bee Gees; as disco arrived he seamlessly segued into a solo career ("My Eyes Adored You," "Swearin’ to God"). In Season offers the essential Valli/Four Seasons singles, including "Rag Doll," "Candy Girl" and their late-period, guaranteed-to-induce-nostalgia megahit "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)." Of special interest is Off Seasons, which spotlights 20 lesser-known Four Seasons B-sides and unreleased singles. These cuts reveal the group’s willingness to tackle subject matter beyond young love — "Beggars Parade" (1966) dares to mock the counterculture and "Saturday’s Father" (1968) is one of the earlier pop songs about divorce. The Four Seasons are such a mainstay of oldies stations that they’re easy to take for granted. These two new anthologies remind us just how unique they were.

—Andrew Milner