Doo Wop, Baroque, Girls - and More Girls

It was about time that I got familiar with Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons! Being a huge Beach Boys fan, this was, of course, a very natural thing to happen to me. Still, it wasn’t automatic, I think. Or maybe it was. Frankie Valli and his magnificent harmony singing friends are in every case a must-hear for all Beach Boys fans. I approached this group by listening to Anthology: Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons (thanks to Tampere City Library).

Everyone knows there was some form of a rivalry between the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons. Both bands became popular at the same time, around year 1962 and performed music that was stylistically quite similar – but not completely similar. While both groups incorporated a great deal of multipart doo wop vocal harmonies and nonsense syllables, Frankie Valli’s group concentrated even more on doo wop. Brian Wilson’s Boys might also be described being more straightforwardly rock’n roll oriented, especially in the early stages of their career. On the other hand, The Four Seasons didn’t sing about surfing or cars, but they surely shared one interest with the Beach Boys: girls. The Four Seasons, who were originally from Newark, New Jersey, released their first album in 1962 (as did The Beach Boys), and their first hit song was Sherry.

After a small getting used to period I found myself enjoying The Four Seasons very, very much. Frankie Valli is of course both similar to and different from Brian Wilson. Both have performed absolutely lovely falsetto vocals but their singing style is somewhat different in lower areas. While Brian rarely used his voice to anything else but pure prettiness in the 60s, Frankie Valli wasn’t afraid to show different aspects of his voice. Frankie Valli resembles Graham Nash a lot, and (perhaps a bit confusingly) has more rock’n roll angst in his voice and singing style than Brian Wilson.

The songs… Ronnie! I love, love, love that tune! Marlena, Dawn (Go Away), and Rag Doll are not much less excellent - not to mention Silence Is Golden, a song of which The Tremeloes made a hit. The Four Seasons’ most obvious bubblegum connection is Bye, Bye, Baby (Baby Goodbye), a major hit for Bay City Rollers in the 70s. I give Four Seasons extra points for that one but the absolutely bubblegummy BCR version, in my opinion, is more enjoyable. I know, I’m totally blinded and enchanted by bubblegum and bubblegummyness... I can’t help it, bubblegum is sticky (=impossible to give up).

Back to the Four Seasons.. Save It For Me is already beginning to sound very sophisticated, á la The Association, and Today!/Summer Days (And Summer Nights) Beach Boys. Other lovely hit songs from the mid-60s include Girl Come Running, Let's Hang On!, Working My Way Back to You, Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'bout Me), I’ve Got You Under My Skin, C’mon Marianne… The list is almost endless. A special case is Can't Take My Eyes off You, a magnificently superb song that was released as a Frankie Valli solo single in 1967. The song is ear-melting, and I love playing it myself too.

The Four Seasons survived pretty well in the middle of the British Invasion and remained as a popular live act. The end of the 60s was however a hard time for the band. Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons signed onto Motown Records and released new material with modest success. In the mid 70s Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (as separate acts) returned to scoring million selling hits. Since then the group has gone through dozens of personnel changes. Their latest North American tour apparently took place as recently as in 2007. Jersey Boys, a musical play about the Four Seasons has been around for years and it has even been taken to Melbourne, Australia. A quick look to YouTube revealed that there is/was even a “Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons Tribute On Ice". Everything really is on ice these days…

Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons are irreplaceable. I’m sure they will always have a place in my heart – there right next to the Beach Boys.

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons at YouTube
Official Frankie Valli Page

Heaven Is...

It’s happened again. I’ve become absolutely fond of a new singer. I knew basically nothing about Neil Sedaka before I test-listened to him (like I do to many artists) a few weeks ago. I remember I was actually talking on the phone with my granny while listening to Sedaka’s early hits. It was probably Stairway to Heaven playing when I suddenly noticed a very special thing: this guy had something a lot more interesting in his singing voice than 99,9% of people have! Well, first of all, he sounded very much like Les McKeown (from Bay City Rollers)– a cheerful, melodious, and even slightly nasal sound. I listened to more of Sedaka’s old songs and soon found his amazing lower vocal register, as well as his awesome higher range. As I listened to those absolutely catchy melodies, great songs, and Sedaka singing gorgeous harmonies with himself I was swept away. Then I heard his early 70s stuff.. There was no turning back. I was in love.

Neil Sedaka was born in New York in 1939. He was considered a prodigal child, attended The Juilliard School and became an excellent pianist. Sedaka started writing songs at the age of 13 and singing at the age of 19. He worked a lot with Howard Greenfield in the early 60s writing songs for himself and others. Sedaka’s early hits include Calendar Girl, Breaking up Is Hard to Do, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Oh! Carol (written about ex-girlfriend Carole King), and others.

In the mid-60s Sedaka’s success on the charts decreased, his record contract with RCA ended and was not renewed, and as it became customary that bands wrote their own songs, Sedaka was left with little work in the songwriting sector. However, in the early 70s, ambitious Sedaka revived his recording career as he started working on new material in England with the four guys that would soon become known as 10cc. The collaboration resulted in Sedaka returning to the charts in both UK and US. Sedaka also worked with Elton John in the mid-70s. Sedaka's 70s hits include for example Solitaire, Laughter in the Rain, and Bad Blood.

During his 50-year career Sedaka has recorded music in five different languages, topped the charts with two versions of the same song (Breaking up Is Hard to Do), had a hit record with his daughter Dara (Should've Never Let You Go), and his songs covered by such artists as The Carpenters and Elvis Presley, among other things. People all around the world consider Sedaka a genius and demand him to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Sedaka, who will turn 70 years old on March 13th, still tours (The United Kingdom this summer) and sings with his voice still sounding incredibly beautiful – how is that possible? I guess a piece of heaven on earth just can't possible fade..

Sedaka’s voice is the most beautiful thing I’ve heard in a long time. Now the question is how long.. Will I end up dropping my current #1 favourite singer to #2? I haven’t decided yet but time will surely show me. Somehow it would seem inappropriate to place Sedaka as #2 but I don’t wish to abandon my current #1 just yet. Gee, maybe I just shouldn’t think about these ranks so much..

I love Neil. I can’t stop listening to him, his beautiful voice, and his beautiful melodies. To me Neil Sedaka is the ultimate American pop icon. I love his early pop & roll hits, and I love his later singer-songwriter pop hits (and non-hits). I’m looking forward to getting more of his records, and I even might go to England in the summer to see him live.. It’s silly but I can’t help it. I’m in too deep now..

Here are some picks from YouTube, mostly live performances. It’s just a couple of samples – if you don’t own/know Sedaka’s greatest hits (and preferably more), get/listen to them now!

Calendar Girl ("music video" from the early 60s!)
Calendar Girl (live with Chris and Adam from Fountains of Wayne - great fun! Compared to Neil FoW certainly is "a new group..")
Next Door to an Angel (video may not be the best but the song is perfect)
Laughter in the Rain (so beautiful – I’m speechless)
Is This the Way to Amarillo (with Tony Christie live at Royal Albert Hall)
Solitaire (live, don't know where)

Neil Sedaka's Official Website

P.S. As you already know, Kyle Vincent is Sedaka's next-generation powerpop version! I love Kyle, too.

Ho Ho Ho, It’s Magic

Here’s a most brilliant song that I discovered some days ago. It is a song by Scottish pop band Pilot and it’s called Magic. Pilot was founded by ex-Bay City Rollers members David Paton and Billy Lyall in 1973. This song is utterly wonderful, catchy and memorable. It sounds probably more like Electric Light Orchestra than Bay City Rollers but hey, we all love both bands, don’t we?

In a way this song is kind of Christmassy. It goes “ho ho ho” which I believe is something that Santa Claus says.. So, enjoy! This video is from the Top of the Pops show, year 1974. I’ve already listened to this song a couple of times too many. Maybe it’d be good to check other Pilot songs too..

This is the classic problem with perfect pop songs. You can’t get enough of them, they become an obsession and as a result stop you from looking for more perfect songs because you can’t stop listening to your previous perfect pop find.. This happens to me constantly. It’s fun, I have to admit.

Rollermania Rises

Well, the big news is that I’ve found myself a new craze and I’ve been enjoying it for nearly a month already. Bay City Rollers were the hottest Scottish teen idol boy-band of the 70s, and given my fondness towards bubblegum pop and well.. boy-bands.. it wasn’t such a big surprise I fell in love with this music.

These guys drove teenage girls wild 30 years ago, and I would be lying if I told they don’t look sweet when you look at their pictures. They were on the covers of every teen magazine, girls picked their favourite member.. That’s approximately what it was like when Backstreet Boys were on top of their fame and I was 12 and totally fond of them. However, their music doesn’t sound equally good compared to the Rollers’ music. Generally speaking, something about the late 90s boy-band/girl-band/bubblegum music was wrong. For me the most obvious thing is that it was too perfect soundwise - way too artificial. 70s bubblegum sounds much more pleasant even today.

Bay City Rollers came up with some excellent bubblegum pop. At first, they didn’t write songs and performed quite a few covers, but later they started writing their very own material, too. They scored a couple of #1 hits in the UK, Bye Bye Baby and Give a Little Love, and also succeeded well albumwise. The music pays a lot of respect to 60s bubblegum music, yet I sense some difference in the general sound compared to The Archies, 1910 Fruitgum Co. and others. The Rollers have a slightly more polished sound, and there are more violins than organ hooks in the music.


I’ve found The Very Best of Bay City Rollers a very entertaining collection of the group’s most popular songs. Among my biggest favourites are Saturday Night, It’s a Game, Shang-a-Lang, Remember (Sha-la-la), as well as Give a Little Love (that definitely deserves to be mentioned twice in this article!). I Only Want to Be With You is a really cool cover that always makes me wonder: “Geez, how can McKeown sound so brilliant?” Another song truly worth checking out is Love Me Like I Love You, a great representation of the group’s own songwriting, and it’s a wonderful song.

When it comes to the lead singer of Bay City Rollers, I’ve once again proved my true nature. It’s becoming more and more clear. The thing is, if you want to create music that will stay on the playlists of yours truly for the rest of her life, start a band and, as your first assignment, find a singer who sounds exactly (or at least very much) like Les McKeown. On the other hand, I really didn’t expect to find such a brilliant British (or rather Scottish) version of my #1 favourite singer this soon. What can I say, anyway? It’s another dream come true..

Bay City Rollers music at YouTube

Bubblegum Is Back!

Once again, I've found myself in the middle of a huge 60s bubblegum craze (although I spent a considerable amount of time listening to Bay City Rollers today..)! I'm seeking new bubblegum bands and CDs and listening to the ones I already have although I'm supposed to be doing my homework. Good for me..

I also finally realized (given a hint) that The Archies, having being a cartoon band, can be viewed at YouTube - with relatively poor quality, but it's much better than nothing. Having a proper Archies DVD.. That would be something..

I'll give here one example of The Archies excellence. This is a wonderful song called Comes the Sun. I just found it.. Check out other Archies songs too, they're amazing! The graphics are also pretty cool.