Romancing The ’60s: The Making of a Masterpiece
When
Marshall Brickman, co-writer of the play Jersey
Boys, first heard the new Frankie Valli album Romancing The ’60s, he said, “I can’t wait to have a martini and
sit on my balcony and look over Central Park and just reminisce.” The album
takes you back to a time when rock and roll hadn’t yet shaken off its romantic
roots, when melody was still supreme and music sounded best under a full moon.
It was the time when Frankie Valli ruled the charts as lead singer of the Four
Seasons, and fellow Season Bob Gaudio, with lyricist-producer Bob Crewe, wrote
some of the greatest pop music ever.
But Frankie
was never content doing only material originated by his own group. He wanted to
sing all the best songs. He was insatiable. With the Seasons, he took classics
like “Stay” and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” into the Top 40 for a second time.
Thanks to Frankie’s soaring vocals and the production skills of Gaudio and
Crewe, the Seasons even gave Cole Porter a Top 10 hit in the rock and roll era:
“I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”
So many
fantastic songs. So little time in the studio. Frankie just couldn’t sing
everything he wanted to. Over the years he kept a mental list of the songs
unsung, often working up new arrangements of them to try out in concerts. He
chipped away at the list virtually every time he had an opportunity to record.
Fast
forward to the 2006. Jersey Boys: the
Story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons won four Tony Awards and became
the hottest ticket on Broadway. Suddenly everybody wanted, even demanded, a new
Frankie Valli album. Universal Motown was happy to oblige, giving Frankie the
chance to make a huge dent in his songs-I-want-to-record list. The result, Romancing The ’60s, is nothing less than
stunning: classic tracks—“Take Good Care of My Baby,” “My Cherie Amour,”
“Spanish Harlem,” “Any Day Now,” “On Broadway”—by the finest pop writers of all
time—Carole King, Stevie Wonder, Jerry Leiber, Burt Bacharach—all given the
distinctive stamp of Frankie Valli.
Just as
important as the songs was the way the album was produced. Forget about
synthesizers, please. This set was created by 79 real musicians and singers,
including a 45-piece orchestra of horns and strings, under the direction of
most of the same people who produced Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons’
biggest hits. “It’s always good to work with people who know you and have a
great respect for you,” says Frankie. “Some of the best arrangements I’ve ever
known were done by these guys.” Here was the team: Producer Bob Gaudio, who
wrote 21 Top 40 hits, from “Sherry” to “December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)”;
Associate Producer Robby Robinson, who is Frankie’s musical director and has
played keyboards on his tours for more than 25 years; arranger Charles Calello,
who worked on most of the Seasons’ hits and has also arranged for the likes of
Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond and Laura Nyro; and arranger
Artie Schroeck, who arranged such masterpieces as “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”
and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and also wrote hits for Liza Minelli and Sammy
Davis, Jr.
Making this
album was like going through a time warp for a class reunion—while making sure
to carry along computer-age recording equipment. Frankie grew up in Newark, New
Jersey, as did Calello and Schroeck, who’ve been buddies since they both
attended Arts High School and got their musical chops. Romancing The ’60s was hatched at Legacy Recording Studios in New
York City, just a few blocks away from the site of the long-demolished
Stea-Phillips studio where “Sherry” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry” were created.
“The old regime got back together again, “ says Calello. “We proved we could
still make magic.” “This is the album I’ve always wanted to make with Frankie,”
says Gaudio. “For me, it has his best vocals to date.”
The
original concept was simple: songs from the ’60s, the decade that made Frankie
a star and the backdrop for Jersey Boys.
But he had the same old problem: too many terrific songs to choose from. A
major force behind the project was Jolene Cherry, Senior Vice President of
A&R at Universal Motown, who got the album rolling by sending Frankie a
list of songs she thought would be right for him. Frankie had his own list, of
course, and so did Gaudio. Soon ideas were flying back and forth as fast as if
it were a match between the Williams sisters. As many as 100 titles were
considered.
When the
honor roll was pared down to about 40 possibilities, the final song-selection
committee—Valli, Gaudio, Robinson, Calello and Schroeck—convened each day for a
week in Gaudio’s suite at New York City’s Michelangelo Hotel. There they
gathered around a piano, playing each song in turn, finding the right key for
Frankie, experimenting with arrangements and variations. The important question
was not “Is this one of the best songs?” Or “Is this one of our favorites?”
They wanted songs for which they could come up with a new, compelling approach.
Recalls Gaudio: “We didn’t just take songs and say, ‘Let’s mess this one up a
bit.’ It wasn’t just, ‘Can we do this differently?’ It was, ‘Can we do this
differently and get off on it?’ Really get off on it.” Says Valli: “The secret
here was to try to make the songs mine.”
“Romance”
was not part of the initial concept. But it was the most romantic songs that
seemed to be surviving the rigorous winnowing process. “I’m a romantic in my
art,” says Frankie. The theme of the album gradually emerged. “The idea of a
romance album,” explains Gaudio “came out of the feel of the room and what was
evolving and the emotion that was there.” Gaudio came up with the title Romancing The ’60s, and the album really
began taking shape.
No way,
however, was it going to be an album full of silly love songs. Yes, Frankie was
the first to sing, “You’re just too good to be true. Can’t take my eyes off
you.” But the Four Seasons were also famous for songs of heartache, of love
lost or love thwarted. Romancing The ’60s
has “What a Wonderful World” and “My Cherie Amour,” but it also has “Take
Good Care of My Baby” and “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted.” “You have to
have a little pain,” says Gaudio. “If there aren’t valleys, there are no peaks.
If it’s all one level, it doesn’t work.”
Putting a
fresh spin on some of the world’s most familiar songs was a challenge. Frankie
wanted the album to have a noticeably Latin flavor, which made sense, since
Latin rhythms were a major part of the foundation of ’50s and ’60s pop. “I was
a big Stan Kenton fan,” says Frankie, speaking of the band leader who in
the’50s helped pioneer the mixing of jazz and Latin. Thinking on that same
wavelength, Calello wanted to take the relatively simple songs of the ’60s and
make them more sophisticated, giving them lush orchestrations and jazzy,
big-band style arrangements. Says he: “I wanted to take these ’60s records and
make them as classic as ’40s records.” In the songs Schroeck arranged, he
wanted to be a little more reverential to the original versions (have you tried
lately to improve on Stevie Wonder?), but he sprinkled in plenty of surprises (listen
for the gorgeous strings and acoustic guitar on “My Cherie Amour” in place of
Stevie’s la-la’s). Schroeck, a super musician himself, even helped with
Calello’s arrangement of “Call Me” by playing a dynamite vibes solo.
The easiest
part was lining up great session musicians in New York. Most familiar to the
general public will be Paul Shaffer, who leads the CBS Orchestra on the Late Show with David Letterman. Shaffer
played Hammond B3 organ solos on “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” and “Any Day
Now.” Forming the core band for the basic tracks were bassist Will Lee (also a Late Show veteran who has recorded with
James Brown and Natalie Cole, among countless others), drummer Shawn Pelton
(the Saturday Night Live Band, Billy
Joel, Hall & Oates), keyboardist Rob Mounsey (Diana Krall, Aretha Franklin,
Paul Simon), guitarist Hugh McCracken (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, the Four
Seasons) and guitarist Jeffrey Mironov (James Taylor, Lauryn Hill, Rod
Stewart). To get the perfect Latin accents he wanted, Frankie turned to a close
friend, percussionist Richie Gajate Garcia, who has toured extensively with
Valli and also played with everyone from Diana Ross to Sting.
In an album
of all highlights it’s hard to single out particular tracks. Bob Gaudio’s
personal favorite is “Take Good Care of My Baby,” which leads off the set. “We
do it as a ballad,” he says, “It’s a total departure from the original. It
makes you listen to the lyric.” Out goes Bobby Vee’s pep and in comes Frankie
Valli’s passion.
Equally
strong is a block of songs at the end of the album: a “My Girl/Groovin’ ”
medley, “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted,” and the very appropriate “On
Broadway” finale. These tracks and their rocking arrangements are the closest
the album gets to the work Frankie did with the Four Seasons. You could also
call this group of songs the soul section. You don’t think of Valli as a soul
singer? It’s actually no surprise to see Frankie on Universal Motown, a label
with a famed African-American heritage. The Four Seasons began their career on
the black-owned Vee Jay label, which had never had white artists before.
“Sherry” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry” both hit No. 1 on the R&B charts. A
decade later Berry Gordy, a huge Four Seasons fan, signed the group, which
released two albums on the MoWest and Motown labels.
Now that
you know how the album begins and ends, here’s a full rundown, with more
comments and vignettes:
1. Take Good Care of My Baby (G. Goffin and C. King)
Arranged and Conducted by Charles Calello
“Bobby Vee was one of my favorite pop singers,” says
Frankie. “I like the kind of songs he did that are sad in a way. They talk
about unrequited love. The guy loves the girl so much that he is just telling
the other guy to please take care of her. We slowed it down to get at the
sadness. The song was written so well by Carole King and Gerry Goffin that you
could do that.”
2. My Cherie Amour (S. Wonder, H. Cosby, S. Moy)
Arranged and Conducted by Artie Schroeck
“I absolutely love Stevie Wonder and love ‘My Cherie Amour’,”
says Frankie. “How could you not like Stevie? But taking a signature song like
that and doing it is really taking a chance.”
3. Spanish Harlem (P. Spector and J. Lieber)
Arranged and Conducted by Artie Schroeck
“It takes you there on a summer night to Spanish Harlem,”
says Gaudio of the song made famous by Ben E. King. “Our arrangement is like a
pyramid,” says Schroeck. “We started the record almost empty, built up to a big
orchestration, and then ended it almost empty.”
4. Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye (J. D. Loudermilk)
Arranged and Conducted by Artie Schroeck
Frankie vividly remembers the night in 1967 when he first
heard “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye.” It was in Cincinnati, and the Casinos
were opening for the Seasons. He said to himself, “Someday I’m gonna record
this song.” “Frankie’s is a cool version,” says Gaudio. “Paul Shaffer’s organ
gives it a bluesy vibe.”
5. Any Day Now (B. Bacharach and B. Hilliard)
Arranged and Conducted by Charles Calello
Frankie and the Seasons recorded this once before, back in
1970 as part of a medley with “Oh, Happy Day.” “The fact that I’m doing it a
second time,” says Frankie, “gives you some idea of how I feel about the song.”
He’s admired it ever since a night in 1962 when the Four Seasons did the Murray
the K show at the Brooklyn Fox Theater. They were newcomers to the star-studded
lineup, with only one hit, “Sherry,” to their credit. One of the headliners was
Chuck Jackson singing “Any Day Now.” “This show had an incredible impact,”
remembers Frankie. “I loved Chuck’s performance.”
6. Let It Be Me (G. Becaud, M. Kurtz, P. Leroyer)
Arranged and Conducted by Charles Calello
“The Everly Brothers. My God!” exclaims Frankie. “The
greatest duo to ever make records. Those who have never heard any of the Everly
Brothers’ music have missed something very special.” “That’s one of Frankie’s
best performances,” says Gaudio. “Got to be in the top two. Very emotional.”
7. What a Wonderful World (B. Thiele and G. D. Weiss)
Arranged and Conducted by Artie Schroeck
Valli: “That was probably one of the hardest songs for me to
do because Louis Armstrong had so personalized it. I couldn’t figure it out.
Should I almost talk it? Should I sing it? I came to the conclusion that I
should just do it the way I would do it. The bottom line was, the song stood on
its own.”
Gaudio; “There’s nothing about that song that would make it
one of my favorites—except listening to it. It’s not hip. But it makes you feel
what the lyrics say, that it’s a wonderful world. It amazes me that you get the
feeling—that life’s pretty good.”
8. Call Me (A. Hatch)
Arranged and Conducted by Charles Calello
Calello: “This was a very simple record by Chris Montez. I
wanted it to sound more musical. I changed the harmonies to make it a little
more sophisticated. I came up with the idea of doing the extension at the end
of the song in which Frankie keeps repeating ‘call me….I’ll be around.’ I think
it was Gaudio who had the idea of having session singer Tawatha Agee answer
Frankie with her own ‘I’ll be around.’ That really sounded great.”
9. This Guy’s In Love With You (B. Bacharach and H. David)
Arranged and Conducted by Charles Calello
Along with “Any Day Now,” this is one of two songs on the
album composed by Burt Bacharach. “One of the great writers of our time,” says
Valli. “You don’t change Bacharach’s chords. At least I don’t,” adds Gaudio.
“Some of the early rock records were notorious for having very simplistic
chords. But Bacharach got the chords right and still had a pop sensibility.”
10. Sunny (B. Hebb)
Arranged and Conducted by Charles Calello
Calello: “I gave the piano part a Cuban mambo feel. For the
horn parts, I used my experience of living in L.A. for 15 years, making those
parts like an L.A. record. So the arrangement has a Latin feel plus those slick
horns.”
Gaudio: “It’s a little rock, a little Latin. The ending has
a take-me-to-the-Bahamas thing about it.”
11. My Girl/Groovin’ (W. Robinson Jr., R. White, E. Brigati
Jr., F. Cavaliere)
Arranged and Conducted by Artie Schroeck
The original intent was to do these two songs separately.
But one day the group was working on “My Girl,” and Gaudio accidentally played
the wrong bridge—the bridge to “Groovin’.” Without missing a beat, Schroeck
kept on singing the lyrics to “My Girl.” The bridges of the two songs were so
similar that the lyrics were practically interchangeable. Everyone realized
that the songs could be linked and intertwined—and sound fantastic. That’s how
a medley was born.
12. What Becomes of the Broken Hearted (J. Dean, P. Riser, W.
Weatherspoon)
Arranged and Conducted by Artie Schroeck
Gaudio: “One of the all-time passionate, painful songs. Both
Frankie and I love it.”
Schroeck: “Maybe I added a couple of brass things or string
things, but the Jimmy Ruffin version was basically a perfect record.”
13. On Broadway featuring The Jersey Boys (J. Leiber, M.
Stoller, B. Mann, C. Weil)
Arranged and Conducted by Charles Calello
With Jersey Boys
entering its third boffo year on Broadway, could there have been any more
fitting finale than this Drifters classic? Calello pulled out all the stops. “I
wanted,” he says, “to start with a fanfare, to make it feel like George
Gershwin and give it the character of New York. I wanted to get the grandiose
feel of what it was like to be on Broadway.” Helping mightily to give the track
its power are the voices of the four young actors who played the Four Seasons
in the original Broadway cast of Jersey
Boys.
And listen
to the lyric near the end of the song: “I won’t quit ’til I’m a star on
Broadway.” Amazing! That could be the title of Frankie Valli’s memoir. His name
now shines bright every night in the neon lights of Broadway. That’s where it
belongs—turning back time.
—Charles Alexander
October, 2007