Released on 2nd October is Frankie Valli's new album "Romancing the 60s", produced by Bob Gaudio and featuring a selection of Frankie's favourite 60s songs.
As the vocals were recorded this year, it will be interesting to see how his voice is doing at 73 years old. Reports from recent live performances are that it's doing very nicely, so we shall see.
The CD is now available for pre-order from http://www.amazon.co.uk and is on the Motown label.
Romancing the 60s
I have now heard one track as a live version, shown on the Jimmy Kimmel show in the USA.
"Spanish Harlem" was delivered in an utterly professional and tight arrangement. Frankie sounded amazingly good - better than anyone could have imagined was possible at 73 years old.
The voice was still there, smooth and expressive. Maybe not as powerful as 30 years ago, but what can you expect.
It bodes well for the album in terms of performance standard, so I await the CD with keen interest.
"Spanish Harlem" was delivered in an utterly professional and tight arrangement. Frankie sounded amazingly good - better than anyone could have imagined was possible at 73 years old.
The voice was still there, smooth and expressive. Maybe not as powerful as 30 years ago, but what can you expect.
It bodes well for the album in terms of performance standard, so I await the CD with keen interest.
Now I've heard the CD a couple of times and am starting to form an opinion. I suppose, inevitably, the review gets split into two aspects, mainly because Frankie is now 73 (or 76?) years old.
One aspect is how does his voice hold up and the second aspect is how does the music rate in terms of originality and musical quality.
The voice is remarkably good and every now and then stretches into being as much Frankie Valli as it ever was. The pure and steady higher register is, remarkably, alive and well and the transition from tenor to falsetto almost pure on one track in particular. Not the ear-shattering falsetto of 1962, but more the ethereal quality of softer notes a la Can't Take My Eyes Off You.
Musically, this is "Timeless", that is, the 1968 album, but with softer vocals. This is a compliment, for the arrangements and production are first class. The recording quality is much better than Timeless, with not a hint of the roughness of the 1968 recording.
Very bravely, Frankie invites comparison with the past as he gives new versions of "Any Day Now", now complete and not just the start of a medley, and "Sunny", ironically first appearing on the aforementioned previous album. The new versions are viable indeed, and in the former case keeps breaking into almost a rendition of the previous version from the 1969 "Half & Half" album.
I think what I forget even now is that although Frankie's voice seems remarkable and I keep thinking "he can't still do that, surely" that, for him, it is actually just the way his voice is, and by golly he can do it.
A good album indeed, and some songs actually brought a lump to my throat, so the old magic is certainly still there.
One aspect is how does his voice hold up and the second aspect is how does the music rate in terms of originality and musical quality.
The voice is remarkably good and every now and then stretches into being as much Frankie Valli as it ever was. The pure and steady higher register is, remarkably, alive and well and the transition from tenor to falsetto almost pure on one track in particular. Not the ear-shattering falsetto of 1962, but more the ethereal quality of softer notes a la Can't Take My Eyes Off You.
Musically, this is "Timeless", that is, the 1968 album, but with softer vocals. This is a compliment, for the arrangements and production are first class. The recording quality is much better than Timeless, with not a hint of the roughness of the 1968 recording.
Very bravely, Frankie invites comparison with the past as he gives new versions of "Any Day Now", now complete and not just the start of a medley, and "Sunny", ironically first appearing on the aforementioned previous album. The new versions are viable indeed, and in the former case keeps breaking into almost a rendition of the previous version from the 1969 "Half & Half" album.
I think what I forget even now is that although Frankie's voice seems remarkable and I keep thinking "he can't still do that, surely" that, for him, it is actually just the way his voice is, and by golly he can do it.
A good album indeed, and some songs actually brought a lump to my throat, so the old magic is certainly still there.
I actually downloaded the anthology just to see what it was like. Having no idea when most of it was written, and not knowing much about the music of that era, the harmonies reminded me of the Beach Boys. Some of the harmonies sound a bit...forced, maybe: it's clear they're pushing their vocal ranges with the high stuff. It's possibly an aquired taste, but I'm worried it's done "just because" rather than for any meaningful reason. And he did the original version of Can't Take My Eyes Off You! Didn't know that, and a good mellow song it is too.
I shall no doubt listen further to the anthology in due course, but first impressions are okay: it'll need more listening time, as it's such a big leap musically for me.
I shall no doubt listen further to the anthology in due course, but first impressions are okay: it'll need more listening time, as it's such a big leap musically for me.
im on ur forums, using ur bandwidth.
I'm pleased you decided to give it a go!
The music spans such a long time and has developed in so many ways that it's difficult to pin point a period that you might like.
The early stuff is from about 1962 onwards, it matured through to 1968 or so but still using a lot of falsetto. From 1967 Frankie started doing solo recordings showcasing the fact he could sing almost any song and make it quite his own and most of these leave out the falsetto.
There have been so many different approaches since then - concept albums, easy listening, electronic backing, traditonal Four Seasons, Doo-wop, and now something akin to Sinatra meets Jobim meets Latin-American Jazz......
Something for everyone if you can find the bit you like?
The music spans such a long time and has developed in so many ways that it's difficult to pin point a period that you might like.
The early stuff is from about 1962 onwards, it matured through to 1968 or so but still using a lot of falsetto. From 1967 Frankie started doing solo recordings showcasing the fact he could sing almost any song and make it quite his own and most of these leave out the falsetto.
There have been so many different approaches since then - concept albums, easy listening, electronic backing, traditonal Four Seasons, Doo-wop, and now something akin to Sinatra meets Jobim meets Latin-American Jazz......
Something for everyone if you can find the bit you like?