The tour was a splendid mix of old and new and because so much more new material was coming on stream, especially promotong Frankie's unique ability to make any fine song his own, there was less falsetto in the show. Every now and then he would still break into a bit of it and it was still there, and always will be as it seems it really is just part of his natural range.
One major change was the departure of long-time bass player Joe Long, who had always been the public face of the group. A delightfully friendly man by nature, he would talk happily to anyone and everyone, and even now, from retirement, still does so on the ValliSeasons Group on Yahoo.co.uk - although I say from retirement he still records with new artists for Tommy deVito, one of the original Four Seasons. For the record, Joe originally played keyboards but after a finger accident moved to his Fender Jazz bass. If you see pictures of him with that, he holds it "wrongly" because of this injury to his fingers. He is a very active bass player though, and many of the Four Seasons records have a bass line that is solid but imaginative. Not just thump thump thump...
The shows? Absolutely spot on. TV appearances were limited though because of an ongoing argument. Frankie recorded both with the group and as Frankie Valli and this meant that the TV Union rules said he should use studio musicians to back his TV performances, and he wanted to use The Four Seasons, just as on the records and on stage. As they were inevitably far better rehearsed than any session musicians could possibly be, I can see his point, but it did keep him off Top of the Pops and other shows, to the detriment of sales I think.
