On Stage With The Four Seasons (Vee Jay, 1965)

[John]

One of the nice things about this group is that whilst retaining their vocal identity they have done so many different styles of music. This album, commonly referred to as "Live on Stage" is actually a recreation of their pre-Four Seasons lounge act, performed indeed live, but in a studio. Backed by a 30 piece orchestra, the set comprises standards given the Seasons treatment (Blues In The Night, Just In Time, I Can Dream Can't I?, Day In Day Out, Mack The Knife) with a couple of originals (Little Boy In grown Up Clothes, Come Si Bella - the latter being a remake originally recorded as Frankie Valley & The Romans) and the curious comedy song/routine How Do You Make a Hit Song, which was still being performed live as late as 1968.

The album was given to Vee Jay to complete the contract in 1965 and they had been with Philips Records since 1964, so it is a bit of an oddity. They did promote it and performed selections on USA TV as well as the aforementioned live performances on stage. So the album is a one-off sort of thing, but actually a real gem. The attempt to recreate the sound of a live performance is spot on and without the crowd noises it would be perfect. Unusually, there is a rogue CD version out called "In Concert with The Four Seasons" which uses the recording, but someone has decided to do some splicing to make all the selections much longer. Sections are spliced and repeated and it is very strange - some sort of bootleg I suppose.

The version you want is on Ace Records CDs in a double package with the Ain't That a Shame album.