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"Let's Be Frank" columns
When “Jersey Boys” -- the award-winning play about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons -- begins previews at The Palazzo April 4, it should finally determine if Broadway can work in Las Vegas. With nothing trimmed from the original production, the musical phenomenon will come to life for a gala sing-a-long eight shows a week based on the groups’ tunes that have sold more than 175 million records worldwide.
 When Marshall Brickman, co-writer of “Jersey Boys,” first heard the newest Frankie Valli album “Romancing The ’60s,” he said, “I can’t wait to have a martini and sit on my balcony, look over Central Park and reminisce.”
The album takes you back to a time when rock n’ 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 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 Valli 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.
(At left: Jan Dacri, Frankie Valli and our editor Steve last year in Vegas)
Thanks to his soaring vocals and the production skills of Gaudio and Crewe, the Seasons even gave Cole Porter a Top 10 hit in the rock n’ roll era: “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”
So many fantastic songs. So little time in the studio. Valli just couldn’t sing everything he wanted to. Through 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 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 Valli album. Universal Motown was happy to oblige, giving Valli 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 including Carole King, Stevie Wonder, Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller, 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, this set was created by 79 live musicians and singers, including a 45-piece orchestra of horns and strings, under the direction of most of the same people who produced 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 Valli. “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 Valli’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 Sinatra, Streisand and Neil Diamond, and arranger, Las Vegas resident 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 Minnelli 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. Valli grew up in Newark, as did Calello and Schroeck (married to jingle queen Linda November), who’ve been buddies since they both attended Arts High School and got their musical chops.
“The old regime got back together again,” recalls 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.”
 (Left to right: Jeff Leibow, Rick Faugno, Erich Bergen and Jeremy Kushnier)
The original concept was simple: songs from the ’60s, the decade that made Valli a star and the backdrop for “Jersey Boys.” But he had the same old problem: too many terrific songs to choose from. 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, Calello and Schroeck -- convened each day for a week. There they gathered around a piano, playing each song in turn, finding the right key for Valli, 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 Schroeck: “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 win knowing process. “I’m a romantic in my art,” says Valli. The theme of the album gradually emerged. “The idea of a romance album,” explains Schroeck “came out of the feel of the room and what was evolving and the emotion that was there.” They 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, Valli was the first to sing, “You’re just too good to be true. Can’t take my eyes off of 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.”
Putting a fresh spin on some of the world’s most familiar songs was a challenge. Valli 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,” he says, speaking of the band leader who in the’50s helped pioneer the mixing of jazz and Latin.
Thinking on that same wavelength, Calello said he 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. “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 the sprinkled in plenty of surprises (listen for the gorgeous strings and acoustic guitar on “My Cherie Amour” in place of Wonder’s la-la’s). Schroeck, a super musician himself, even helped with Calello’s arrangement of “Call Me” by playing a dynamite vibes solo.
In an album of all highlights it’s hard to single out particular tracks. 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 Valli did with the Four Seasons.
With “Jersey Boys” a boffo success on Broadway and now entering Las Vegas, 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.
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