The Four Lovers 1956 (Import) (CD)

• Category:  Music  »  Oldies  »  '50s
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: August 1, 1989
• Label: Bear Family (Germany)
• UPC: 790051154240
• WAPI (Tower ID): 105883312
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• Tower.com Sales Rank: #149158 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #2119 in Oldies (See Top 100 Oldies Bestsellers)
• #234 in '50s (See Top 100 '50s Bestsellers)

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Anyone finding an original of this LP can congratulate themselves on owning a 200-plus dollar collector's item. This was only the second or third rock & roll LP ever issued, at a time when it wasn't clear that teenagers would shell out the cash for long-players, so any shortcomings can be forgiven. Don't expect a sound very much like what the Four Seasons later produced; the Four Lovers were a more animated and harder rocking outfit, close in proximity to the booming popularity of '50s R&B and rockabilly. None of the group's early singles are represented here, but they give a surprisingly good account of "White Christmas" rocked up with a hot guitar part; "Night Train" gets an unusual vocal treatment, and the rest isn't bad, even if some of the cuts veer uncomfortably closer to the Crew-Cuts than to the Treniers. The sound is unusually crisp and clean on the original recording, in keeping with the usual output from RCA's New York studios, making this artifact from rock & roll's early day doubly rewarding on a technical level. ~ Bruce Eder

Compilation of the quartet's complete RCA-Victor recordings from April through August of 1956, including alternate takes. The array of sounds, including elements of rockabilly, dance-oriented R&B, and pop, may surprise fans of the Four Seasons. The vocals by Frankie Valli, then known as Frankie Valley, share the spotlight with lead guitarist/singer Thomas DeVito and rhythm guitarist/singer Henry Majewski, and their overall sound is just a little too derivative of other records that were around to be genuinely distinctive -- all except for the group's one and only chart entry, their version of Otis Blackwell's "You're the Apple of My Eye," which sounds more like a burlesque of rock & roll than a straight performance. Musically it is fascinating, if not the most compelling material of its era, practically a lost missing link from the early days of rock & roll by a phenomenally talented group that still needed to find a sound of their own. ~ Bruce Eder

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