The Five Rules Of A Great CD Set

Charles Alexander compiler of the booklet for the forthcoming Rhino Box Set on Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons (“Jersey Beat”) has been telling us about the five RULES for compiling a great box set and how this forthcoming set will meet all these rules.

 We discovered that another compiler uses these same rules and has used them in his recent projects. He wants to tackle another Four Seasons Project for our listening pleasure if only the Partnership would let Universal do it. Here’s how Paul Nixons’s plans would meet Charles’ RULES for our ‘wished for’ Four Seasons Motown Anthology

 

Rule No. 1
A GREAT SET SHOULD HAVE ALL THE HITS

Well that would be easy to do as there was only 1…’The Night’….and maybe ‘Touch The Rainchild’ which did quite well on the Northern Soul scene in the mid 70’s…….but if he was to include the first demo of ‘My Eyes Adored You’….well that would be interesting. The set would also include both the ‘Chameleon’ and ‘Inside You ‘ albums. Including core albums from an artist’s career is a sure way to sell a CD set as has been shown with the recent sets Paul did on Chris Clarke and Chuck Jackson which have sold well.

Rule No. 2
A GREAT SET SHOULD HAVE VALUE ADDED FOR FANS WHO HAVE EARLIER COLLECTIONS

Well the only sets we have are the original vinyl (or if you were lucky enough to find it the Motown Superstars CD illustrated above)  ….if you exclude the bootleg issue from a few years ago…..and getting the pristine masters would be a great seller as the limitations of the bootleg are obvious when compared with the Superstars CD. And Motown structure their sets to include unreleased material, which matches the labels quality standards so no poor recordings or unfinished tracks are included.

Rule No. 3
A GREAT SET SHOULD REPRESENT THE FULL SPECTRUM OF A GROUP’S STYLES AND THE COMPLETE RANGE OF ITS EXPERIMENTATION

This is the key thing about Motown. That’s what the period was about for both Valli and Gaudio. They tried so much to find a new direction and by 1975 they did by escaping Motown and moving to Warner-Curb and Private Stock. That’s why this set is so important. It was the incubation period for the resurrection of their careers. Of course we get the comment….”if it wasn’t good enough to be released then it wasn’t good enough”……but that doesn’t stack up as decisions on releases at Motown had become so unreliable by 1972 that no-one could see the quality of ‘The Night’ for its brief US release. We need to hear fully how the group’s sound was transformed to result in the ‘Who Loves You’ album.

And what about the lost Kenny Nolan- Bob Crewe songs Frankie Valli did that remain in the vaults. With over 50 unreleased tracks in the Motown vaults there is surely enough experimentation that can be heard and stands up to the artist’s high quality standards today.

Rule No. 4
A GREAT SET SHOULD COVER A GROUP’S ENTIRE CAREER

Well that is why we need this set. The Partnership have made the first step with the Jersey Beat Box Set and the Collectors Choice twofers. Now we need to fill the gaps and get this period of creativity properly documented.

Rule No. 5
A GREAT SET SHOULD HAVE GREAT LINER NOTES

Paul Nixon is a Four Seasons and Motown fan and great writer of sleeve notes. He always wants to capture the artist’s thoughts on the creation of the music. Given the chance we believe he would love to do so with a ” Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons Motown Anthology”

Bob Gaudio knows we want this music. Life is too short for us all to be missing it. ‘How Come’ we have to continue waiting. . Listen to our remix below and hear a great track from the Motown years with a nice clean sound and Joe Long’s bass playing sounding just great. And the wav file sounds even better. Just a sample of what the anthology could sound like. Come on guys….let’s get the project rolling for a 2008 release….just as ‘Jersey Boys’ opens in London.

 

Walk On, Don't Loo...

Comments

[Ray Ricci]

Great thoughts!

I would only add that it would also be important to release these
tracks and the originals in the quality that they were originally produced. Much talk in recent years about the sound quality not being what the engineers originally produced.(distortion etc.) If this can't be accomplished, why not re-mix in 5.1.