The Arrival Of The Four Seasons - A Billboard Scrapbook Part 1

Even the biggest Four Seasons fan alive today will never have followed The Four Lovers back in 1956. Most will have shown an interest in them as a result of their connection with Frankie, Tommy and Nick. So, when I started reading the Billboard magazines on the Internet and looking at the music world of the pre-four Seasons it was very strange. In Jersey Boys, the musical story of the life and times of the group, this period is almost an embarrassment to the group. But when I looked at the story of the arrival of the Four Seasons, through the pages of Billboard, it proved to be more enlightening than I expected. So I assembled it in scrapbook form as we have in the Newsletters for many years. I found it paints a different picture in some ways than the show.

First of all Frankie Valli appeared in the music business’s top newspaper several times before the Four Seasons arrived and we can see how it was a very different world for them in the 50s than in the 60s.

Part 1 of our collection covers 1954 to 1961 documents the attempts to find success is a world very alien to the teen crowd I belonged to in the 60s. The world Frankie and the guys were working in during the mid to late 50s was a left-over from the war years. Their audiences were we must assume mainly ‘adult’ ( well teens couldn’t get into the bars and dives of the day) and audiences wanted an act that could do the 40s and 50s hits from the likes of The Mills Bros, and The Four Freshmen….and even The Andrew Sisters ( with…”I Can Dream Can’t I’).

And their attempts to win over a ‘teen’ audience with the Four Lovers sound which brought them some success in 1956 was clearly out of sync by 1957 when rock’n’roll and the music of Elvis and Buddy Holly was leaving the sound of the Lovers behind. But ‘you gotta make a living’ so the adult audiences in the dives from New Jersey down to Wildwood had to be given what they wanted……Places like Wildwood are a scene that is hard for Europeans to appreciate…This is an internet description....”From the late 1940s through the 1960s, the “Five-Mile Beach” prospered in the Post-World-War-II economic boom. The middle class was growing and they loved their vacations at the Jersey Shore . Tourists flocked to the sprawling beaches and amusement piers that made this island famous. Even more famous was the night life. The Wildwoods’ entertainment scene earned it the nickname the “Las Vegas of the East”. It is the birthplace of Bill Haley and The Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” and Chubby Checker’s “TheTwist.” Places like the Riptide Club, The HofBrau and The Bolero hosted many of the era’s great performers. Dick Clark spun records for American Bandstand at The Starlight Ballroom. As one author imagined: Dazzling lights draw charmed tourists down the strip, past garish hotels and plastic palms swaying against a star-filled night. Caravans of Bel Airs and Thunderbirds, Packards and Chevy Townsman take to the streets. Marquees flash big names: Louis Armstrong, Sammy Davis, Jr., Johnny Mathis, The Drifters, and Fabian. The sidewalk pulsates as the music captivates. It could be Sunday or Tuesday, but it feels like Saturday, as crowds with Coppertone tans and money in their pockets, drift along the avenue....And in the background was an island full of ‘motor-hotels;’ their rooms brimming with stories and full of mid-century character and charm.”

Meeting the needs of this crowd was necessary to put bread on the table.

The New Jersey club scene would be an interesting read.

A biography of the pre-Seasons days has been promised 
but will it ever see the light of day whilst the  group 
members are alive?

Enjoy Part 1 here