chameleon

'Seasons' Connections - The Four Knights

A ‘Seasons’ Connection track that helped start our research into Bob Crewe, Charles Calello and the Four Seasons has just popped up on t’Internet . ‘One Night’ by the Four Kings was released on Canadian American 173. The guy singing lead on that track produced by Seasons Nick Massi and Tommy Devito has just issued it on CD. Here is the link to read about him and hear the track. http://cdbaby.com/cd/waynetevlin We are unsure if he was on the B Side ‘Lonely Lovers’ but we’ll try to find out more. These tracks appeared for the first time on the bootleg CD ‘The Fantastic Early Years’ back in 1995.Thanks to Kingsley Abbott for spotting this. Casey Chameleon

'Seasons' Connections - Tracey Dey

Bob Crewe produced many talented girl groups, and girl group singers.Among these were Liza Minelli, The Shepherd Sisters, Lesley Gore, Tina Turner, Shirley Matthews, Ginny Arnell, Gigi Parker, Hedy Sontag, Diane Renay, The Orlons, Dee Dee Sharpe, Barbara Banks, Vala Reegan, The Rag Dolls, Jean Thomas, Ellie Greenwich, Frankie Nolan, The Calendar Girls, Wendy Wilson (no, not the Beach Boys relation ),Kitty Noble, Sandy Williams, Marcie-Jo, and maybe a few others.

One very fine singing gal he tried with numerous times was Tracey Dey. Hailing from Yonkers, New York, no one has heard the entire story of how Tracey and Bob became introduced to one another. Because Bob was the first of the independent producers, perhaps Tracey submitted a demo tape of

herself on a song or two, as this would happen quite frequently with Bob Crewe. Or maybe, Tracey was a session singer, used on a few recording dates as a backup vocalist on another's latest "record of the day".

Of course, what really matters is that they became known to one another, and Tracey became one of the most underrated and very best female vocalists of the 1960's golden girl group era. Beginning in the latter half of 1962, Tracey recorded and had released, a total of 10 singles for 4 different labels,
an astounding 19 sides (one song was released twice) through late 1965 or early 1966. In addition, Tracey recorded 2 outstanding singles with Gary Knight,as the more beautiful half of the "Dey & Knight" duo, in 1966.

Three of her recordings, "Jerry (I'm Your Sherry)", "Who's That", and "I Won't Tell" were co-written by Bob Gaudio & Bob Crewe, the same awesome team that wrote many of the biggest hits of The 4 Seasons. Probably her best song, "I Won't Tell" was the result of a Gaudio-Crewe effort. From it's thumping beginning, tough sounding girl vocals, thick background chorus, right through to it's surprise false ending, it remains one of the best girl group songs of all time. AND, it wasn't even a hit at it's time of release !!!!

Some of her other best efforts are: "Teenage Cleopatra", "Any Kind Of Love" written by Larry Santos of Candy Girl fame, the soul flavored "Long Time, No See",and "Gonna Get Along Without You Now" the highest charting single of her all too short career. For jazz lovers, her 1965 obscure recording of
"Shakin' The Blues Away" reveals why she was such an accomplished artist for her time. The Dey & Knight recordings are all great, and actually try to emulate the success of the early Sonny & Cher hits of the day, as well as having a strong Motown punch to them. "I'm Gonna Love You Tomorrow"
is the strongest of the 4 songs.

Tracey faded into obscurity after 1967 and little is known of her after that. It is known that she went into the business world as a female executive and  was working in

Canada years later. Someday, we might get lucky enough to learn of the "rest of the story", but until then, sit back, relax, and enjoy her fine vocals

Mike Miller
DooWopDaddy

 

'Seasons' Connections - Wade Flemons

"Watch Over Her" is a great soulful song, written by Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli and appearing on the Vee Jay label in 1964.(Vee Jay 587)
Although it has not been documented anywhere that I have ever seen, I believe that this is one of the earliest Gaudio- Valli productions.
And it is the only song that I have ever seen songwriting credit for Frankie Valli until the Private Stock days when he was given  co-writing credit on two songs from one of his solo albums. Almost certainly, it seems like Charles Calello was the arranger on this record, and probably it's flipside, the wonderful, "When It Rains It Pours", written by Flemons. I am assuming that Bob & Frank were the producers on both sides, but it may have been Crewe, no one seems to know for sure. The record itself, does not list an arranger or a producer on either side, so who knows ?

I believe that The 4 Seasons MAY be on the flip side of the record, but I have had a hard time telling if they were on the "Watch Over Her" side.

Wade Flemons was a very talented singer-songwriter who shot to fame with the recording of his doowop classic, "Here I Stand" in 1958, which he also wrote. He continued to record and write for Vee Jay records through 1965. In addition, an entire album of recordings by him was releasedin about 1960. After leaving Vee Jay, he released an extremely scarce and collectable song called "Jeanette" on a small label out of Chicago which became a frequent player on the northern soul scene years later.(an awesome track to be found on Casino Classic – The Forgotten Floorshakers: Goldmine GSCD123…Casey)

He had a very smooth voice and easy delivery. By 1967, Wade turned up as
lead singer, keyboardist, and songwriter for a new group called The Salty Peppers. He joined forces with Maurice White in this group, and by 1970, they became Earth, Wind & Fire.He left that group after only a year or two, and became obscure after that. He died at the age of 53 in 1993.

The recording world is filled with artists like Wade Flemons, who were somewhat unappreciated or obscure during their recording days, but left an impressive body of talented work behind for all of us to discover and enjoy to this day. The "Collectables" CD label has an entire CD of the best
of Wade Flemons that I would highly recommend to any 60s music lover. You won't be disappointed !!

Mike Miller
DooWopDaddy