With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

Music reviews, gig reviews, fun trivia and extra added random stuff!

Play It Again Mayhem – “The Night” – Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons January 14, 2025

Filed under: Play It Again Mayhem — justwilliam1959 @ 10:03 pm
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Here comes the 33rd track in the Play It Again Mayhem series. This time it is the turn of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons with “The Night”. This is worth it just for the incredible bass lines, which I believe were played by Joe Long. It was originally released in 1972 on a Motown offshoot label, MoWest. It failed to chart initially. Later it became a popular track on the northern soul circuit in the UK, which led to a successful UK re-release in 1975. This time it reached number 7 on the UK singles Chart. The song was included on the groups only MoWest album, ‘Chameleon’. It has been covered by Lene Lovich (1979), by Soft Cell (2002) and Klaxons (2007). Pulp have played the song live. Edinburgh Gin used the song to soundtrack a TV advertising campaign in 2019 and 2020.

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“I’ll find some crowded avenue, though it will be empty without you” September 27, 2012

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 5:20 am
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I guess most of you have already heard of the sad passing of the great Andy Williams. I can remember watching his show when I was a kid; he introduced the Osmonds to the world and who from my generation can forget the Cookie Monster? I went through a period in my teens where I told myself I didn’t like Andy Williams’ music because it was classed as Easy Listening and my Mum and Dad liked it. As a teenager, certainly in those days, it was just really uncool to like the music your parents liked, although I did let Elvis through that cool versus uncool sieve.

But as I got older I began to realise just how talented a singer Mr Williams was. He could take a song that was completely identifiable with another artist and make it his own. Notably “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons classic. (I do still love Frankie’s version as well). He could take a song and sing it so well that any cover would pale into insignificance, I’m mostly talking of “Can’t Get Used To Losing You” here. Then of course there is his truly sublime version of the beautiful “Moon River“.

People will say that to leave this mortal coil at 84 is a good innings and maybe it is, compared to many, but Andy Williams will be sadly missed. So my feelings go out to his family, friends and his legions of fans across the world. RIP Andy Williams, you were a true icon.

 

“If a day could last forever you might like your ivory tower” December 22, 2011

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:05 am
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We’re easing down that Christmas road pretty fast now, it’s December 22nd and we’re at the letter V on my ABC of Motown Advent Calendar. I have a confession to make before I tell you what the song is. It doesn’t begin with V, it was so difficult to find a V song. So for today I have opted for an artist whose surname starts with a V. It is the one and only Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons with the Northern Soul classic, “The Night”

In 1970 the group signed to Motown subsidiary label Mowest and the single was originally released in 1971 in the UK with no success it was never issued in the US. When it was re-released in the UK in 1975 following a lot of interest in Northern Soul clubs it reached number 7 in the UK charts.

When the band left Motown in 1974 Frankie Valli wanted to buy the master tapes of everything they had recorded for the label. However when he heard the price he decided to buy just one song for $4,000. That song was “My Eyes Adored You” which Valli took to Private Stock records who wanted to release it as a Frankie Valli solo single. They did and it became a massive hit reaching number one on the US Billboard charts and number 5 in the UK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HA9xblnYZs

I also found a couple of strange covers while looking for this song; firstly Pulp (sorry Jarvis it really isn’t very good mate) then Lene Lovich (a little weird) and finally Soft Cell (a faithful rendition). I prefer the original to all of these though. How about you?