Frankie Valli
Tropicana Casino
Atlantic City, NJ
Sept. 11, 1986


Excellent soundboard recording (from master cassette)

A stellar recording from "The RS Arvhives"
(a Mexminute/TheCommish production)


** mp3 samples provided (as always) in the Comments section **

TheCommish notes: Here's a typically awesome-sounding show from "The RS Archives". I grew up hearing my mom play quite a bit of Frankie Valli/Four Seasons records, so most of these songs were easily recognizable to me...and likely they'll be easily recognizable to you as well. The only Frankie Valli/Four Seasons song that I could (readily) think of that isn't present in this show is "Rag Doll", which was one of the five #1 singles for The Four Seasons. I should also note that many of the songs in this show are performed as parts of medleys--which means the whole songs weren't necessarily played. But what's here is terrific, so enjoy the show!


Setlist:
01. Who Loves You
02. Dawn (Go Away)
03. Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
04. Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'bout Me)
05. I've Got You Under My Skin
06. -banter-
07. Book Of Love
08. My Eyes Adored You
09. Grease
10. Remember Then
11. December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)
12. Swearin' To God
13. Horn section intro (cuts in)
14. Can't Take My Eyes Off You
15. Sherry
16. Walk Like A Man
17. Big Girls Don't Cry
18. Bye, Bye, Baby (Baby Goodbye)
19. Instrumental
20. Streetfighter
21. More band intros
22. -banter-
23. They Don't Make Love Like They Used To (?)
24. Let's Hang On

Running time: 68:14

Lineage:
Cassette master > Nakamichi CR-7A (playback) > HHB CDR-850 (burning) > CDR, then
CDR > EAC > WAV > Editing (see below) > FLAC Frontend > FLAC

Editing notes:
* Re-tracked show (combined WAV files in Nero, then re-split with CD Wave)
* Applied small fade-out at end of Track 12
* There was a small dropout at the 0:07 mark of Track 1 (the gap lasted only 1/3 of a second, but I found it pretty annoying). Fortunately, I was able to repair the gap by patching a similar section from the 0:14 mark of Track 1. This repair was done via Nero's wave editor.


Group members in this show include (tenure with The Four Seasons per Wikipedia):

Rex Robinson (1979-2000)
Lynn Hamman (1982-1988)
Howard Laravea (1986-1988)
Chuck Wilson (1982-1992)
Larry Lingle (1981-1993)
Robby Robinson (1978-1998, 2000-?)


Frankie Valli/Four Seasons note: At the 3:11 mark of Track 9, Frankie says, "Ladies and gentleman, we'd like to mention the fact that we, as a recording entity, are now celebrating our 24th anniversary." The "we" he's referring to is obviously The Four Seasons as a unit. However, at the end of the show (the 4:17 mark of Track 24) the final outro is for "Mr. Frankie Valli" and not "The Four Seasons"...although earlier in the track Frankie does mention "the Seasons".

The other three original members of The Four Seasons left the group a long time before this 1986 show (once again, dates per Wikipedia):

Tommy DeVito (1960-1970)
Nick Massi (1960-1965)
Bob Gaudio (1960-1971)



About "The RS Archives":
The RS Archive consists of a selection of live recordings made by a great individual who passed away in 2005.

RS worked in the music industry in many capacities….a music fan….a musician….a sound engineer. He was considered one of the best behind the mixing board. I was honored to have known him for practically 35 years. There was no one like him….he was a wonderful human being. Everybody loved him. He was a level-headed guy who knew what sounded good and what didn't. He could conceive and design sound systems from scratch in his head to meet the artist’s needs. Whatever they wanted, he could do.

For years, he mixed music at the annual Grammy Awards and the American Music Awards television show. RS worked closely for years with Daryl Hall and John Oates, Juice Newton, Anita Baker, Mariah Carey, Tears for Fears, Crack the Sky, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Aretha Franklin, Pink Floyd, Whitney Houston, Bette Midler, Ann Murray, Michael Bolton, Kenny G, Tony Bennett, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, John Fogerty, Bonnie Raitt, Frank Sinatra, John Hiatt, Little Feat, Little Village, and Waylon Jennings…..to name a few.

He had a huge reputation in the business, and that's why he was chosen to work with such budding clients as Mariah Carey. With the major stars, he was one of the preferred engineers they choose to work with. A particular client of RS who had a reputation for firing sound engineers with great regularity was Anita Baker, whom he won over not only with his technical abilities and personality, but with his refusal to put up with her criticism. He quit a few times but always came back because she loved the way he mixed her music. He could coddle difficult and temperamental celebrities, and they respected his work. He was able to kick back and get along with them. Even though he knew these people, he was a very modest man.

So now, it is time to honor him by sharing some of the many recordings he made while on the road. All are perfect (or near perfect) soundboard recordings made from the master cassettes or master dat tapes. Unfortunately, I am not able to identify the original equipment these tapes were made on, however I can say that for the transferring process, the cassette tapes were played back on a Nakamichi CR-7A, and the dat tapes on a Sony PCM-R500. They were all burnt onto cdr using a HHB CDR-850.

Please enjoy these tasty gems!
Mexminute (fellow DIME member).



If you decide to download this show, won't you please consider posting a comment on the show's board? It only takes a moment, and believe me, it takes A LOT longer to prepare/upload a show for others to enjoy than it does to download and run.

And won't you please consider thanking Mexminute for sharing this mighty fine show with us?


Generously shared by Mexminute
and uploaded on DIME by TheCommish
February 2009