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Frankie Valli "Our Day Will Come / Lady Put the Light
Out" (Collectors' Choice)
4 Seasons front-man Franki Valli resuscitated his solo career in 1975
with the hit singles "My Eyes Adored You" and the disco-tinged hit
"Swearin' to God." Both were featured on his Private Stock debut,
"Closeup," an album that charted an expansive course through various
pop forms that showed off his artistic versatility. His follow-up,
featured here, retained the disco sound on a hit remake of Ruby & The
Romantics "Our Day Will Come," and carried the dance vibe into the
album sessions. As with "Swearin' to God," however, disco's clichés
were topped winningly with the touch of soul in Valli's vocals.
That said, the bubbling bass, snappy drums, glistening strings and wah-
wah guitars are all here in their dance-floor-ready monotony. The
disco is left behind for more successful pop balladry on "Carrie (I
Would Marry You)," "Sweet Sensational Love," and "Closest Thing to
Heaven." The middle of the three is a sweet mid-tempo love song that
deserved better than to be an album track during the disco era. The LP
closes with a version of "Walk Away Renee" whose disco backing
captures neither the intense melancholy of the original, nor the
soulfulness of the Four Tops 1968 cover.
Collectors' Choice's reissue series steps out of sequence by pairing
Valli's second album for Private Stock with his fourth, "Lady Put the
Light Out." His third album, "Valli," is paired with his first,
"Closeup," on a separate CD. "Lady" continued to move away from disco
(as did "Valli"), but not without keeping some of its production
touches. On this last LP for Private Stock, Valli selected tunes from
some of pop music's best-known songwriters, including Eric Carmen's "I
Need You" and "Boats Against the Current," Paul Anka's "Second
Thoughts," Albert Hammond and Carol Bayer-Sager's "I Could Have Loved
You," and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil's "I'm Gonna Love You."
Though the monotonous dance beats were mostly gone, the polish of
disco's productions remained, particularly in the female backing
vocals and string arrangements. The results sound perfunctory, but
amid the dated arrangements Valli still imbues songs like "I Could
Have Loved You" with enough emotion to make them winners. Carmen's
"Boats Against the Current" (the title track of his own 1977 LP) is a
good fit, though this arrangement is overwrought. Disco proper rears
it's readymade head on "Native New Yorker" complete with fluid drums,
wah-wah guitars and strings. After the polished balance of "Closeup"
and "Valli," and despite the A-list songwriting talent, the routine
arrangements and mostly unmemorable songs of "Lady Put the Light Out"
are a disappointment.
As Valli's final LP for Private Stock, "Lady" closed the door on a
three-year career revival that included several hit singles, but only
middling album sales. Of the four albums, "Closeup" and "Valli" are
the superior spins. On this pair, particularly "Lady," Valli's team
sounds to be running out of inspiration. Collectors' Choice two-fer
reissue includes full-panel cover art for both albums and new liner
notes by James Ritz. [(c)2008 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com] |
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