![]() ![]() I mean, I don’t know if the Bee Gees own any of their catalog they should. But I just couldn’t get that message across - either that or I didn’t do a good job. I was a very strong believer that you could get four or five artists, put it together, and go to a major record company and get $25-30 million for them to distribute your records on your label, and the artists would own the record company. I can’t begin to tell you how many people in our industry and our business that I tried to talk into doing exactly what we did. And we went on to the next record company and leased our records to the next record company, so that they came back to us at the end of the lease.Ī lot of artists have to wish they had followed that model of owning and leasing their material. Instead of settling with them for the money, we settled for taking back everything that we recorded and owned it. ![]() The way that whole thing happened was, when we left Vee-Jay Records, there were some situations with money that was not coming to us that should have been, and that helped us to make up our mind what we wanted to do. ![]() I’m sure that, without that, there are many artists out there that have recorded material that’s still in the can. ![]() It was a sacrifice to be on top of your career and in charge of what happens with your career, knowing that at the end of the day, everything comes back to you. Major record companies would never gone for a deal where you lease your records to them, and at the end of the period of time that they’ve been leased to have, they come back to you. In most cases, we were not dealing with major record companies. But for anyone who is more than just “a regular Frankie fan,” this is an example of the kind of physical media that dreams are made of. A collection of sleeve art and softcover album-by-album annotation by Ken Charmer also round out the set, not to mention the 44 CDs being supplemented by an LP copy of the cult favorite album “The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette.” Something this extraordinarily comprehensive doesn’t come at a cost that’s accessible to someone who really just wants the basic hits, or in massive quantities - it’s a limited edition of 2,500 and the rock-bottom sale price is around $400. What will be at least as valuable for the faithful as having those dozens of hours of music in one thick doorstop of a set will be the accompanying printed material, including a hardback coffee-table book that includes an essay by Paul Sexton and interviews by Ken Sharp, with the musicians and writers involved all providing memories, as well as talks with celebrity fans from Billy Joel to Little Steven. Very few acts in music have gotten a boxed set this comprehensive, but then again, few have the kind of output that started out so prolifically and then went on to span a half-century of releases. How deep? Well, there’s a new Four Seasons boxed set, “Working Our Way Back to You - The Ultimate Collection,” that includes what feels about 400 seasons’ worth of material… 45 discs’ worth, to be precise. It’s a dozen major hits from the ‘60s and ‘70s that remain foremost in the thoughts of pop fans, but the catalog of group and solo material goes much deeper than almost anyone who’s not a truly seasoned Valli fanatic would guess. Substitute “ears” for “eyes,” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” still applies for much of the world when it comes to the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. ![]()
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