First, Billboard wasn’t always very good in its research and assessment of B sides. Many radio stations had “Marlena” at #1 or near the top of the chart and listed before “Candy Girl” during part of the chart run.

Too often, Billboard peak Hot 100 position influences what songs continue to get played over the years and this influences research, as “oldies” and other stations only play a few hundred recurrent records in their normal rotations.

For example, I sometimes wonder why I hear “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You”, a Beatles B side that was judged to peak at #95, and not “Marlena”, which peaked at #36.

Let me say that I have liked many of the covers of FV4S songs by other artists. I have often come to appreciate both the original and the cover versions.

One reason “Silence Is Golden” may not have been released as a Four Seasons” single was that it ran a little long at 3:23 for the milieu of 1964 Chart Hits. This often got songs rejected by PDs of many radio stations at the time. The Tremeloes version shaved about 15 seconds off the song by singing it faster and a doing a little editing. Fifteen seconds was an eternity to PDs of that time. The only things that really bother me about the Tremeloes version is that all versions are monaural that I’ve ever heard, and the audio quality isn’t as good as the Four Seasons stereo version.

One thing we also neglected to mention is that Cher did a cover of “The Sun Ain’t Gonn Shine Anymore” a few years ago and that that version was featured on an episode of “The X Files”.

Finally, being quite familiar with well over 100 FV4S tracks, it really becomes difficult to single out favorites, as there are so many.

Elton John admitted he was a big fan in the 1970s, and it could well have influenced the Piano Arpeggio Introduction to “Grey Seal” from “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” which is very reminiscent of the Piano Arpeggio Introduction in “Save It For Me”. And the end fade of “Save It For Me” seems to have also heavily influenced the fade out of “Make Believe” by Wind (actually Tony Orlando).

Adrian Baker, fomerly of Gidea Park, which recorded the “Seasons of Gold” Four Seasons Medley, toured with and actually sang lead on “Sherry” at a BEACH BOYS Concert a few years ago! This was well before “Jersey Boys” began to take off.

I agree that the 4 Seasons were influences for many artists if only acknowledged by Bill Joel. For example, one commenter like yourself made a great point that Tommy DeVito’s guitar introduction on “C’mon Marianne” was in effect copied by organist Ray Manzarak (spelling may be off) of the Doors on “Touch Me.”

I agree “Marlena” is one of the best also. I think that “Marlena” had an influence on Graham Nash in the Hollies’ “Carrie Anne”. I suspect that Graham Nash was a big secret fan of the Four Seasons, and evolved that “Roop doop dooby doop” of “Marlena” into the “Doo doo doo doo doot” in “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” by Crosby, Stills and Nash. But you’ll never read that in Rolling Stone publications.

What an insightful comment about “To Give.” It would indeed make a great Broadway tune…kind of like the “Impossble Dream.” There may be one small problem, however, and this is not a knock against any of the great singers who play Frankie Valli in the show, but who would be able to sing “To Give” live every night. You would have to be an operatic tenor, or Frankie Valli in 1968, to sing it. I recall Frankie singing “To Give” live on the old Joey Bishop show with a full orchestra and his own personal horn section. I also have some tape recordings of Frankie singing “To Give” live in concert in 1968 and his singing of it is absolutely stunning and moving. Ditto for Frankie’s live closing on “My Mother’s Eyes” even better than his “Solo” album rendetion.

In 1970, Frankie replaced those two songs in the show with “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore)” and “Circles in the Sand” both of which were much better than the recordings and of course had a closing rather than a fade out ending. When I first heard “Circles in the Sand” in a concert just before the release of the “Half and Half” album, I would have given 10 to 1 that it was going straight to number one. No promotion and a mediocre recorded version, however (although the single release did have a closing instead of a fade out ending as does the album cut, but nowhere near as effective as when Frankie did it live in concert). Bob Gaudio provided the “double tracking” effect to Frankie’s lead on “Circle in the Sand” in concert.