Wherein I Recommend 10 Songs by Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons

Good morrow, my dears! I hope you're enjoying life this fine April day. I rather am. Spring has come to the city, but spring feels more like summer; there are ice cream trucks and music bumping on the streets, and the sun is out and the trees are unfurling their greenery and somewhere there must still exist in the world the smell of fresh-cut grass. And it's putting me in a mood to listen to a certain kind of music, i.e., Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons. 

(That's a mouthful, though, even for a keyboard, so if I start abbreviating it as FV&4S, you know what I mean.) 

I don't really know how it's possible to talk about something as emotional and not-intellectual as music, especially indescribably-summer-vibesy, just-plain-fun-but-also-culturally-nostalgic music. But I'm gonna try.

Cuz it's just possible you don't yet properly know Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, dear reader, and I'm hopeful this post may be helpful for purposes of introduction.

So. Yeah. Songs by Frankie Valli that I think are objectively fantastic.

(Most of them are from Back to the Diner, a compilation CD I found at ye olde used bookstore one summer and have been playing regularly ever since. But "Peanuts" and "Everybody Knows My Name" are more recent discoveries via YouTube.)

(Also, I'm quoting lyrics from memory, so maybe don't quote me on them.) 

RECOMMENDED SONG #1: "PEANUTS"

If you have ever loved someone so much that you just wanted to giggle and dance and squeal about how great they are in a most undignified, naive, and highly satisfying manner, then this song is for you.

I think it's designed for a boyfriend/girlfriend dynamic (most of these are), but I also think it works much better (vibes-wise) for little kids. Because they're peanuts, don't you know. (I don't know about you but my grandma always called me "Peanut" when I was little.) 

If you have small and highly energetic children you need to somehow entertain, I highly recommend letting them have a dance party to this song. The practice has brought me boundless joy in the past.

(I dunno, guys. This might just be my favorite song. Ever.)

RECOMMENDED SONG #2: "STAY"

I don't quite know how to sum this one up without being totally cheesy (not that that ever stops me).

It's...very much a boy/girl dynamic ("your daddy won't mind/and your mama won't mind/if we have another dance, dear/just one more time"), but it also works as a metaphor for Christ's love for us, and...I love it on both levels. The first is just so human in a warm and pathetic way. And the other has done great things for my spiritual life.

"Stay" is just such a powerful word, y'know? It's such a humble request--not "love me," not "do this thing for me," just "stay"--and yet it's also asking everything. It's asking for you to give of yourself in a deeply personal way. Not "I want x from you," but just "I want you." It's what Jesus asked from His disciples at His agony and it's all John and Mary could do for Him at the foot of the cross. And it's what we can offer Him today when we spend time in prayer or in service to other people even when it's...boring for us.

So. Yeah. I just like it a lot. 

The vocals are my favorite thing about it, I should probably add--it's just so fun to sing along to. That goes for Frankie Valli in general, I guess, but still. 

It hits, as the kids say. No one wants to be alone; everyone wants a someone (which sometimes means romance and sometimes not). And this song GETS that, man. Both the general need to not be lonely, and the specific emotional need for a specific person.

Just. Yeah. Me likey.

Moving on.

RECOMMENDED SONG #3: "LET'S HANG ON"

This was, methinks, the first song that began to convince me that Frankie Valli was more than just a tinny squawky bunch of music notes and shallow lyrics strung together by guys who couldn't actually sing. That embarrassing opinion, you see, is what I thought when this music was just a random piece of my brother's workout playlist (he's eccentric). 

But then I heard my sister singing this one:

"let's hang on to what we got, don't let it go, girl, we got a lot, got a lot of love between us, hang on, hang on, hang on to what we got" 

And this line:

"that little chip of diamond on your hand it ain't a fortune baby but you know it stands for the love...we just can't leave behind us" 

Love takes WORK, is the gist of it. The feelings are nice and all but it's not about the feelings, it's about commitment.

Which...is fairly basic but you don't find it a lot in pop music. Y'know?

Anywho. Again, the lyrics are great, but what makes the song is the music. 

Gee. Writing this post is making me realize that FV&4S is an INTENSELY emotional gig. Like, their whole shtick is that they GET human feelings and give humans an outlet to SING those feelings in a committed manner. 

But not in a simplistic manner. There's tension between different shades of emotions in a lot of their songs--like here there's the guy's anxiety to keep his girl + his conviction that love is worth fighting for. 

But other songs are better examples of Frankie Valli's emotional complexity so let's move on.

RECOMMENDED SONG #4: "OPUS 17"

Now, this is what I mean by emotionally complex. There's so much going on in this one. The guy's just realized his girl is in love with someone else, so obviously he's hurt and a little angry and just plain sad. But also he wants the best for her, and also he's doing his best to be brave about the whole thing; and he's at once in some semblance of despair while also holding out a sliver of hope that someday she might come back to him. 

"I'll be strong, I'll try to carry on, although you know I'll miss you when you're gone"

"don't you worry 'bout me" 

Except you can't just sing, "don't you worry 'bout me." You have to shout it: "so don't you 

WOR-

RY 

BOUT 

ME

!"

Ahem. 

Very good breakup song, this. It's angry, it's mournful, it's sacrificial, it's self-righteous. It's complicated. Like a real breakup might be. 

And did I mention it's very, very, VERY fun to sing in the car? Like, on repeat? Specifically when you're running just a little bit late and have to go the speed limit? (I didn't say I was speeding. I said I was going the limit. There's a difference.) 

RECOMMENDED SONG #5: "EVERYBODY KNOWS MY NAME"

This is one of Frankie Valli's sad ones.

In all honesty, I don't know it too well yet. But my sister recommended it to me with many teary-eyed emojis. And it didn't take me more than half a listen to understand how profoundly the teary-eyed emojis deserved to be there.

We really feel for the narrator, is all. He is, by his own implication, something of a jerk. But he knows he's a jerk, you see. He regrets having made himself so very much alone. And I'm sure he'll find somebody to love him someday.

RECOMMENDED SONG #6: "WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU"

Speaking of finding love someday--

--the narrator of this one is also a character whom we (my sisters and I) care about pretty deeply. He had somebody to love him, you see, but he blew it in a major way. And we're just so impressed with how brutally honest he is about what a jerk he used to be: "I used to love to make you cry, it made me feel like a man inside"--like, whoa. Talk about vulnerability. 

Anyway, he's duly repentant, probably because the girl wised up and left him. It's probably not too much of a stretch to say he hates himself. 

And YET. He is not quite hopeless. He's throwing himself into the effort to get her back. And he's not just waiting around for her, either--he's actively trying to change himself. 

"Workin' my way back to you, babe, with a burning love inside" 

In other words, he's doing penance. It may or may not pay off in the form of a reunion before he dies. We'll just have to wait and see.

(Incidentally, we have decided this should be the Official Theme Song [not that we have the authority to choose one] for Lord Garmadon and Misako of LEGO: Ninjago [which is a surprisingly glorious TV show, just as Frankie Valli is surprisingly glorious music]. It is also the inspiration, and therefore the Official Theme Song, for a couple in my space opera [who have not come in quite yet, but they will if I live to write it].) 

RECOMMENDED SONG #7: "BIG MAN IN TOWN"

Guys I loooove this one so MUCH. It's so CUTE. It'd make such a cute movie musical.

Actually, I think a jukebox musical made up entirely of Frankie Valli songs would be positively ADORABLE and work super well, seeing as how so many of them are built around specific characters or situations. (I understand "Jersey Boys" exists, but I also get the impression it's not a jukebox musical in the specific way that I would like it to be. If I am wrong I will have to go discover my wrongness, shout for joy, and come back with a follow-up post explaining why everybody should discover this gorgeous thing of which I was woefully unaware.) 

ANYWAY "Big Man in Town" is just this guy telling this girl that he's gonna go out and make his fortune, and when he comes back he'll be able to impress her parents and give her the life she deserves. 

It's kind of pathetic and it's really cute.

And I can't help but wonder if the narrator is the same character as the narrator of "Dawn," in a moment when he had more gumption.

But does "Big Man in Town" come before or after "Dawn" in the hypothetical jukebox musical? That is the question. 

RECOMMENDED SONG #8: "DAWN"

Wherein our poor-boy narrator decides that his low socioeconomic status disqualifies him from the contest for his best girl's heart and hand, and tells her so. 

It's really very sad. 

Compared to a lot of the songs listed above it's kind of basic? But I listened to it very early on in my acquaintance with Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, and it was one of the ones (alongside "Let's Hang On") that convinced me, "Oh, these guys can be kind of mature." 

And it's a good introduction to a lot of their prominent themes, i.e. class tension and breakups. 

RECOMMENDED SONG #9: "WALK LIKE A MAN"

Man, in talking about all these tear-jerker songs I was forgetting about the FUN ones.

In "Walk Like a Man" our narrator is breaking up with his girlfriend.

Because his dad advised him to.

Assuming he's about 16 years old and has a good relationship with his dad (and a not-worth-pursuing relationship with his girlfriend, which is what we are given to believe), that's kind of adorable. 

I mean, he's basically telling her, "I don't need you! I can walk away from you, because I'm a MAN! MY DADDY SAYS SO!" 

*pats emotional young narrator on the head*

Dear boy. Don't hurt yourself. 

RECOMMENDED SONG #10: "BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY"

In the same vein as "Walk Like a Man," this one belongs on the list because...well, because, it's classic Frankie Valli. It's fun, it's defiant, it involves high school breakups, it's kind of clever. I would feel like a heel if I left it off. 

IN CONCLUSION:

Frankie Valli is a lot of fun. He's good for a wide range of moods and is surprisingly good about plumbing the depths of human emotion in a non-simplistic way. You can sit with one of his songs and spend a good chunk of time imagining exactly what kind of situation it was meant for. You can analyze the narrators of said songs like they're characters in a book. You can sing along in the car. 

And spring/summer is the best time to do all of that in, so if you're in the northern hemisphere and it's starting to get warm where you live, and if you haven't done so already, you should probably start listening to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons right now so that by the time summertime arrives in earnest you are already a committed fan. 

Anywhozens, that's all I have for you guys today! I hope you've enjoyed this interlude of music geekery. Thoughts? Opinions? Theories about Frankie Valli characters which you should like to expound upon in the comments below?

Someday my sisters and I will arrange all of our favorite Frankie Valli songs in a logical order where they tell a story about a cast of highly emotional characters, rich and poor, in small-town America circa 1965. When that great day comes, I may do a follow-up post. But I couldn't wait for that day to throw these songs at your lovely faces, not with summer well on its way. 

You DESERVE to have Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons in your life, and don't let anybody tell you different.