The Smiley Smile Message Board

Does anyone know the name of the new bass player with the Beach Boys band? As mentioned previously, Randell was only back temporarily (unfortunately), and he is back with California Surf, Incorporated. The new bass player was playing with them on St Patrick's Day. From the pictures I've seen, it's not Brian Eichenberger, but someone different altogether.

Hi Eric, do share the pics as I'm sure someone on here just might recognize the new guy.

I guess he works cheaper on bass than Randall  or BW for that matter... ::)

Do you honestly think Brian Wilson could stand up and play bass for any period of time longer than one song?

Back in the day he was just fine, but he's know bassist. He's a composer...hell, he's THE composer.

 Keith Hubacher.  He came from Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Nice one, Bhw. I noticed today that someone had named "Keith ?? ??" as current bassist on the live BB wikipage. Seems KH has even acted in Jersey Boys:

http://www.jerseyboysinfo.com/vegas/cast.html

Yeah that was me. I read from someone here that BB Britain listed Keith, but there was no last name given, so I, uh, improvised. :lol

Well, if anyone knows how to polish an old man turd and pass it off for live music, it's someone from Frankie Valli's lineup!

While I can't blame the members of Valli's backing band (though some musicians would certainly have a hard time dealing with it), Frankie Valli's live shows are borderline false advertising and legally actionable at this stage from everything I've seen. He literally appears to lip-sync his shows and apparently has been for quite some time.

I think one guy even lined up multiple Valli live performances on YouTube to prove it's the same pre-recorded lead vocal. Even without that evidence, it always sounds way too clean, and has a totally "studio" ambience to the sound.

Say what you want about any era of any BB tour, but they never resorted to lip-synching all or most of their shows.

Very true on both accounts. Valli doesn't even hide it anymore. I wouldn't pay five bucks to watch him stand on stage.

I don't know if he fully lip synch's, but certainly appears that the sound is layered and he is more singing along with the pre recorded vocal. Then again, the sound is often way too clear for a live vocal, so maybe it is all pre recorded. Someone should ask this new guy Keith, though perhaps he signed some sort of "gag order" thing when he played with Frankie. Who, by the way, is a true legend in the business, and if he is lip synching, it's really kind of sad.

I watched a number of videos not too long ago, spanning from very recent to seemingly almost a decade ago, and everything sounded and appeared to be 100% lip synched.

It's certainly sad. I mean, a bunch of other professional singers have to face up to maybe not being able to sing well enough once they hit the mid-80s as Valli nearly has.

I'm genuinely curious if Valli's voice is like literally gone, or if he just stopped being able to hit the high notes 20 years ago and started going to tapes. His speaking voice doesn't seem too thrashed, so I wonder if he could just sing the mid-range stuff and, as BB touring bands have been doing for ages, just hand the falsetto stuff off to someone else. Maybe he did that at some point.

But considering he doesn't appear to do a lot of studio work anymore, I'm not sure when the last time is that anybody actually heard Valli's *current* singing voice. I'd be curious to know when his canned lead vocal tracks were recorded. The recordings are definitely him.

But someone should tell Valli that even if he's been lip syncing to little criticism (outside of some negative reviews on Ticketmaster and YouTube) for a decade or more, at any moment in the "social media age" it could all of a sudden blow up into a scandal. Not that 83-year-old Frankie Valli doing the oldies circuit is going to be a top headline, but as we've learned time and time again, a lot of the "breaking" stories about scandals consist of things that have been going on for years and years, often in plain public view. I'm stunned that Valli still does the lip syncing. I've seen published articles for local papers that point out he's lip syncing. There's at least one article where the writer contacted Valli's management to get some answers (they, obviously, did *not* admit he lip syncs, though they offered the technically accurate statement that every note heard on stage is Valli, which wouldn't preclude an old recording being played back).

I highly doubt the new guy playing with Mike would ever say anything publicly about this. It would do him zero good.

I can tell you first hand that Valli plays to a pre-recorded vocal.  The venue where I work at, has booked him almost every year for at least the last 10 years and while he does sing some live, all of the falsetto parts and a lot of the lead vocals are recorded.  About 4-5 years ago, we actually had to delay very briefly, one of his shows because they were having problems with the recording.  His band is obviously 100% live as are the backing vocals of the "Four Seasons (Jersey Boys)".  It truly is amazing though that either the people attending don't care or don't realize what is going on.

And Hey Jude, I believe he recorded something a few years ago that was covers of 60's love songs or something like that.  I vaguely remember seeing it being sold at his merch table. 

I wonder if Mike's going down Valli's route soon? >:D

Mike is already mixing in pre-recordings of his voice. It's obvious with the new "Do it Again" and "Getcha Back" recordings. I don't know what you call this. It's the same thing Cher does. She sings with herself on most songs. Albeit, Mike only does it on a handful. It's not true lip-synching because he is singing at the same time as the recording.

Doubtful that anyone has EVER noticed but I'm NOT exactly Mike Love's biggest fan.  Believe it or not I am NOT a member of the Love Mike fan club.  That said [millions of times]...the old boy just turned 77.  The voice may be the last 'thing' to go...BUT it does go.

I AM a long time Frankie Valli fan.  1 year longer than I've been a Beach Boys fan...starting in 1962.  And I would PAY to go watch Frankie "stand there" if I didn't have to travel a long distance and rent accommodations.  He's a giant.  An all time great and just to show up to say "thanks a LOT" one more time, to me, is worth it.  Frankie is almost 84.  Early May I think he'll turn another page.  And the voice does go.

So?  Think he has a pension plan?  That's a big contingent up there on stage with him...WAY more than Michael is up there warbling with.  How many mouths does he feed?  How many tricks do these guys need to employ so that we can show up and share the music with the guy...or guys...who actually had a hand in creating these all time life memories?  If they have to 'fake it' in order to be there as the authentic 'guys'...I'm OK with it.

If they have to use technical devices like auto-tune or tone or whatever the f*** it is...and as long as people are willing to pay money to be there with them to relive those songs and memories...I'm good with it.  They weren't and they AREN'T Milli Vanilli.

That said...at least Frankie isn't out there month after month sticking yet 'another one' in Bob Gaudio's back or claiming that he wrote all of the songs or complaining forever and a day about Nick Massi's dirty underwear or Tommy Devito's criminal record.  But then Frankie Valli likely has a convoy's worth of class more than my other hero in this particular post.  Still...they both do serve up good memories...in their own unique ways.

I'm not doubting the character of Frankie Valli and in no ways comparing it to Michael E. Love.

I just have a serious problem with false advertising. He should be doing what he can, not pretending to do what he used to.

Maybe this is "beneath him" as I know many performers feel this way, but he could make a KIILING on the convention circuit...signing autographs, taking photos, maybe singing a tune here and there. That would be a better way to give back to fans that are okay with just seeing the man. But no matter who it is, I have a serious problem with lip-synching....especially denying it. If the team owned up to it, maybe I'd feel differently.

He could make a karaoke circuit gimmick out of it....sell a fancy VIP package to come and sing on stage LIKE Frankie Valli, WITH Frankie Valli  :lol

Ya...I know.  I hear you.  It's just...like...what should we expect from guys that old? 

I fear that it's too much.

I still think he can manage some songs. WhenI saw him 5 years ago the opening song was Dawn and the closing set started with Stay, which sounded live to me, and still does.

https://youtu.be/Qmq67uEEbn0

He is also doing some covers this year, again pretty good if live.

https://youtu.be/frsFOOpmY3E

I think his main issue is the falsetto and 90 minute shows. Still has a strong talking voice IMO.

I can't find many clips of those covers...but if you listen to other clips of "Stay" it is identical. Not a single inflection differs at any point in any recording.

I read several years ago...and  more than once, that Frankie is deaf. He may be using timing - and intimate knowledge of the recorded songs -- to continue to perform

The amount of autotune on some of these Valli pre-recorded vocals is almost on the same level as Unleash The Love disc two!

Back to Mike's new bass player- has he been given any lead vocals yet?

I could be totally wrong, but the vibe I'm getting is that this is not a guy who is going to be given a bunch of lead vocals in the way that Eichenberger was. I could be totally wrong of course.

The thing I get from those Valli performances is that the tone/ambience of the lead vocal is totally off. It *sounds* pre-recorded. There's not even a slight variance in volume, which happens with any singer as they move a bit closer or farther away from the mic while they sing. Valli not once cracks on a single note. No warble. No notes where he can't hold the note as long as pretty much *all* older singers experience. It doesn't help that in most every video I've seen, Valli is stone-faced if not appearing to be annoyed or bored. He stiffly holds the mic (though that may be on purpose so that nobody notices the volume of his voice *not* changing when he moves the mic away).

I would guess it's *all* pre-recorded, if for no other reason than the likelihood of the pre-recorded stuff sticking out *even more* if he switched over to actually singing live, which would likely sound quite different.

I think Valli still does interviews and whatnot, right? I doubt he's actually fully deaf. He may have extensive hearing loss, I dunno. I know he was having ear problems all the way back in the mid 70s, which was cited (whether correctly or not; I'm not a Four Seasons expert) as one of the reasons he started cutting stuff like "Who Loves You" and "December 1963" where other vocalists were to the fore more so than in the olden days.

What's strange is that it has only been in the last decade or so, after the success of "Jersey Boys", that Valli switched over to a live show format where he has four dudes singing in a line next to him, as vocalists not playing instruments. This is strange because essentially *adding* four extra vocalists would seemingly make it much easier for Valli to hand off parts to these other guys and keep the show live. I'm guessing he either wants to stay mostly the sole focus of the show, and/or his voice has eroded the point he can't sing much of anything. Normally I wouldn't lob such suggestions, even as theories, but when the guy has seemed to lip-sync for perhaps over a decade, it's hard not to assume the worst.

I don't know if there are clips, but does he do any backing vocals or does he just play bass?


Yeah, I've heard that the ear problems were the reason that Gerry Polci (drums) and Don Ciccione (bass) were added to the group, but Valli ended up having surgery in the late 70's and early 80's that fixed those problems.

Lee, he is definitely a class act.  His opening act, a comedian who goes by Stewie Stone, is the godfather of one of Frankie's kids. Stone has never had a contract with Frankie but has been touring with him for decades all based on a hand shake agreement from the 1960's.  Pretty cool nowadays for people like that to still be doing things their way.

Class acts need to be celebrated Shark my man.  Especially class acts who've been around for darned close to 60 years.  If I'mm gonna take swipes at those with a lack of class...surely I can big up a guy like Frankie...even if he can't deliver it at the ripe old age of 83 quite like he could when he was 33.  The fact that he can do more than come to the front door, smile and wave hello is blinkin' impressive.  I mean really!

And to give Mike his due...rather than the doo I usually bestow upon his countenance...to still be out there at 77 is close to being just as impressive.  [if he'd just, someone, shut the f*** up!!!  IF he would do that...take a deep breath and mellow...many of us would do the same.]

To be fair, just like the BBs, Frankie Valli has plenty of skeletons in his closet too. This business empire that he and Bob Gaudio have sat atop all these years has left plenty of hurt, disgruntled musicians (and others) in their wake.

I'm not a hardcore fan/expert, but guys like longtime bassist/singer Joe Long appear to have gotten hosed. I was just recently reading about how Valli and Gaudio tried to set up the circa 1976-77 "Four Seasons" guys as an off-shoot band, with Valli going solo. Then Gaudio and Valli just pulled the rug out from under them.

The more you read about Valli, the more he kind of seems like something of a cross between Mike Love and Joe Pesci.

All of the people of this ilk surely have complicated, layered life and professional stories. I'm not trying to trash Valli. But even taken with plenty grains of salt, the story of his career includes many people feeling victimized to varying degrees.

And I'm not particularly sympathetic to the idea that he has been lip-syncing his shows for a decade give or take. Geez, at least Mike Love (apart from perhaps whatever he's doing with his McGrath playback at his recent shows) actually sings at his shows, and the stuff he can't sing, he hands off to some other guy to sing. 

I watched/listened to a number of videos of Frankie "singing" in recent concerts, and was embarrassed, quite Frankly. Perhaps it isn't apparent to the actual audience, but geez, one would have to be a true pollyanna to think that his voice was anything other than a pre-recorded track to which he isn't even accompanying, even miming with any effort to. I really don't mind when a singer of an advanced age can't do everything he did in earlier years, but sings with others blending the high notes, etc., and can be appreciated because the place he's earned in musicdom. Mike and Brian shows are enjoyable to me for this reason, and Barry Gibb gets at there, albeit a few years younger, and earns his pennies. Is his falsetto and baritone in fine fettle? No, but it's his and he makes a sincere effort and still does it for me (I'm a chick, what can I say?)!

In terms of Frankie Valli's "dark side," a book called Big Girls Do Cry came out, coinciding with the Clint Eastwood-directed movie, Jersey Boys, that paints him in a really disgusting light in terms of his treatment of the opposite sex.   

I remember commenting on Facebook somewhere that Frankie Valli has lip-synced for years, and man did the fans come with their claws out. They ridiculed me, dismissed me and were ready to rip me to shreds! So there are fans that will defend him and assert that he's actually singing to this day!

I can’t decide what is worse. The lip-syncing or the fact that at 83 he is still so damn good at it?

You did not deserve to be ridiculed or ripped to shreds and whatever other indignity you suffered!  A quick perusal of performances in recent years on YouTube make your assertion blatantly obvious. And while I like a few of his songs and he is undeniably talented, he's not so special that I would  blindly fight for his honor.  

Thank you. I just stopped responding to the thread. I wish I could remember where it was so I could screenshot it and show it to you guys. It was crazy.

Somewhere in the General Music section is a poster who saw them live and confirmed our suspicion, but I couldn't find it. couldn't find it. Trust me...

Is it at all possible that Frankie is, in a sense, double tracking his vocals?  That is singing atop his already recorded vocal...and he missed one of 'em...thus making it look like he's lip-syncin'?  'Cause it does seem like he's also adding other audible vocal activity.  And his lips seem to work in tandem with the singing too much/too often to just be that 'lucky' at it.

I think you might be right,
Lee

Am I the only one here who is not a fan at all of the Four Seasons?

I'm not a fan of the "dancing" Four Seasons either. Give me old time players any day over the younger dancer/singer types.

Second that.

The original Four Seasons gave one of the best live perfomances I ever saw. The dancing version is bland, sorry, but that is my opinion. Designed for Broadway or UK West End stages ....not rock nor concert venues

I'm a 60s fan certainly above and beyond the 70s output.  GREAT songs though from '62 and Sherry to '67 and C'mon Marianne.  Later on ... I prefer Dec. 63 over Who Loves You as well.  And solo...My Eyes Adored You to Grease.  But really?  The whole body of work is pretty impressive.  Few have done as well.

Billy! I am  :o. They were referenced as the east coast Beach Boys and had that great harmony thing goin' on with incredible hooks and tantalizing melodies. I mean like "Sherry", "Marlena", "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Candy Girl", "Walk Like A Man", etc. Maybe it really was an east coast thing, you know, the guys from New York, New Jersey. While they weren't the Beach Boys for sure, they did have a strong presence on the charts.  8)

That’s the thing... coming up, it took me a long time to get into The Beach Boys because I thought they were like the Four Seasons, whom I’ve never cared for. Well, that’s not entirely true... I don’t mind the later period stuff. I really don’t like Frankie Valli’s falsetto.

Child Father Of The Man
Adrian Baker ---- Frankie Valli  :lol

CEO's of grating falsettos

Was it here? http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,16685.msg569763.html#msg569763

Yes, JK. And I looked at more recent videos, as well as older ones. A salient difference is that in the newer ones, he doesn't breathe as one would when singing. Example: "Call her ...rag Doll..." (expect to breathe as others sing refrain, then big breath and ...)"Such a pretty face..." The chest  barely moves; he simply breathes as one would during a close-range conversation. As an advanced age, I'm thinking that he should have to breathe even harder than in his youth.  Perhaps with Leonard Cohen-style of "singing"  this might be real, but...However, I'll defer to those who know more about these things. By the way, I give Frankie all due respect for his body of work. While not a fan per se, I could never do what he did! And  "Your Just Too Good to be True " is over-the-top-great, IMO.

I've watched a ton of live videos on YouTube from his shows over the past decade, and every single one shows a single lead vocal, for which it looks and sounds like Valli is lip-syncing. For whatever reason, he's lip-syncing most or all of his shows and has been for many, many years. (The only reason I can't say with 100% certainty that every single song is canned is because people rarely post an entire show from start to finish on YouTube).

The music industry is nuts sometimes. Singers who *don't* need autotune use it. Brian Wilson, who absolutely *can* play piano, still "fake" played on his first tour in 1999. So I'm not even prepared to say Frankie Valli *can't* sing. The business is screwy enough that maybe his voice *isn't* 100% shot, yet he chooses to mime. Either way, the result is miming.

The same thing appears to happen on YouTube comments. A bunch of people point out the *obvious* miming, and random people aggressively defend him, figuratively if not literally with fingers in their ears going "la la la la la, I'm not listening to you!"

No, I'm not really a fan.   I find Frankie Valli's high vocals to be grating (ie. big girls, they don't cry-y-y-).   

I can't say I've ever been a huge fan of Valli or the band specifically. But they released a string of great songs, great compositions. Yes, they often kind of reeked of being a year (or several) behind and trying to catch up to trends. The "Geniuine Imitation Life Gazette" is clearly, a few years too late, trying to do the Sgt. Pepper/Pet Sounds/Smile sort of thing. But they still had some good songs on there. "Saturday's Father" is a total PS rip-off, but it's a good rip-off.

I think they hit a stride where there were some undeniably catchy, excellent songs like "Tell it to the Rain" (another case of trying to hit a bit of a mid-era BB/Beatles note), "Opus 17", "Working My Way Back to You" and "Let's Hang On" (the former being somewhat of a rewrite of the latter, at least on the verses), and I love stuff like "Dawn" (and it's excellent knock-off/rewrite "Ronnie"). "Sherry" is good but rather overplayed and "Big Girls Don't Cry" is also good but kind of goofy, but I can't deny "Walk Like a Man" is a good one as well.

The stuff I tend to skip over is Valli's crooner stuff, "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", "My Eyes Adored You", etc.

I think the idea that the Four Seasons were peers of the BBs is stretching it quite a bit. But as always, especially being a fan of the BBs and Beatles, I don't need other bands to measure up to the standard to still be enjoyable.

I have the four-disc "Jersey Beat" Four Seasons set, and that's a great set with all of the major stuff worth having. I even dig "Who Loves You" and "December 1963" as sort of mid-70s bubble gum.

I think Brian's "falsetto" was much more pleasing to the ears, and much more "musical" for lack of a better way to put it.

But props to Valli; in the 60s he could sing and did sometimes put some 'tude into his vocals. I'm not big on the "Tough Jersey Guys" stuff nor the Joe Pesci mob motifs and all of that, but I enjoy his vigorous vocals on stuff like "Let's  Hang On." I also think his falsetto stuff is just something you have to get used to. Listen to the end of something like "Ronnie." It's so ridiculously over the top high that's it's actually pretty impressive. He probably lost the ability to hit *those* notes before the end of the 60s (let us all remember he's EIGHT years older than Brian for instance), which is why it's especially noteworthy to listen to those original Four Seasons records.

Yeah, it's pretty lame that he adopted the "Jersey Boys" thing for his shows, bringing on four super generic young bleached-teeth guys in suits, all to mostly just add backing vocals to pre-taped leads.

His shows of the mid-late 70s into the early 80s and even the early 90s were at least respectable. He actually sang live, and just had a regular band behind him which included musicians who also sang backing vocals, and he even had an auxiliary guy by the late 80s/early 90s on keys to do the Gerry Polici lead bits ("Silver Star", "December 1963"). Even going back to the 80s (and maybe even 70s), Valli's shows had somewhat of a bloated Vegas-style vibe. But he had good musicians.

I recall he used to even feature his backing band doing an instrumental bit (I want to say at one show on tour in the 70s they did some music from the "Earthquake" soundtrack or something like that).

I always liked the first replacement guy on bass, Joe Long, who came on in 1965 and stayed until 1975. He survived into the early era of Polci/Ciccone, etc. I actually recently found a rare video from Mike Douglas in 1975, literally probably weeks before they fired Joe Long, of him performing "Who Loves You" with the younger guys. It's often forgotten Long was still in the band when they did that track.

I think if I were a bigger fan of their catalog, I'd get used to Valli's falsetto, but they're not my cup of tea.   I mean, I'm a fan of the vocal stylings of King Diamond and Justin Hawkins, both of whom can be very tough to take on first listen.  

Yeah, for sure one has to like the songs first and foremost. I can only speak for myself in saying I'd be pretty surprised if someone who was into melodic 60s pop (BBs, Beatles, etc.) was *not* into at least the well-known Four Seasons tracks from the 60s. Especially the sort of mid-era 60s stuff after "Sherry" and "Big Girls Don't Cry" and all of that. Stuff like "Dawn", "Opus 17", "Working My Way Back to You", "Let's Hang On", and "Tell It to the Rain" are excellent 60s pop. Bob Gaudio wrote catchy stuff, no question. It didn't have the nuance and craft of a Brian Wilson, nor did their group vocals have the quality of the BBs. They sometimes sounded pretty stiff on the backing vocals, on stuff like "Big Girls Don't Cry" (they sounded *older* than the BBs for obvious reasons). But they had good songs, solid vocal arrangements, etc. They had good session guys.

True, but as a fan of prog bands like Floyd and Genesis, I should logically be a bigger Yes fan too. 

I was in a similar discussion on this board a few years ago about Valli's falsetto. I'm not as much of a fan of the tone...the sweetness isn't there to my ears.

However - I think having Valli sing in that lower tenor-baritone range was a stroke of genius on the solo tracks, especially "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". It was a slam-bang hit song to begin with, a perfect example of mid-60's songwriting and arranging coming together beautifully, but Valli sang it in that lower register and that's where his sweetness was.

Brian's falsetto had that magic, that sweetness in the sound yet he could also cut loose and belt out in that range as he did on WIBN. But Valli's was more of a screech and had less tenderness. Too much swagger for my taste.

I certainly think Valli's mid-range, "non-falsetto" voice was more pleasing/less grating. Even in later years he sounded okay in the mid-range, stuff like his (relatively minimal) parts on "Who Loves You" in 1975.

I've *never* listened to Valli and the Four Seasons for the falsetto. That was never what attracted me to the good songs. But I guess I could say the same for the BBs. It's always about the songs; the compositions, first and foremost for me. Obviously, the greats pull it off because the material is good *and* the performances are as well.

The Four Seasons for awhile there had a good supply of good songs. Little if any of it was BB/Beatles caliber (especially the Beatles), but they did some very good stuff. I've never thought the Four Seasons were up there with the top tier of Brian/BBs/Beatles, etc. But I've also never listened to the really good Four Seasons stuff I like only to think "Well, pffft, it's not as a good as 'Pet Sounds'" or something.

But there is something to be said for the falsetto being one of the main attractions when it is being used as the hook of a song. The falsetto voice will naturally cut through the mix and dominate the soundscape because it sits above everything else in that mix by design. Listeners who don't know what a falsetto is will be drawn to that part because it's so upfront.

I was playing "I Get Around" with a student last week. As soon as Brian's falsetto "wooo-ooh" wordless phrase comes in on that intro right after the "round round get around..." part, the student said "that's what makes the whole song", and I was like "Yep!". It grabs the listener within 10 seconds of the record starting up.

But it's a smooth falsetto that sits in the mix while soaring above it at the same time. Compare that to Big Girls Don't Cry or even Dawn which is a better record than Big Girls. Valli's falsetto has that screechiness that doesn't sound as pleasing to me. As someone mentioned that cry-y-y part is kind of grating.

Just imagine Valli's falsetto doing Brian's parts on I Get Around and the differences I hear will be obvious.

Valli was a weird sort of partial mixture of a Brian and Mike type in terms of doing the leads and the falsetto bits. I can't imagine Brian sounding like Valli on some of those Four Seasons hits where he does that sort of "tough guy" snarly sort of singing.

To be clear, Valli and Gaudio and the Four Seasons were not in Brian's league in terms of writing or performance. But his falsetto deal was different from Brian's. No doubt their material was famous back then (and now) in part because of Valli's notorious falsetto, which I don't think is in any way preferable to Brian's.

But I'm only speaking for myself when I say what I like most about the Four Seasons stuff is the *songs.* They're good songs, well crafted and catchy. They never got past the "really good pop song" stage. They never had a "Surf's Up/Heroes and Villains/A Day in the Life" moment. Their band set up was never something that would have led to that, nor was the talent there.

But they simply cranked out a dozen or two great songs, and Valli's falsetto and vocals in general were never too grating to drag down the songs in any huge way (as opposed to, say, Jan Berry who literally sang flat on some J&D tracks).

Agree that his (Valli's ) falsetto was better suited to his own songs and visia versa. .  Imagining Frankie and Brian singing falsetto on each other's songs gave me a smile!

Can't forget Brian doing that little bit of Walk Like a Man at the end of Surfers Rule.

Yep.

Or the "Big Girls Don't Cry" sound (and "lie") of the vocal harmonies at "Finders keepers losers weepers"...