Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – Live In Atlantic City 1992 (Umbrella Entertainment/Region Four/4/PALDVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Concert: B

 

 

PLEASE NOTE: This DVD can only be operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Four/4 PAL format software and can be ordered from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment at the website address provided at the end of the review.

 

 

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons are one of the greatest groups in music history, yet you don’t always hear enough about them and yet, their music is still popular, influential and include many classics.  Arriving in 1962, they were having #1 hits immediately (no American band has past their 5 #1 singles to this day, though The Eagles and K.C. & The Sunshine Band have tied) and when The Beatles arrived, they were the only U.S. act that was considered their equivalent in talent, energy and showmanship.  Thirty years later, they taped this concert in Atlantic City and the big surprise is not only is it good, but how good it is.

 

The huge stage success of the Musical production Jersey Boys has revived interest in the band further and Umbrella in Australia has reissued this solid DVD of the band Live In Atlantic City 1992 including Valli’s big solo hits and a few other surprises.  The tracks include:

 

1)     Working My Way Back To You

2)     Dawn

3)     Who Loves You

4)     I’ve Got You Under My Skin

5)     Beggin’

6)     My Eyes Adored You

7)     Silver Star

8)     December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)

9)     Swearin’ To God

10)  Remember When

11)  Sunday Kind Of Love

12)  Blue Moon

13)  Grease (The Theme From)

14)  Silence Is Golden

15)  Opus 17

16)  Fallen Angel

17)  Can’t Take My Eyes Off You

18)  Sherry

19)  Walk Like A Man

20)  Big Girls Don’t Cry

21)  Bye Bye Baby

22)  Let’s Hang On

 

 

First, Valli is in fine voice form after dealing with some voice issues in the 1970s that threatened his classic sound, second, the performances here are really good throughout and three, the 74 minutes are great and just long enough to make this a must-own DVD.  If you can play back Region 4 DVDs, you’ll find this a key music DVD to get.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is a little aged as the transfer seems a little weak, as does the analog NTSC video that may not have weathered aging as well as had been hoped.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is somewhat stereo, but nothing sonically stunning, yet is consistent.  The only extra is a set of trailers for other Umbrella music DVDs.

 

 

As noted above, you can order this PAL DVD import exclusively from Umbrella at:

 

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo