This article started off by a casual remark from a seller at a record fair, that as he didn’t have any Dion, would I be interested in some 4 Seasons, because in his view collectors of one tended to be collectors of the other.

It suddenly stuck me that my collection contained a number of Seasons singles collected in the early 60’s but until that stage, I had never seen the parallels between the two. This point was again reinforced by Ace who are in the process of re-releasing all the 60’s Seasons back catalogue on double album CD’s, in the same manner they did so successfully with the Dion and the Belmonts back catalogue.

In some ways its not surprising that there are many parallels between the 2 artists careers . Both were white Italian Americans and lived their formative years in New York - one in the Bronx and the other in New Jersey - and had a common heritage of black doo-wop music.

Both had unsuccessful solo records before finding success with the group format. Valli had a false start with the group the 4 Lovers which evolved into the Seasons by the sixties.

Dimucci’s success with the Belmonts was more instant, leading to pressure which broke up the group, in the early sixties. Dion was on an equal share of the groups profits, which may have contributed to his departure - despite his usual claims that the split was totally due to musical differences. In contrast Valli from the early days has been the major owner of the Seasons which has from day one been committed to his success.

While the Belmonts street sounds are clearly reflected in their first records, by the time of the second album, the company producers and tin pan alley were firmly in the driving seat. The Seasons lack of instant success gave Valli the chance to build up a support team of song writers, producer and arranger so that when success arrived they were able to resist company pressures to follow received wisdom, over what songs to record and how to arrange them.

Dimucci’s campaign to win some independence was clearly bringing results on his later Laurie solo albums (Lovers who Wander), where he had persuaded the smaller company to work his way and had built up the team to support him.

Having said they both have a common musical heritage there are clear distinctions between their sounds which amount to more than just Valli’s falsetto voice. Both started with Doo-wop and developed into a close harmony pop sound by the sixties , but what distinguishes the 2 sounds is Dimucci’s emphasis on the harsher blues street sounds and the Seasons greater emphasis on mainly Latin American rhythms.

Both Valli and Dimucci moved from smaller to larger record companies but there the ways start to part. Valli moved from Vee-Jay to Phillips and took his team with him - Columbia bought Dion the pop star and left the production team behind.

The inconsistencies of Dimucci can be clearly heard in the LP Ruby Baby . Dimucci has a tin pan alley old hack to assist him with writing and the covers of song standards follow unimaginative lines. By contrast the Seasons Dawn Go Away LP contains only 2 original songs but has 8 standards with dramatically different arrangements.

Dimucci was able to regain his successful format with his next album before going off to explore different horizons - much against the will of his record company.

Into the late 60’s

Valli was able to continue his successful hit making ways until the mid sixties, by a combination of group and solo performances. Problems came in the late sixties when they were perceived as being too slow in developing to the new market. While they tried to catch up with singles like ‘Watch the Flowers Grow’ and albums like ‘New Life Gazette’ they quickly became yesterdays men.

Dimucci was largely off the seen until the old team from Laurie came back with an interesting proposal, which set his career on course until the mid seventies with a new audience (or just his old one a little matured?).

It is in the area of material that the main differences appear. Dimucci was left to his own resources with occasional collaborators to help him reach new heights. Valli who never composed, had the team of Crewe and Gaudio to provide him with a constant flow of exceptional quality material. This team had many similarities to Lennon and McCartney in terms of melody and range. If any doubt you just need to look at some of the album and B Sides that became hits for others - ‘Silence is Golden’ and ‘Silhouettes in the Shade’. There are many other examples of inferior British covers of Seasons USA hits.

Both would concentrate on album projects which interested their hard-core fans, but didn’t reach a wider audience ( the Seasons included a Motown experiment Chameleon). The Seasons did however manage to re-unite the singles and album markets with the excellent ‘Who love you’ and their international best selling single ‘1963 Oh what a night’ (interestingly with Valli only becoming a support singer in his own group) before once again sliding from the seen.

While Dimucci continued to explore his idiosyncratic career path through the late seventies and eighties, Valli became a firm favourite on the golden oldies circuit. Was Valli forced to take this route because his creative team were now putting their energies elsewhere? Dion could now collaborate with whom he chose depending on the mood he wished to create.

Dimucci resisted the revival circuit until the late 80’s.

While Dimucci continues to release occasional original albums, Valli now seems to be just a touring hits show - an excellent one as I cam confirm from a recent Brentwood show. At least Valli still tries to cater for his wide international audience. Dimucci seems to feel less committed to his overseas audience.

Given to parallels between their 2 careers it is surprising that there has been no musical collaboration over the years. I am only aware of 1 photo of the 2 stars together. While the cream of New York’s rock seen has appeared with Dion, live, or on record, Valli was never one of these. There is a dedication to Valli on the Streetheart cover but no appearance.

Was there some deadly rivalry between these 2 - the type of fiction that used to sell pop magazines years ago, or do the 2 just feel incompatible? It would be interesting to know.

In the meantime both singers have left distinct bodies of work that can be appreciated by all doo-wop fans. If in doubt I would recommend that you buy the first 2 ACE 4 Seasons CD’s - you won’t be disappointed.