Monday, December 18, 2006

Son Of A "Jersey Boy"

Here's a sad little story. The son of one of the original Four Seasons haunts the Broadway house where "Jersey Boys" is playing to packed crowds. Unemployed, he tries to scalp tickets, sometimes argues with staff and complains bitterly (and apparently without justification) that his mom is being squeezed out of royalties from the show. By the way, the writer tosses in the idea that the Four Seasons have sold more than 200 million records. That hardly seems possible. Billboard says the Four Seasons have charted 22 albums and Frankie Valli seven solo CDs. The Four Seasons have 48 singles and Vallie 14. Of all of these, only the single "Grease" went platinum and only a handful of albums and singles went gold. With 89 charting albums and singles, a generous estimate would be 30 million copies sold in the US. Double it for the world and that's still only 60 million copies sold. Hey, that's a ton but where do they get 200 million copies from?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Offhand, I'd guess that damn near every 50s compilation album or tape or CD out there-be it from Rhino, Time/Life or whatever-probably has at least one 4 Seasons track on it. Not to mention any movie that takes place in the 50s that throws a Valli tune on the soundtrack. That might be where this car got the inflated 200 million number

Anonymous said...

"car" should be "cat," btw

Michael in New York said...

Hmm, maybe they are including any multi-artist compilation with a Four Seasons track on it. I hadn't thought of that and you're right -- that would definitely pump up the total massively since their songs are omnipresent on countless 60s compilations.