Frankie Valli - Is the Word/Heaven Above Me

Frankie's move to Warner Brothers coincided with his smash hit title song to the musical Grease, which headlines 'Is the Word', while the hit 'Where We Did Go Wrong' leads off 1980's 'Heaven Above Me'. Bob Gaudio is back behind the board for both, too. Product Description

+1/2 - The Midas touch of Barry Gibb helps one out of two

After several hit singles and four commercially unsuccessful albums on Private Stock (paired on Collectors Choice reissues "Closeup / Valli" and "Our Day Will Come / Lady Put the Light Out"), Valli moved to MCA. More importantly, his earlier introduction to Barry Gibb (via a bit part in the film version of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band") resulted in one of the biggest hits of his solo career, the title theme to "Grease." The #1 single keyed the sound of the resulting album, "Frankie Valli is the Word," returning to the disco-tinged vibe he'd explored on the 1976 "Our Day Will Come" LP. Unlike the earlier dance tunes, however, a sophisticated Bee Gees-styled vibe replaced the mindless disco clichés. In addition to the album's hit, Gibb provides the horn-and-drum laced "Save Me, Save Me," and several tunes (including Valli's original "Needing You") offer a slicker version of the urban pop-soul that was rendered so perfectly on Boz Scaggs' "Silk Degrees."

Despite the fetching addition of Hubert Laws on flute for "A Tear Can Tell" and "No Love at All," much of "Frankie Valli is the Word" is unmemorable. While Valli could still sing himself past the disco-era monotony, the songs here aren't strong enough to keep the listener's attention. The most successful tracks are the hook-filled "Grease," and slower, sparer ballads like "Without Your Love" and "You Better Go." Once the disco drums and strings get going, Valli hasn't the material to overcome. The same can be said for Valli's 1980 follow-up, "Heaven Above Me," which features several fine ballads, including the bottom-of-the-chart-scraping Chris Forde duet, "Where Did We Go Wrong." Once again, though, the production team couldn't shake themselves free of disco's affectations, even as the music's commercial fortunes waned. The 6:45 "Let It Be Whatever It Is" sounds like it was recorded four years earlier, with a driving dance beat, horns (including a sax solo from Tom Scott), female background singers and a throwaway lyric of Studio 54-like sexuality. Forde returns for a duet on the 10:29 medley of "Soul" and "Heaven Above Me," but the mechanical rhythm is better suited for the disco than the home stereo. The closing "Eat Your Heart Out" offers a hooky pop melody, albeit with a standard disco beat and lyric.

As with Valli's final LP for Private Stock, his pair of albums for MCA found him unable to locate a profitable way to spend his considerable vocal talent amid the sounds of the late `70s. Valli's disco hangover was rendered somewhat inert by the presence of the Bee Gees connection on "Word," but without the inspiration of a Barry Gibb hit single, the follow-up album returns to the uninspired ground he's visited a couple of years before. As on most of Valli's solo albums, the ballads, despite their canonical arrangements, provide the requisite scenery to chew, and the occasional upbeat hit allows him to fly past disco convention. Neither of these albums are Valli's best work of the `70s (that honor goes to "Closeup" and "Valli"), and other than "Grease" and a few fetching ballads, these are more for completists than fans. 3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com] July 1, 2008

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