Editorial Reviews

Rhino Records, in a move that some might feel harkens back to the company's roots as a purveyor of peculiar music and novelty acts, presents Jersey Babys, an extension of the award-winning musical Jersey Boys -- The Story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. One dozen tunes originally immortalized by that unparalleled group are played on an electronic keyboard configured to sound like some sort of hybrid combination music box, glockenspiel, and toy piano. It's a confectionary application of the lullaby formula that babies are conventionally supposed to be exposed to. The album was conceived by Danielle Gaudio-Lalehzar, daughter of Bob Gaudio, a cardinal member of the Four Seasons from 1962-1972, who co-produced and arranged the recordings along with Valli's musical director Robby Robinson. There are at least four distinct ways to enjoy this album. First and foremost, it was designed and intended to soothe infants and toddlers in need of delicate and reassuring entertainment. Listeners who are able to share in the sentimentality of the project might find it oddly comforting and useful, perhaps, for behavior modification purposes. Those who grew up hearing the magnificent voices of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons endlessly emanating from AM radios throughout the land might be able to experience a relaxing if heavily sugared sense of nostalgia. Others with a twisted sense of humor will no doubt regard this as a decidedly fractured manifestation of surrealistic import, as familiar hits like "Who Loves You," "Rag Doll," "Big Girls Don't Cry," and a medley of "Sherry" and "Walk Like a Man" are transformed into jingly tinkling cotton candy episodes that fairly beg to be incorporated into artfully deranged remixes. Arwulf Arwulf, All Music Guide

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