Blue-collar brethren

RICHARD CROMELIN seems surprised -- and obviously in total disagreement -- with the level of praise given to the group in the testimonials included in Rhino Records’ “Jersey Beat” box set [“They’re Working Their Way Back,” June 17]. Cromelin dismisses the idea of the 4 Seasons as a link between Elvis and Bruce Springsteen and sees them more of a bridge between Neil Sedaka and Tony Orlando. He may be right about the Elvis connection, but the line between the 4 Seasons and Springsteen runs as straight as the road from Newark to Asbury Park, right down the Garden State Parkway.

Like Springsteen, the 4 Seasons were working-class guys who spent their youth “sweating it out on the streets,” “in a town full of losers and pulling out of there to win.” The echoes of their three-minute urban street operas and class-conscious lyrics in songs like “Dawn (Go Away),” “Rag Doll” and “Big Man in Town” reverberate on early Springsteen albums such as “Born to Run” and “The River.” I do not recall any such drama in Neil Sedaka’s “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” or Tony Orlando’s “Tie a Yellow Ribbon.”

PAT SIERCHIO

Los Angeles