By Bob Berry

Labor Day Weekend is here, the official end of Michigan’s all-too-short summer.

Labor Day also coincides with the opening of college football season, and the buzz over the re-build in Ann Arbor, and the re-load in East Lansing. Plus, the kids will (finally?) head back to school-and won’t Tuesday morning be fun!

Of course, Labor Day celebrates The American Worker. So for this week’s Friday Songs, here’s a Keener Countdown of the Top 5 songs about work. Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

#5. Jersey Boys checking in, this Four Seasons song from 1966, was later a hit for The Spinners in ’79.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfpm2I0dev8

#4. The great Sam Cooke, with a song he wrote that went all the way to #2, in time for Labor Day, 1960.

#3. Tommy James was just “makin a livin’..”, he wrote it, produced it, and you made it Top 5 on Keener in 1971.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmS_arelR-M

#2. The Beatles, who could have been a Top 5 on the own! We picked a favorite, the title song to their first movie!

#1. Lee Dorsey, top 10 in the summer of ’66. Because somewhere along the line, over Labor Day weekend, you’ll be kickin’ back, lovin’ life and need a groove. And there a few grooves better than a New Orleans groove!

THE highlight of the recent Emmy Award broadcast was soundtrack from the Soprano’s tribute. The cast of the smash Broadway musical “The Jersey Boys”, performed some flawless interpretations of the music of The Four Seasons. My wife is the award show addict in our family, but I found myself pulled from the computer room, rewinding the DVR to listen again to the incredible Seasons magic. As this NYT article notes, the musical has been a catalyst for another Four Seasons rennaissance. And at the center, the singular talents of Franki Valli. The group charted 15 times on WKNR. Valli had 5 WKNR Music Guide appearances as a solo artist. At the dawn of the British Invasion, VeeJay actually put out a battle of the bands album pitting the Seasons against the Beatles. Here’s how the Four Seasons looked and sounded during a Hullabalo appearance at the height of their fame.