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COVER STORY
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Frankie Valli’smnlcaisiiccSSltory spans five decades
Enter the home of Frankie Valli in Calabasas, Calif.
(pop. 20,033). and you'll see little evidence of his accomplishments as a singing
sensation who shook up the charts with a succession of hit pop singles spread
across the 1960 s and 70s. Except for one thing: an elegant trophy from the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in 1990, alongside the other
members of his singing group, The 4 Seasons.
“The rest of my stuff," says Valli almost apologetically, “is in a closet.”
Even at 74, Valli continues to look the part of the dashing crooner whose
piercing falsetto made female hearts flutter with “Sherry,” “Walk Like a Man,”
“Big Girls Don't Cry,” “Let's Hang On,” “Working My Way Back to You,” “Rag
Doll" and other hits in the 19605. After The 4 Seasons, he continued solo and
remained a radio presence with “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” “My Eyes Adored
You," “Swearin’ To God” and "Grease,” the title track to the 1978 movie.
Although he hasn't had a hit in almost 30 years, Valli s long list of
successful singles helped carry his career into a fifth decade—that is, until
a Broadway musical took over in 2005 and catapulted him back into
the musical spotlight./twey Boys, which tells the story of Valli and The
4 Seasons, has received eight Tony Awards, a Grammy and numerous
ocher accolades since it became a Broadway sensation.
The musical, which continues to be a hot ticket on Broadway, was
the brainchild of Valli and 4 Seasons partner Bob Gaudio. For many
tans who grew up to the sounds of the group, Jersey Boys marked
the first time they'd been exposed to The 4 Seasons’ surprisingly
dramatic tale about the colorful road that took four blue-collar,
working-class kids to the top of the charts as one of America's most
successful musical acts of the 19605.
Finding his voice
Bom Francis Castelluccio in 1934, Valli grew up in a public-housing
project and on the tough streets of Newark, N.J. At an early age, he
discovered his singing voice—even though he had to be coaxed to use it. “I always
sang,” he says. "I was very shy and I would sing in the shower. I kid an uncle who’d
come to the house and always want me to sing. He would give me half a buck and I’d
sit behind one of the living room chairs and sing where no one could see me.”
As a teenager, he met Nick Massi and Tommy DeVito and sat in with their
band, the Variety Trio. DeVito had a friend, singer Jean Valley, who was so
impressed with Castelluccio’s voice that she introduced him to a New York music
publisher. Thinking a family connection—even a fabricated one—might help the
young singer get a foot in the door, Valley told the publisher Castelluccio was her
brother. When it was time to sign a contract, she had to confess that they weren't
related. By that time, however, the name Castelluccio invented, Frankie Valli, had
stuck, and no one wanted him to change it.
Well, almost no one. “My dad was a little upset,” Valli recalls. “But when this guy
who managed me found out my real name, he said, ‘We can’t use Castel/uaw.'" Too long,
Valli was
skeptical that
his early success
would continue.
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too Italian, the manager said. Valli went along, but now lias his regrets.
“If I had to do it all over again, I would insist on using my name.”
Success with ‘Sherry’
It wasn’t until several years later that Valli struck musical gold
when he, Massi and DeVito aligned with Bob Gaudio, a guitarist,
keyboard player and songwriter who hit it off immediately with
Valli. "I am very focused on music,” Gaudio says, “and it struck me
immediately that we were birds of a feather.”
Over the years, the membership of the group they formed—
dubbed The 4 Seasons after a New Jersey bowling alley—fluctuated,
but Valli and Gaudio remained at its core. “There was a bond.” Valli
says, “and it's been that way tor over 45 years.”
After their success began with "Sherry” in 1962, Valli had trouble
believing the hit streak could continue.
“I was afraid I was dreaming,” he recalls. “All the guys went out and
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