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Valli (left), producer Bob
Crewe and 4 Seasons alums
Tommy DeVito and Bob
Gaudio attended a Jersey
Boys gala in May.
bought new cars and everyone was laughing at me
because I was driving junk. I was afraid I’d wake up one
day to find out there was nothing there. I wasn’t totally
wrong. It could happen. It
In 1967, band members found themselves on
the brink of financial ruin due to mismanagement
of income by the group's handlers and DeVito,
whose gambling and other debcs put him—and the
band—in alarmingly deep water with some serious
loan sharks. “It started off with certain debts, some
of them gambling, some of them real estate." Gaudio
says. “The big hammer was the IRS.”
“I refused to file bankruptcy," Valli says. “I said,
Anybody we owe money to, if they’ll wait, we ll pay
them.’ And they waited, and we paid them.”
As the group began to deteriorate internally and pop
radio cooled on their brand of dreamy, middle-of-the-road
doo-wop, Gaudio and Valli struck a lifetime partnership
deal. Gaudio quit touring to write and produce, while
Valli branched out and forged ahead—both solo and
with various configurations of The -t Seasons —to work
every opportunity he could to pay off the debt.
Bring on the Beatles u
After weathering a rough spot as the ’6os ®
became the ’7os, The 4 Seasons returned to the
charts with "Who Loves You" and “December, 1963
(Oh What a Night)." “When the Beatles came out, I
didn’t even care, I was such a fan of The 4 Seasons,”
says Paul Shaffer, bandleader for The Late Show with
David Letteman. "They were always my band. They
were one of the few American acts that could compete
with the Beatles and share the Top Ten with them.”
But Valli’s success was again bittersweet with the
heartbreaking death of his daughter Francine from a
drugoverdosein 1 L )SO.Jersey Bwy.vcoversFrancine’sdeath
and other subjects that were initially uncomfortable for
Valli, who had input into every aspect of the musical.
“I had to think a lot about including my daughter’s
death in Jersey Boys. But I decided that if my talking
about it could help somebody—even one person—it
would be worth it," he says.
www.americanprofile.com •
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Bob Gaudio,Tommy DeVito,
Nick Massi and Frankie Valli
strike a 4 Seasons pose in ’63.
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Page 15
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Getty Images
JERSETBOrS
The story of Frankie Talli 4 The Pour Seasons
Despite his great musical success, Valli always managed
to keep a tight seal on his personal life, including three
marriages, three divorces and six children. Single today,
he shares his home with son Francesco, 20, and has no
plans to remarry. “I'm finished." he says. “1 have no
regrets with anything, or .mythmg terrible to say about
any of the people I was ever with. It takes two to tango in
every- situation, and you just move on in life.
T am very thankful for my audience,” says Valli, who's
seen a tremendous upsurge in his concert attendance as
Jersey Boys continues to spur interest and fens seek out
the man who sang the hits before they became rousing
Broadway showstoppers. “Some performers act as though
the audience owes them something. It’s really the other
way around. You have to be grateful for all the good
things." ★
Story by Robyn Flam of Oak Park. Calif.
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FRANKIE VAUU
L
NOW Available in Classic Collectors Tin