Frankie Valli

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Frankie Valli (born Francis Stephen Castelluccio, May 3, 1934, First Ward, Newark, New Jersey) is an American musician, most famous as frontman of The Four Seasons. He is well-known for his unusually powerful falsetto singing voice.

Valli, Tommy DeVito, Nick Massi, and Bob Gaudio, (the original members of The Four Seasons), were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.

Valli scored 29 Top 40 hits with The 4 Seasons, one Top 40 hit under The 4 Seasons' alias 'The Wonder Who?', and nine Top 40 hits as a solo artist. As a member of The 4 Seasons, Valli's number one hits included "Sherry", "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", "Rag Doll" and "December 1963 (Oh, What A Night)". As a solo artist, Valli scored #1 hits with the songs "My Eyes Adored You" and "Grease". Valli's recording of the song "Can't Take My Eyes off You" reached #2 in 1967. "You're Ready Now," a Valli solo recording from 1966, became a surprise hit in Great Britain, as part of the Northern soul scene and hit number 11 on the British pop charts in December 1970.

Early life

Valli was born Francis Stephen Castelluccio in the First Ward of Newark, New Jersey. His father, Antonio, was a barber; His mother, Maria Castelluccio, was an Italian immigrant. He was inspired to take up a singing career at the age of seven after his mother took him to see Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theater in New York City. His early mentor was Texas singer Jean Valley, from whom he obtained his last name, although it took him some time to settle on the spelling "Valli". Until he could support himself with music, he worked a dayjob as a barber.

Music career

1950s - 1960s

Frankie Valli began his professional singing career in 1951 with the Variety Trio (Nickie DeVito, Tommy DeVito and Nick Macioci). Valli's desire to sing in public was initially granted when, having heard Valli sing, the group offered him a guest spot when the group performed. In late 1952, the Variety Trio disbanded and Valli, along with Tommy DeVito, became part of the house band at The Strand in New Brunswick, New Jersey. For his part, Valli played bass and sang. He cut his first single, "My Mother's Eyes," in 1953 as "Frankie Valley," a name he adopted from "Texas" Jean Valley, a favorite female singer. Around this time, Valli and Tommy DeVito left the house band at The Strand and formed The Variatones with Hank Majewski, Frank Cattone and Billy Thompson. In 1956, as part of an audition backing a female singer, the group impressed New York record man Peter Paul, who had them auditioning at RCA Victor a week later. Renamed The Four Lovers, the group recorded several singles and one album's worth of tracks. They had a minor hit with "You're the Apple of My Eye" in 1956. Nickie DeVito and Hank Majewski left in 1958 to be replaced by Nick Macioci (now Nick Massi) and Hugh Garrity. Massi was in and out of the group, and, occasionally Charles Calello joined on accordion. The group continued to perform until 1959, when Bob Gaudio became a member. After a few more changes, the group was renamed "The 4 Seasons" in 1960.

As the lead singer of The 4 Seasons, he had a string of hits beginning with the number one hit "Sherry" in 1962. As a footnote to this period of Frankie's career with The 4 Seasons, the group's bassist and vocal arranger Nick Massi was replaced in 1965 by Charlie Calello, the group's instrumental arranger, and, then shortly thereafter, Charlie was replaced by Joseph LaBracio, who went by the pseudonym Joe Long.

During the 1960s, Gaudio and his then songwriting partner, producer Bob Crewe (born Stanley Robert Crewe on November 12, 1931), worked with Valli to craft solo recordings with varying degrees of success. This concept of a major recording artist performing solo in opposition to his or her own group performances was new to the rock/pop world and may have given tacit approval to other groups and members of other groups to pursue such a path. The potential to dominate the charts with group and solo recordings was great, and, Valli, Gaudio and Crewe occasionally rose to the occasion with both great performances and commercial hits. Valli was the original artist to record the Gaudio-Crewe composition "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)", a performance that was copied nearly note for note when recorded by The Walker Brothers, an American group based in England. The Walker Brothers version was a huge success. Valli continued to record solo performances and finally reached the success due him with the release of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". Though it only reached number two in the charts, the song itself was widely recorded by many other artists.

Valli's debut solo album was a gathering together of various single releases and a few new recordings. Prior to the release of Valli's second solo album, a single was released in July 1967 with the A-side "I Make A Fool Of Myself," a record that reached number 18. 'Timeless,' Valli's second solo album release was more coherent and Valli took more time in recording it. 'Timeless' contains one Top 40 hit, "To Give (The Reason I Live)."

Finally, Valli ended the '60s with a string of recordings that were included in the Valli/4 Seasons album 'Half & Half' or released as various singles. The only hit to emerge at this time was the recording of "The Girl I'll Never Know (Angels Never Fly This Low)," reaching number 52.

1970s to the present

In 1975, Valli's single "My Eyes Adored You" hit number 1 on Billboard's Hot 100. In the same year, he also had a number 6 Billboard hit with the disco-laden "Swearin' To God".

In 1976, Valli covered the Beatles song "A Day in the Life" for the ephemeral musical documentary All This and World War II.

Valli sang the theme song from the 1978 film version of Grease, which was a number one hit. He had two further chart successes in the following year: "Save Me, Save Me" in November 1978 which entered the Billboard Easy Listening chart, and "Fancy Dancer" in January 1979, which reached the pop charts.

Valli suffered from otosclerosis in the 1970s, forcing him to "sing from memory" in the latter part of the decade. Surgery restored most of his hearing by 1980.

In 1992, a new Four Seasons album was released entitled Hope and Glory.

In October of 2007, Valli released Romancing the 60s, an album containing covers of his favorite songs from the 1960s, two of which he had previously recorded. Those songs were "Sunny" and "Any Day Now".

Philanthropic activities

Valli has been a supporter of heritage-related causes, particularly the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF). In 2006, he received the NIAF Lifetime Achievement Award at the Foundation's Anniversary Gala. In 2008, NIAF presented a scholarship in his name to an Italian American music student during the Foundation's East Coast Gala.

Television appearances

Valli made several appearances on the HBO series The Sopranos, portraying New York mob captain Rusty Millio.

Valli also played a role in an episode of Miami Vice.

Valli once performed with Frankie Avalon, Dion, and Pat Boone on the "Cher" TV show.

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons performed for an NBC television special, Frankie Valli: Tribute on Ice.

Valli performed "Grease" with the Commodores in 1980 on The Midnight Special

Valli sang solo on an 8th season episode of Full House

Frankie Valli voiced the role of Little David in "Kingdom Chums: Original Top Ten"

Broadway

John Lloyd Young won the 2006 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, for his portrayal of Valli, in the musical Jersey Boys.

Date of birth

As with many other celebrities, Valli's birth year has been called into question. Valli never addressed the issue himself, until the 2007 posting at the Official Frankie Valli Site, sponsored by his current record label, Universal Records. Much of the previous official publicity surrounding his career had used 1937 as the birth year. It is hard to tell when and why this occurred, but inference can be made that by chopping a few years off his age, he would seem more commercially viable to a younger audience. Other sources, such as the Bear Family Records release, entitled 'The Four Lovers' , as well as a 1965 "mug shot", available through The Smoking Gun, all identify his year of birth as 1934.

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