Frankie Valli (born May 3, 1934 as Francis Stephen Castelluccio) is an American musician, most famous as frontman of The 4 Seasons.
Valli, along with Tommy DeVito, Nick Massi, and Bob Gaudio, the original members of The 4 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, 1 Top 40 Hit under The 4 Seasons alias of 'The Wonder Who?' and 9 Top 40 Hits as a solo artist. As a member of The 4 Seasons, Valli scored Number One Hits with "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 Number One Hits with "My Eyes Adored You" and "Grease". His best known solo recording, though, is "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You", which reached Number 2 in 1967. "You're Ready Now", a Valli solo recording from 1966, became a surprise hit in England as part of the Northern soul scene and hit Number 11 on the British pop charts in December 1970.
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 Valli 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 themselves 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 "Apple of My Eye" in 1956. Nickie DeVito and Hank Majewski left in 1958 to be replaced by Nick Macioci (now Nick Massi) and Hank 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 '60s, Gaudio and Crewe worked with Valli to craft solo recordings of 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 nearly a note-for-note copy when recorded by The Walker Brothers, an American group based in England. The Walker Brothers version was a huge success. Valli continued to record these one-off solo performances and finally reached the success due him with the release of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You". Though it only reached number two in the charts, the song itself was widely recorded by many other artists.
Valli's first 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.
In 1975, Valli's song My Eyes Adored You hit number 1 on Billboard's Hot 100. 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.
Singles:
Albums:
For albums recorded as part of The Four Seasons, see Discography of The Four Seasons
Valli's solo albums recorded before 1975 were recorded with the occasional participation of The 4 Seasons (Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito, and Nick Massi or Joe Long) on background vocals.
Valli made several appearances on the HBO series, The Sopranos portraying New York mob captain Rusty Millio.
Valli played himself in an episode of Full House.
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, surrounding Cher.
Like many celebrities, Mr. Valli's birth year has been called in to question. Mr. Valli himself never addressed the issue until the 2007 posting at his official web site (http://www.frankievallifourseasons.com/bio.asp), sponsored by his current record label, Universal Records. Much of the previous official publicity surrounding his career has 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, the Bear Family Records release entitled 'The Four Lovers' (BCD 15424) as well as a 1965 "police mug shot" available through The Smoking Gun (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/fvallimug1.html), all identify his year of birth as 1934.
John Lloyd Young won the 2006 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Valli in the musical Jersey Boys.
