Frankie Valli

Frankie Valli
Frankie Valli - born May 3, 1934 in New Jersey as Francis Stephen Castelluccio is best known as the lead singer of The Four Seasons, a music act of the 1960s, which continued from then to the 1970s disco scene till date.

Valli made over 25 Top-40 hits with The Four Seasons, a smattering of Top-40 hits dubbed as a solo in the late 1960s, one dubbed as "The Wonder Who?" in 1965 and again in the mid to late 1970s. His best known "solo" single is Can't Take My Eyes Off You banged on the billboard hot 100 appearing on #2 in 1967' 'Are you ready now' became a major hit in the UK as part of the Northern Soul scene and hit no11 on the UK pop charts in 1971.

Valli scored big again in 1975 when 'My Eyes Adored you' hit #1 on billboards hot 100. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with The Four Seasons in 1990 and for the rest of the decade Valli continued to lead the group on the lucrative oldies circuit.

Valli started his singing career in 1952. He made his first single in 1953 as "Frankie Valley," a name he adopted from Jean Valley, his favorite female singer. In the mid-1950s he split up with the Travellers and joined The Variety Trio, which consisted of Tommy DeVito with his twin Nick, and Hank Majewski. They switched to being the Variatones, and later, "The Four Lovers" and made a top 40 hit with "Apple of My Eye" in 1956. After a few more name changes, the group was renamed "The Four Seasons" in 1960. Later then, Valli "re-Italianized" his name to its current form. Nick DeVito and Majewski left the group in the 60s, replaced by Bob Gaudio and Nick Massi.

Nick Massi was replaced in 1965 by Charlie Calello, the group's arranger, and then shortly after Charlie was replaced by Joe Long. As the lead singer of the Four Seasons, he had a string of hits beginning with #1 hit "Sherry" in 1962. Valli has been leading from then until the present time, occasionally releasing singles under his own name, particularly the theme song from the film version of Grease, which was a #1 hit. In 1976, Valli covered the Beatles song "A Day in the Life" for the momentary musical documentary All This and World War II.

Valli is best remembered for his falsetto vocals. He has made several appearances on the hit series The Sopranos as New York mob captain Rusty Millio. Valli himself was referenced earlier in the series. In the Season Four episode, "Christopher," the owner of a Native American casino offers Tony Soprano his help in getting a local Indian organization to drop its planned anti-Columbus Day demonstration. He was also a guest star in an episode of Full House.

Although he was lead singer with the group, Valli also had a solo recording career, starting with "(You're Gonna) Hurt Yourself" in late 1965. He scored a million-seller in 1967 with "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". From the same album came further US hits, "I Make A Fool Of Myself", and "To Give (The Reason I Live)" while "You're Ready Now" was a reissued success in Britain in 1971.

Valli and producer Bob Gaudio now set up a dual career, with Valli recording for Private Stock and a new Four Seasons group for Warner Brothers Records. Valli had his first solo number 1 in 1975 with "My Eyes Adored You", followed by "Swearin' To God" and a revival of Ruby And The Romantics' "Our Day Will Come".

In 1978 he sold two million copies of the Barry Gibb -composed theme song from Grease. The follow-ups, "Fancy Dancer" and "Where Did We Go Wrong" (a duet with Chris Forde) sold poorly and in 1980 Valli had a series of ear operations to cure his increasing deafness. He subsequently rejoined the Four Seasons and enjoyed further success when "Big Girls Don't Cry" was included in the movie Dirty Dancing.