One of the most popular and prolific gentlemen in the music business created the only American musical act that rivaled The Beatles and The Beach Boys. His name is Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, born in Newark, New Jersey in 1934. We all know him of course as Frankie Valli, leader of The Four Seasons and possessor of one of the best falsetto voices ever put to wax.
Valli’s career didn’t start with Sherry, the group’s first Number One hit in 1962, however. It began in 1954, when Frankie Valli joined a group called the Variatones, which became The Four Lovers when they signed with RCA in 1956. One of their first songs was written by Otis Blackwell, the fellow who penned Don’t be Cruel for Elvis:
- You’re the Apple of My Eye, The Four Lovers
The Lovers recorded many sides for RCA, including an album, but nothing scored, and the group made a living by performing in lounges and clubs, and (using various names) backing up other artists. The Four Lovers would eventually turn into The Four Seasons, including Valli as lead singer, Bob Gaudio on keyboards, Nick Massi on bass, and Tommy DeVito on lead guitar. Their fortunes changed when The Seasons met producer/songwriter Bob Crewe in the late fifties. In 1962, the group signed with Vee-Jay Records and wrote and recorded Sherry, along with the following song—and both went right to the top:
The Four Seasons offered a most unusual sound for the time, with sparse instrumentation, a doo-wop R&B attitude, solid background vocals, and a soaring falsetto lead by Valli. Bob Gaudio, formerly with The Royaltones (and who produced the novelty hit Short Shorts), would write many of The Season’s sixties hits with writer Bob Crewe. The arranger would be Charlie Calello, who helped with a Christmas album followed by the group’s third Number One hit in early 1963:
The thing that fascinates me about The Four Seasons (since I was a drummer) was the producers’ use of drums and percussion in almost every record—heard in Walk Like a Man courtesy of session veteran drummer Panama Francis. But the main drummer behind The Seasons’ sound was Buddy Saltzman, who got help whenever he needed it from fellow East Coast drummer Gary Chester. The first song performed by the group that wasn’t written by Gaudio and Crewe was penned by Larry Santos, had a calypso lilt to it, and got to Number Three:
How did The Four Seasons last so long? One simple handshake. In 1960, they failed an audition for a lounge at a bowling alley in Union Township, New Jersey. Bob Gaudio says the name of the establishment was The Four Seasons. They didn’t get the gig, but took the name. And soon after that, Gaudio and Valli decided right then and there to form a partnership. To this day, the union still exists, despite numerous personnel changes over the years. Valli is still touring at 87, with 79-year-old Gaudio in the background in retirement. In 1963, however, The Seasons were just getting started. Here’s the flip side of Candy Girl:
The Four Seasons would add many other hits to their resume, like Ain’t That a Shame, Alone, Peanuts, and Stay. From 1962 to early 1964, the only American band to match them in record sales was The Beach Boys. The Seasons’ first three Vee Jay non-holiday single releases marked the first time a rock band had three Number One consecutive entries. But unknown to most, a big problem was arising just as The Beatles hit American shores. The Seasons’ record label was going under. That’s when they switched from Vee-Jay to Phillips and released Dawn.
It’s the drumming of Buddy Saltzman that makes Dawn such a great record. It reached Number Three on the charts in February 1964, kept out of the top spot by The Beatles, who were also on Vee-Jay for a time among many others. Vee-Jay, primarily a rhythm and blues label, couldn’t handle the demand of The Beatles and went under, allowing Capitol Records to take over. The Four Seasons, despite producing several successful albums and singles for Vee-Jay, left that label and moved to Phillips, a subsidiary of Mercury. Needing a followup to Dawn, the group released Ronnie, which made Number Six:
During this time, Bob Gaudio was one day stuck in traffic when a homeless girl offered to wipe his windshield. The experience quickly turned into a song, but he needed to cut the record quickly because The Seasons were just about to tour. So the group went into a studio they had never used before, and the sound they got was extremely dense with overdubs and echo. Rag Doll became their first Number One since Walk Like a Man, released more that a year before. Once again, note the percussion:
Rag Doll was competing with The Beach Boys’ I Get Around and The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night. About this time, Vee-Jay released an album that would become a collector’s item. Featuring two of the most popular bands at the time, it was called The Beatles vs The Four Seasons: The International Battle of the Century. It was a two-disc set, basically reissues of the LPs Introducing The Beatles and Golden Hits of The Four Seasons. It was the end of summer 1964 when The Seasons produced another Gaudio/Crewe composition:
The next year the group would release five new songs: Sincerely, Big Man in Town, Bye Bye Baby, Toy Soldier, and Girl Come Running. The song that brought them back into the limelight was their biggest hit since Rag Doll. It posted at Number Three. The popularity of the song was attributed to Frankie Valli’s two-line intro, the use of two fuzz guitars, and a chorus sung in falsetto. It re-established the group’s presence in the Top Ten. And it was a different style for The Seasons, a hard-driving rhythm number sounding not unlike Motown:
Following this song’s success, The Seasons did something very odd. The group was planning to release an album of songs written by Bob Dylan. When it came time to record Don’t Think Twice, Valli didn’t like his lead, so he joked the verses with a soft falsetto. But the group couldn’t release the record as a single under the name of Frankie Valli or The Four Seasons. So everyone decided on “The Wonder Who?,” which didn’t fool anybody.
- Don’t Think Twice, The Wonder Who?
Several other songs by The Wonder Who? were waxed, but none charted. With the gimmick having run its course, the group got back on track with their familiar sound, including a Number Nine record that appeared in January 1966:
The group’s next song was their 17th single and the first hit for bassist Joe Long, who took over for Nick Massi. What makes this record a little bit different from their others is that Valli’s patented falsetto is more muted, making it sound like a Frankie Valli solo record (which he made several times with backing from the group, but using little falsetto). This is also their first record that used modulation where the music scale continues to climb:
In September 1966, The Seasons turned to fabled songwriter Cole Porter for their next hit. I’ve Got You Under My Skin reached Number Nine. Written in 1936, it was Frank Sinatra’s signature song. The Seasons’ version gave it two different tempos, while adding lots of strings. In December, The Seasons recorded and released a record that features lots of rain and thunder sound effects, in the mix of which is a prominent 12-string electric guitar part, with heavy vocal tacked on at the fade:
Their next effort was a rocker—bordering on psychedelia. It was written by Bob Gaudio (his first Seasons songwriting attempt since 1965) and Peggy Farina, who was better known as Peggy Santiglia, part of the girl group The Angels, who had a hit in 1963 with My Boyfriend’s Back. Many consider it Valli’s finest soul record. In the ’70s, it took Europe by storm and reached Number 16 on Billboard (the song might have climbed higher had it not been for Valli’s finest solo effort right after):
Frankie Valli’s solo career began in 1967, with a song written by the usual Seasons team of Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe. It featured the group singing behind him, without his trademark falsetto in the mix. It was a huge hit, only kept out of the top spot by The Association’s Windy, and would be Valli’s biggest solo effort until he topped Billboard in 1975 with My Eyes Adored You. The song was destined to be a flop until a powerful Canadian radio station decided to put it on its rotation list. When it did, the first Frankie Valli “eyes” record took off:
The Four Seasons’ career of the 1960s ended, I think, with the release of a summertime 1967 uptempo number—the last Seasons song to crack the Top Ten in the ’60s. And it was their last recording where they sounded anything like the original Four Seasons. It hit the charts not long after the release of Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You, which was popular all over the world. Promotional single versions of this song sent to disc jockeys were slowed down a bit, compared to the LP version, which was faster. The public preferred the album rendition, so it stalled despite is psychedelic appeal:
By the end of the decade, the popularity of the Seasons sound was waning, despite attempts to revitalize their career. Amidst all the changes going on in the music industry, the group kept re-inventing itself through countless, and I mean countless, personnel changes. They also tried different labels, including a stint with Motown that never developed. And their attempts at concept albums never panned out. Then in 1975 the disco craze developed, and that created an opening for the new Four Seasons that featured drummer Gerry Polci and guitarist Don Ciccone, both vocalists who shared lead chores with Valli (with hardly any falsetto):
This song put the group back into the Top Ten after a long absence, and Frankie Valli charted as well with three solo singles from ’74 to ’78, two of which made Number One: My Eyes Adored You and Grease from the film of the same title. The Who Loves You group banded together in the fall of 1975 to give us their final Number One hit:
The Four Seasons partnership is still intact, and Frankie Valli, who lost his hearing for a while, still tours with different musicians. The Seasons’ determination prompted a massive CD set in 2007, and spawned a Broadway musical named after the group: Jersey Boys.