Frankie Valli

Valli was born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio^[10] on May 3, 1934^[11] to an Italian family in the First Ward of Newark, New Jersey; he is the eldest of three sons.^[12] His father, Anthony Castelluccio, was a barber and display designer for Lionel model trains; his mother, Mary Rinaldi, was a homemaker and beer company employee.^{[13][14][15][16]} He was inspired to take up a singing career at age seven after his mother took him to see Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theater in New York City.^[17] One of his early favorite singers was "Texas" Jean Valli, from whom he took his stage name.^[18] He worked as a barber until he could support himself with music.^[17]

Valli's birth year has been called into question. He never addressed the issue himself until a 2007 posting at the Official Frankie Valli Site, sponsored by his record label Universal Records.^[17] Much of his previous official publicity used 1937 as his birth year. Other sources gave his year of birth as 1934, such as the Bear Family Records release The Four Lovers (BCD 15424) and a 1965 mug shot, available through The Smoking Gun.^[19]

Valli began his singing career in 1951 with the Variety Trio (Nickie DeVito, Tommy DeVito, and Henry "Hank" Majewski), and was mentored in much of his early career by Nick Macioci, who later joined Valli in The Four Seasons, and by "Texas" Jean Valli, a female hillbilly singer, from whom he adopted the "Valli" surname.^[20] Geoff Herbert explains, "Frankie said in 2010 that Jean took him to meet music publishers Paul and Dave Kapp, telling them he was her brother. As a result, his first single was listed under 'Frankie Valley', and the name stuck—though he eventually changed it to the same spelling" that Texas Jean used.^[21] His desire to sing in public was initially granted when the group offered him a guest spot when they performed. In late 1952, the Variety Trio disbanded and Valli and Tommy DeVito became part of the house band at The Strand in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Valli played bass and sang.

Valli recorded his first single, "My Mother's Eyes", in 1953, a cover of the 1929 George Jessel song from Lucky Boy, with his stage name "Frankie Valley." Around this time, Valli, Majewski and Tommy DeVito left the house band at The Strand and formed The Variatones with Frank Cottone and Billy Thompson. In 1956, the group impressed New York recording agent Peter Paul, and he got them an audition at RCA Victor a week later.

The group changed its name to the Four Lovers and recorded several singles and an album's worth of tracks. They had a minor hit with "You're the Apple of My Eye" in 1956, which earned them their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. After two years of no further success, DeVito fired his brother and Majewski for insubordination (they had refused to take a gig opening for Tony Bennett)^[22] and creative differences, as Majewski's comic persona did not mesh with the group's musical talents.^[23] The Four Lovers continued, with Valli, DeVito and an ad hoc lineup that variously included Macioci (by then also pursuing a solo career as "Nickie Massey"^[24]), Charles Calello and Hollywood Playboys keyboardist Hugh Garrity.^[23] In 1959, after being introduced at a gig in Baltimore by mutual friend Joe Pesci, Royal Teen Bob Gaudio became a member. By 1960, after several years of session work under numerous stage names, the lineup of Valli, DeVito, Gaudio and a now-renamed Nick Massi took on the name "The 4 Seasons," taking the name from a bowling alley in Union, New Jersey that had rejected them after an audition.^{[23][25][26][27][28]}

As the lead singer of the Four Seasons, Valli had a string of hits, beginning with the number-one hit "Sherry" in 1962 and continuing through most of the rest of the decade.

 

During the 1960s, Gaudio and his songwriting partner Bob Crewe worked with Valli to craft solo recordings, with varying degrees of success. It was rare at the time for a major recording artist to perform solo while still recording with their own group. Valli's debut solo album was a collection of single releases and a few new recordings. He used the opportunity to transition away from the power falsetto that had made Valli and the Four Seasons famous, showcasing a natural tenor voice that Valli had always preferred.^[29] (Calello noted in 2000 that Valli's voice could go down to a baritone and that Valli would take on the baritone parts in harmony arrangements when he did not sing lead.^[30])

"You're Ready Now", a Valli solo recording from 1966, became part of the Northern soul scene and reached number eleven on the UK Singles Chart in December 1970. "The Night" originally released in 1970 also became a huge Northern soul hit and as a result it reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart in 1975.^[31]

In 1975, his single "My Eyes Adored You" hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number 5 in the UK chart. This caused an awkward situation within the band, as Valli's label at the time, Private Stock Records, was willing to sign Valli but not the band. Warner Bros. Records was willing to sign the band, but greatly preferred if someone other than Valli sang lead vocals. As part of that agreement, Valli—with great reluctance—ceded some of the lead vocals for the group to new band members Gerry Polci and, to a lesser extent, Don Ciccone.^[32] In the same year, he also had a number six Billboard hit with the disco-laden "Swearin' to God" reaching number 31 in the UK chart, while further UK chart success came with "Fallen Angel", written by Guy Fletcher and Doug Flett. Valli was in the UK charts, reaching number 11. Meanwhile, the Four Seasons had a string of hits from their new LP Who Loves You in 1975; the title track with Valli, "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" with Valli, Polci and Ciccone, and minor hits "Silver Star" and "Down the Hall" (the latter from the follow-up album Helicon) with Polci alone. In 1976, Valli covered the Beatles song "A Day in the Life" for the ephemeral musical documentary All This and World War II, to which the Seasons also contributed a cover of "We Can Work It Out."

In 1978, with the Four Seasons temporarily broken up, Valli embarked on a solo tour^[32] and sang the theme song for the film version of the stage play Grease, a song by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, which became a number one hit. He had two further chart successes over the next year: "Save Me, Save Me" in November 1978, which entered the Billboard Easy Listening chart, and "Fancy Dancer" in January 1979, which entered the pop charts.^[14]

Valli began suffering from otosclerosis in 1967, forcing him to "sing from memory" in the latter part of the 1970s. Surgery performed by Victor Goodhill, a Los Angeles ear specialist, restored most of his hearing by 1980.^[33][34]

 

In 2005, the musical Jersey Boys opened on Broadway. Besides performances of many of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons hit recordings, it has a biographical narrative, told from four separate points of view by each member of the Four Seasons (DeVito, Valli, Massi and Gaudio). John Lloyd Young portrayed Valli in the original production, while West End's production Ryan Molloy is the "longest-serving Frankie Valli".^[35][36] The musical dramatizes several real-life incidents from Valli's life, including his estrangement from daughter Francine, who died in 1980. The show has been widely acclaimed, financially successful, and was nominated for eight Tony Awards, winning four, notably Best Musical, Actor, and Supporting Actor. It has touring companies around the world, as well as a version at Paris Las Vegas, and was adapted into a 2014 film of the same name directed by Clint Eastwood, with Young again appearing as Valli; Valli was less enthusiastic about the film, believing that some parts were miscast and that Eastwood was a poor fit for the material.^[37]

In October 2007, Valli released Romancing the '60s, an album containing covers of his favorite songs from the 1960s, two of which—"Sunny" and "Any Day Now"—he had previously recorded.^[17] It was Valli's first solo album in nearly 27 years since 1980's Heaven Above Me. In 2012, Valli made his Broadway debut with a week-long concert engagement at the Broadway Theatre in New York starting October 19.^[10][38]

From March 2016 to January 2017, "Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons" were touring the US, scheduled to play small-to-mid-size venues such as the Silver Legacy Casino in Reno, Nevada, the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona and the County Fair in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.^[39] In October 2016, Valli released his first solo album in nine years, 'Tis the Seasons, which features some of his favorite Christmas songs. As part of the BBC Proms in the Park Valli, together with the Four Seasons performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra in Hyde Park on September 10, 2016.^[40]

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons continued touring in 2018 and 2019, with a new lineup after his lineup since 2003 spun off as its own act, The Modern Gentlemen. In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic canceled all touring plans. Touring resumed in the summer of 2021 with dates scheduled through October 2024; in October 2023, Valli indicated that it would be his farewell tour and that The Four Seasons would effectively end its 65-year run with his retirement.^[41] Valli did not rule out future performances after the tour ends but noted that the nature of touring, and a move from longer residencies to frequent one-night stops, was wearing on him, while the actual act of performing each night was not.^[42] The tour was eventually extended into 2025, with representatives for Valli responding to criticism of him touring at such an advanced age and fears of elder abuse by assuring that Valli was "doing just fine and super happy to be still performing."^[43] In a statement to People, Valli conceded that he uses "layering (of) vocals and instrumentals" to maintain the group's signature sound in old age, a tactic the group had long used on its records, and stated he would continue touring as long as fans continued to buy tickets and respond well to the show.^[44]

In June 2021, Valli released his 12th studio album, his first in five years, Touch of Jazz, which features a collection of jazz cover songs.

Valli has appeared as an actor in Miami Vice (as Mafia boss Frank Doss), Full House, the 1998 TV movie Witness to the Mob (as Frank LoCascio of the Gambino crime family), The Sopranos (as mobster Rusty Millio), and the 2014 film And So It Goes.^[45]

On the November 21, 2014, episode of Hawaii Five-0 entitled "Ka Hana malu (Inside Job)", Valli played mysterious lawyer Leonard Cassano, who was engaged to Carol Burnett's character, Aunt Deb.^[46]

In 2015, Valli was in interviews as himself on the AMC television series The Making of the Mob: New York.^[47]

Valli has been married four times. In his early twenties he married his first wife, Mary, who already had a two-year-old daughter named Celia. They had two daughters together, Antonia and Francine, and divorced after 13 years in 1971. He married MaryAnn Hannagan in 1974, and the marriage lasted eight years. Frankie married Randy Clohessy in 1984; they had three sons (Emilio, Francesco Jr. and Brando) and separated in 2004. In 1980, his stepdaughter, Celia, was killed when she fell off a fire escape. Six months later, Francine, his youngest daughter from his marriage to Mary, died reportedly from a drug overdose.^[34][15][48] Antonia later briefly married Four Seasons drummer/vocalist Gerry Polci, and their daughter Olivia Polci, who also adopted the stage surname Valli, is a professional stage actress.^[49] She portrayed her grandmother Mary in a Jersey Boys production in 2019.^[50] Frankie married Jackie Jacobs on June 26, 2023, in Las Vegas.^[51] Valli and Jacobs reside in Encino, California.^[42] Valli has a restraining order against his son, Francesco Jr., an actor, due to an opiate addiction and threats of violence against his father and brothers.^[52]

One issue in Valli's third divorce went up on appeal to the Supreme Court of California: whether a life insurance policy purchased in 2003 was community property. On May 15, 2014, the Court unanimously affirmed the trial court's ruling that the policy was community property (and not Randy's separate property), in an opinion signed by Associate Justice Joyce Kennard.^[53][54]

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Frankie Valli.

• Official website  
• Frankie Valli at IMDb
• Frankie Valli discography at Discogs
• Frankie Valli at the Internet Broadway Database  
• Frankie Valli interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)