Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (born May 3, 1934), better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer, known as the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice.
Valli scored 29 top 40 hits with the Four Seasons, one top 40 hit under the Four Seasons alias the Wonder Who?, and nine top 40 hits as a solo artist. As a member of the Four Seasons, Valli's number-one hits include "Sherry" (1962), "Big Girls Don't Cry" (1962), "Walk Like a Man" (1963), "Rag Doll" (1964) and "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" (1975). Valli's recording of the song "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" reached number two in 1967. As a solo artist, Valli scored number-one hits with the songs "My Eyes Adored You" (1974) and "Grease" (1978).
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.
Early life
Valli was born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio on May 3, 1934 to an Italian family in the First Ward of Newark, New Jersey; he was the eldest of three sons. 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. 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. One of his early favorite singers was "Texas" Jean Valli, from whom he took his stage name. He worked as a barber until he could support himself with music.
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. 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.
Music career
Valli began his singing career in the early 1950s with the Variety Trio (Nickie DeVito, Tommy DeVito, and Nick Macioci). 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. He recorded it as "Frankie Valley", a variation on a name he adopted from "Texas" Jean Valli, a female hillbilly singer. 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.
Around this time, Valli and Tommy DeVito left the house band at The Strand and formed The Variatones with Hank Majewski, 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. 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 Charles Calello occasionally joined on accordion. The group continued to perform until 1959, when Bob Gaudio became a member. It changed its name to "The Four Seasons" in 1960 after a bowling alley in Union, New Jersey, in whose cocktail lounge it had auditioned.
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 "Who Loves You" in 1975, after which Valli ceded most lead vocals to Gerry Polci.
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 in opposition to his own group; Buddy Holly and the Crickets were an exception. Valli's debut solo album was a collection of single releases and a few new recordings.