Frankie Valli

The man is a legend. He has lived two lives in one since being born in 1934 in New Jersey. Frank was called Francis Stephen Castelluccio and when just a kid he saw Frank Sinatra and became inspired to be a singer and entertainer himself.

He performed in a few groups in the 1950s and 1960s, and one of those groups eventually became the 4 seasons. Their first hit was Sherry, which was re-released in the 1970s. On its first outing in the U.S. charts it became a No. 1 song in the Billboard charts.

Other 1960s hits include Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like A Man and Let’s Hang Out. But Frankie was still firing on all cylinders when he came into the 1970s with the You’re Ready now a big UK hit, but originally a hit in the U.S. in 1966.

But it was a few more years before the charts heard of Frankie again when in 1975 he had the top ten hit My Eyes Adored You, written by Bob Crew and Kenny Nolan. Bob was in part responsible for the hits Lady Marmalade by Labelle, and Get Dancing by The Discotex and the Sexolettes later in the 1970s. Kenny.
Also in 1975 was the beautiful Swearing To God from the album Close Up. He also had a smaller hit in the UK only with Fallen Angel. Also to come from the back catalogue was Who Loves You from their album The Four Seasons. The song was written by Bob Gaudio who worked in the band, and Judy Parker who also wrote Oh What A Night (December 63) with Gaudio, which was a later 1970s hit for Frankie and the group.

Other 1970s Frankie hits included the haunted The Night and of course the all-time classic mentioned above. Oh What A Night was originally about the subject matter of Prohibition in the U.S., but was changed to be about a young man remembering his good times. It was an international hit for Frankie Valli, who was now into his forties.

Oh What A Night and the hit Silver Star both came from the album Who Loves You. Silver Star was yet another Gaudio/Parker written track. Contrary to belief Frankie was NOT lead on this track, it was fellow band member Gerry Polici.

Nothing much then happened until 1978 when a musical was out. The film was called Grease and starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. The film and the album spawned numerous single hits, and became the sound track of our lives in 1978. The title track Grease was sung by Frankie Valli. The song was written by Barry Gibb of Bee Gees fame. The single went gold in the UK.

During most of the 1970s Frankie was suffering a hearing loss issue that an operation in 1982 solved.