Born and raised in Newark, N.J., Francis Castelluccio grew up street smart and with a passion for singing. He was still a teenager when he met Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi and began performing with them as Frankie Valli.
Valli worked with various groups of entertainers through the 1950s. He and DeVito recorded with several others as the Four Lovers in 1956. Bob Gaudio joined them in 1959 and Massi signed on in 1960. In 1960, they changed the name of the group to the Four Seasons.
In the summer of 1962, Vee Jay Records released the Four Seasons’ first single, “Sherry.” It would be the first Hot 100 chart-topping single for the group — “Big Girls Don’t Cry” topped the Hot 100 later that year followed by “Walk Like a Man” in 1963. Many other hits followed.
Valli embarked on a parallel solo career as a recording artist in 1965 and scored his first gold single two years later with “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” His biggest solo hit came in 1978 when “Grease,” the title song of the movie, was certified “platinum” for sales of more than two million copies.
The original Four Seasons — Valli, DeVito, Massi and Gaudio — were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
The music of the Four Seasons and the stories behind the hits were brought to Broadway when “Jersey Boys” opened in 2005. The show won the Tony Award for best musical in 2006. The original cast album won the Grammy for best musical show album.
Massi left the group in 1965, DeVito in 1971 and Gaudio stopped touring in 1972, but Valli, 88, is still entertaining audiences. He plays the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Friday and the Tom Moffatt Waikiki Shell on Saturday.
Question: What keeps performing fresh for you?
Answer: I just sit around and think of what else I might be doing.
Q: How do you stay in shape to handle the demands of traveling all over the country?
A: Well, I don’t drink, drug or smoke, and I live quite a moderate life.
Q: Going back to the beginning, when you and the guys finished recording “Sherry,” what were your expectations?
A: There was just a lot of hope, and the hope developed into reality. It was really great.
Q: My favorite story about the Four Seasons is your handshake deal with Bob Gaudio — that the two of you would divide everything you both make 50/50.
A: That still stands. Where I grew up, none of us could afford an attorney so a handshake was really where it was at, and your word was what you were all about.
Q: Three of my favorite Four Season songs other than the obvious ones are your remake of “Stay,” and two songs that were released as B sides but got flipped by disc jockeys who liked them — “Marlena” and “That’s the Only Way.”
A: Those were the great days where all the disc jockeys (could do that) — there was character in every show that was on the radio.
Q: What were your thoughts about doing a remake of “Stay” when you had so many great originals?
A: “Stay” just felt like a natural for us, and it was a song that I had loved when it (first) became a hit.
Q: Jumping forward to “Jersey Boys.” What stands out for you watching someone playing you and telling your story on stage?
A: It took a long time to get used to it. There were things that I didn’t quite see as being myself, but understanding it from an actor’s point of view, there’s a certain amount of the actor himself that’s important to be projected to be believable. So I got used to it after a while.
Q: I also enjoyed your work on “The Sopranos.” Is there something about doing the show that stands out?
A: Well first of all, the actors in “The Sopranos” were spectacular. A lot of them were new to the industry, some of them were just regular street guys. James Gandolfini was just spectacular, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli was great … (and) I enjoyed doing it. A lot of my background came from growing up in a city that was loaded with a lot of the characters like that, so lots of those characters felt real to me.
Q: What can we expect this week in concert?
A: We’re gonna do a show that the public is expecting. They came to hear the hits, and as often as we’ve done the hits, you learn how to not get tired of it. When you’re doing it for an audience who might see you once a year, or once every two or three years, you’re not doing it for you, you’re doing it for them. And what they give you back in return is the reward that comes with it.
Q: Is there anything you haven’t done yet? Or that you’d like to do?
A: I’d like to do more acting. Other than that performing has been really great. I’ve loved it.
—
Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
>> Where: Tom Moffatt Waikiki Shell
>> When: 8 p.m. Saturday
>> Cost: $45-$195
>> Info: ticketmaster.com
