Frankie Valli
Frankie Valli
Frankie Valli (born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, May 3, 1934) is an American singer and songwriter born in New Jersey, most known for being the frontman of the pop rock band The Four Seasons. The name Frankie Valli derives from his first name Francesco being shortened and taking the last name of one his biggest inspirations growing up, “Texas” Jean Valli.
Valli began his singing career in the early 1950s with the Variety Trio, consisting of members Valli, Tommy DeVito, and Nick Macioci. In the mid 1950s, Frankie and DeVito left the group and formed The Variatones with Frank Cattone, Billy Thompson and Hank Majewski. This group was later renamed to The Four Lovers. Once Bob Gaudio joined, the group renamed to “The Four Seasons”, after a cocktail lounge the group was at after auditioning in a big suburban bowling alley in 1960.
Frankie’s first single as Frankie Valli was released in 1953 titled “My Mother’s Eyes”. Valli’s debut solo album was a gathering of various single releases released prior and a few new recordings. Before the release of Valli’s second solo album, a single was released in July 1967 with the A-side “I Make a Fool of Myself”, a record that reached number 18. Timeless, Valli’s second solo album release was more coherent and Valli took more time in recording it. Timeless contains one Top 40 hit, “To Give (The Reason I Live)”. In 1975, Frankie Valli received his first number one hit on Billboard Hot 100 with “My Eyes Adored You”. In 1978, he sang the theme song for the film version of the stage play Grease, a song written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, which became a number one hit.